John Wick 4 reviews are in – and critics say the fourquel is packed with spectacular action, but maybe a little long.
The new film sees Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman take on the High Table, following the events of John Wick 3. Bill Skarsgård joins the franchise as the villainous Marquess, while Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen and Hiroyuki Sanada are also new additions. to programming. Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick all reprise their roles from previous episodes.
We’ve rounded up a selection of John Wick 4 reviews below, so you can get an idea of how the latest film in the series is being received. And don’t worry – what follows is completely spoiler-free.
Total Movie – 4/5 – Kim Taylor-Foster
“If you were amazed at what Wick can do with a pencil (JW2) and a book (JW3), wait until you see what he can do with a playing card, let alone a set of nunchaku. combat, action pieces, neon: every aspect of Chapter 4 is dialed up to 11111 (deep reference alert!) And if there’s one area where returning director Chad Stahelski’s film actually over-delivers The villains of previous episodes pale in comparison to Caine, Donnie Yen’s pointy-suited blind assassin – a fun, charming, and super-cool badass we root for almost as much as Wick.
“Bigger, badder, bolder, longer, and with settings almost more spectacular than a movie can comfortably handle, this epic action film practically re-sets the stakes. While it’s sometimes hard to avoid the feeling that over-the-top mayhem comes perilously close to over-the-top, it seems fitting for a movie series with a higher body count than some wars.”
IGN (opens in a new tab) – 10/10 – Tom Jorgensen
“In Chapter 4 of this story, John Wick’s vendetta has forced the Table into open warfare, and it thrives on John’s acceptance that even he cannot win this war on his own. The rules and consequences of the John Wick universe taken such care to establish provide its fourth chapter with a rock-solid structure that allows director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves to deliver a symphony of action to screen, each element leading to elevating the others. It is John Wick’s longest film. is the most Movie by John Wick. And it’s the best John Wick movie ever.”
The Guardian (opens in a new tab) – 2/5 – Charles Bramesco
“To write one sentence, it all happens so much to our killing machine hero as he blazes a bloody trail from New York to Osaka to Berlin to Paris. Scene after scene drags on far past the point of redundancy, zillions of solemn ceremonials and more—shoulder thrusts landing in monotony without the saving grace of a winking laugh.An utterly heartfelt, utterly self-defeating fondness has resulted in a franchise once prized for its lean and mean ferocity in a logical death march set in a dirge Roger Ebert memorably said that no good movie is too long, his point is not that the fun can go on forever, but that ‘a well-told story takes its time.where unbridled excess has opened the door to the wild inspiration of so many, director Chad Stahelski lacks the showman’s instinct for construction and reward.”
Variety (opens in a new tab) –Owen Gleiberman
“John Wick: Chapter 4 is 2 hours and 49 minutes long, but it contains a story that, if told faster, could fit in an 83-minute pot you might have seen in a shredder house in 1977. Yet , the way Chad Stahelski, the series’ stuntman-turned-director, staged it, full of hushed, prodigious, ritualistic verbal confrontations that are meant to be hypnotic as they build into each new scene of action, Chapter 4 feels like the first John Wick movie that wants to be a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western. It’s like Sergio Leone crosses paths with John Woo as seen in Times Square.”
BBC (opens in a new tab) –Caryn James
“The twist in Chapter 4 is that John Wick transforms into James Bond, travels the world and smashes his way through glamorous cities, with even more spectacular action. bigger than previous films in every way – no better or worse, just more.”
Deadline (opens in a new tab) –Pete Hammond
“This new film opens with the assumption of the High Table, this unseen cabal of crime lords seeking to make a deal for John’s head, that Wick is dead. He is not, and instead in a sequence that could be described as John Wick meets Lawrence of Arabia, we find him in the Jordanian desert riding his horse in the first of many action sequences that are the star attraction here, obviously. Director Chad Stahelski, a former martial arts expert and stuntman for Reeves in The Matrix footage, clearly knows what audiences want and expect, and seems determined to kick everything up a few notches. John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers.
John Wick 4 hits theaters on March 24. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the major upcoming movie release dates for everything the year has in store.