by John Wick: Chapter 4 is still over a week away from hitting theaters, but the action sequel’s early reviews are starting to hit.
Four years have passed since the release of the third part which ended with the titular killer being shot dead by his friend Winston and deciding to team up with The Bowery King against the High Table.
Continue reading: Everything we know about John Wick 4
In Chapter 4, Wick attempts to overcome the High Table and the large bounty on his head as friends turn to foes and new foes emerge.
Keanu Reeves reprises his role as John Wick, while Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick also reprise their roles from previous films.
New to the cast are Donnie Yen as Caine, a high-level assassin, Bill Skarsgard as a member of the High Table, Hiroyuki Sanada as an old friend of John Wick, Scott Adkins as the leader of the German Table, and pop star Rina Sawayama as Akira.
With John Wick: Chapter 4 out on March 24th, let’s take a look at some of the reviews already received.
In a positive four-star review, the BBC said: “The twist in Chapter 4 is that John Wick plays full James Bond, running the world and shooting his way through glamorous cities with even more spectacularly staged action.
“At 2 hours and 49 minutes, it’s bigger than the previous films in every way – not better or worse, just more.”
Empire Magazine also said, “If you look at that, the action is what you want, and as far as that goes, you just can’t knock it. It’s incredibly tactile – it hurts. You can really see that Reeves does a lot of it himself and that counts.
you feel it He’s treated like a rag doll in this film and reminds me of Buster Keaton towards the end – the limb is weird, intentionally so. He is knocked out but gets back up. And again and again and again. Pray for his bones.”
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IGN also praised the sequel: “It seemed like an impossible task, but Baba Yaga has a story in delivering it: John Wick: Chapter 4 rises above its predecessors – and the action movies of the last decade as a whole – as a modern epic, something Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski have been pushing since 2014.”
The Hollywood Reporter also relished the sheer volume of action: “Bigger, badder, bolder, longer, and with almost more spectacular set pieces than any film can comfortably handle, this epic action film practically redefines the stakes.”
“If it’s sometimes difficult to avoid feeling that the excessive chaos is dangerously close to overkill, that seems appropriate for a film series where the death toll is higher than some wars.”
Conversely, The Guardian gave the film two stars, saying: “The most loyal faction of Wick fandom will no doubt be pleased to see their belief that you can’t put too much of a good thing into practice.
“Those who appreciated the original for its brutal, sinewy agility have yet to come: a lumbering, dumbing-down behemoth of a movie ready to kill everything but its favorites.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 hits theaters March 24th.
Watch a trailer below:
