And this means we won't get a space hunt for Wick

★★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Runtime: 169 minutes

MPAA: Rated R for pervasive strong violence and some language.

At approximately the 118-minute mark, as John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is getting chased by bounty hunters across the world, he, in a stolen car, enters the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, where we witness a continuous and stunningly crafted piece of action that solidifies the genre's goods. My parents so happened to mention that they had visited this monument back in the early 2000's, and according to them, the traffic is reportedly worse than the endless stream of cars in the film. Each person gets knocked down by cars multiple times everywhere, but if what they said was true, imagine being run over thrice as frequently.

This is a location in Paris, France, and throughout the rest of the film, we also witness buildings and grand locations across New York, Osaka, and Germany. Yet, the entire project reeks of style and elegance, not of the film-makers showing off the luxurious places they could afford with a $100 million budget. It's because "John Wick: Chapter 4" delivers what its franchise has done best: expanding the Wicki-verse with more friends and foes, yet never losing focus on what everyone's fighting for. The main theme in "Chapter 4" is a community having to bear the consequences due a fatal mistake an individual makes. It's also in indirect message about arrogance and power: no one is theoretically above the law, but the idea is nearly impossible to believe so.

Set some time after Wick brutally landed on the ground after falling several floors in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, he's still hiding in New York, preparing to exact revenge against the High Table. Within a short amount of time, we see ourselves transported to Morocco, where Wick meets the new Elder (George Georgiou), in which he kills him after being unable to give him his ring back.

This leads to more consequences. Back in the New York Continental Hotel, manager Winston (Ian McShane) and concierge Charon (Lance Reddick) are summoned by the Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård). He explains that the Marquis has been given unlimited resources by the High Table to kill John Wick. Due to Winston's failure, Vincent subsequently destructs the Continental Hotel and executes Charon.

The assassin world gets messier. The Marquis forces a retired assassin, Caine (Donnie Yen), to kill Wick, threatening to kill his daughter otherwise. As John heads to the Osaka Continental and meets an old friend Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama), the Marquis' second-in-command Chidi (Marko Zaror) investigates the hotel and the High Table deconsecrates it, starting a melee and gunfight.

We're also introduced to more people in the midst of this chaos. A skilled bounty hunter, "Mr. Nobody" (Shamier Anderson) frequently tracks John Wick's location and patiently waits for the reward to increase before killing him. After escaping Osaka, Wick returns to New York, where a grieving Winston tells John that he can invoke an old High Table tradition by challenging the Marquis to a duel, gaining his freedom if he succeeds, or he and Winston getting executed upon failure to do so.

With all this expansion, so many characters, an extended runtime of 169 minutes, and so many huge stars and action, this all looks like some lumbering fan service that's designed like some of the overhyped recent Marvel releases like Spider-Man: No Way Home. Miraculously, I never thought of anything close to that throughout the entire project. It helps that the first 120 minutes builds each character in its story so well we know their stakes and what they're fighting for.

Even better is that it's completely focused to the idea of a community having to bear the consequences of a person's wrongdoing. Writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch know that they don't need to add melodrama to each individual's struggle. We just need to observe them in action, fighting to prevent the worst outcome. There's also a perfect balance of narrative and action, and it maintains so tonally consistent, that the first two hours could zip by in an instant.

While the story gets a little linear when Wick has to kill Killa Harkan (Scott Adkins), the person who killed the boss of his crime family, to gain readmission after severed ties, the stakes presented and the tension is so high that you probably won't care.

Once again (and unsurprisingly), "Chapter 4" repeats the joyous success that has skyrocketed the franchise to success; its brilliantly choreographed and expertly shot action sequences are clear and have definition. It's also a blast watching the main ensemble bounce (and fight) off each other, and you understand the motives and consequences from both of the fighting sides that you care about both parties in the action.

However, after the film peaks and approaches its climax, "Chapter 4" starts to stumble a bit. While the final fourty minutes are full-blown action, exactly what the fans want, and while it's spontaneous, and maintains the high quality, brilliant cinematography and editing, Wick having to fight through all the commotion is admittedly too much, and I would have preferred a trim to get to the final moments more quickly. The result is something that slightly oversteps the line of absurdity and gets more exhausting than exhilarating. Skarsgård could have also used some of his "It" performance style and make the Marquis slightly more terrifying.

Still, a final scene of John reminiscing on his life and marriage is so moving, you'll probably get choked up. No matter what and how much he's fought through, the ending is worth the wait, along with an unexpected sense of finality. They say, "A good death comes after a good life." Does John Wick finally find solace after exacting revenge for his deceased dog, and do all the killings justify the grief he's gone through? Is he finally happy and is this what his late wife (Bridget Moynahan) wanted him to do?

Only he can answer the final few questions, and so we're left pondering about whether the life we've lived was a good one...