John Wick: Chapter 4 announces itself with an epic running time of 169 minutes and is well on the way to becoming one of the defining action films to become our time. After the first reactions to Keanu Reeves’ return were full of euphoria, the detailed reviews followed the songs of praise.
With John Wick: Chapter 4 we can’t expect any sequel, but an explosive trip around the world that is the series catapulted to new heights. Don’t be put off by the long runtime. Director Chad Stahelski and his team have created another action blockbuster for the history books.
Action masterpiece soon in cinemas: The first reviews of John Wick: Chapter 4 with Keanu Reeves
Film critic Simon Thompson of The Playlist calls John Wick: Chapter 4 the action series’ bone-cracking crescendo:
John Wick: Chapter 4 is exhilarating as it is exhausting. Reeves’ Wick achieves iconic status in this incredibly satisfying tour de force, delivering the perfect bone-crushing crescendo of one of the greatest action franchises in cinema history. The movie is pure gold.
Leonine
John Wick: Chapter 4
In his review for the Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck even goes one step further and talks about redefining the series.
Bigger, badder, bolder, longer and boasting more spectacular set pieces than any movie can possibly handle, this epic action film redefines the franchise.
According to Uproxx critic Mike Ryan, John Wick’s journey should end here as Chapter 4 will be hard to top.
If this was to be the last John Wick movie, then Chapter 4 easily ranks as the best in the series and a contender for one of the best pure action movies in recent memory, if not ever. The movie is so good that I hope they end the story here. I really don’t think this part can be surpassed.
At Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt raves about an action film that Chad Stahalski can let off steam as he pleases.
As Wick charts a path of stoic destruction across continents, longtime series director Chad Stahelski sets out […] of what he does best: creative kills, far-flung zip codes, countless body counts. After setting a certain bar with the previous films […]he now unleashes all his skills (or at least his location budget) in the many tableaus of part 4.
Leonine
John Wick: Chapter 4
One of the more critical voices comes from Slant, where Derek Smith makes the observation that the series has lost the strengths of the original.
In this development and expansion of the Wickaverse, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten what made the first and, to some extent, the second film in the series so good. Our sister site Filmstarts, on the other hand, follows the positive voices. Björn Becher raves about a work of art from modern action cinema. John Wick: Chapter 4 is another work of modern action cinema. The running time of almost three hours, which is overflowing for the right simple story, turns out to be (almost) completely justified, against all odds, because simply every moment – from the supposedly simple dialogue scenes to the big action fireworks – simply looks awesome.
John Wick: Chapter 4 starts on March 23, 2023 in German cinemas.
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