President Macron is being roasted by domestic politics, Paris is burning in protests and drowning in uncollected garbage over pension reforms and John Wick is about to head into theaters with his war against the Assassins Guild, taking him to the City of Lights for a High Table Showdown.

And for any moviegoer unfamiliar with the John Wick franchise, this is chapter Four of the saga that started so brilliantly in 2014 with none other than Keanu Reeves landing the role of almost retired legendary assassin John Wick, fresh from a series of high-profile blockbusters after his breakout role as Neo in the 1999 event making The Matrix. 

Wick is a man so dangerous he single-handedly created the mafia empire of the man whose son goes to war against him.   Wick is the assassin the mafia hires when they need to get rid of their own assassins.  He is the equivalent of the top-level Ninja killers the Emperor of Japan used whenever he needed to get rid of his Shoguns and their regiments.  John is a killing machine, you could say a far more nimble and adaptive Terminator than the most lethal androids from Skynet.  Not only is he supremely adept in physical fights and in his uncanny ability to use firearms with great marksmanship, what distinguishes Wick is his ability to use his brains and adapt as the situation evolves – something most of his opponents seem to be deficient in.

The John Wick franchise invited the viewer to a bad hombre that had retired from the game and was unfortunately getting over the loss of his wife, for whom he had sacrificed everything, when a young wealthy Russian gang member, son of a Russian mafia boss inadvertently steps into a shithole of trouble and sets in motion a war against Wick, the assassin of assassins. 

Add to the hurtline is the original movie packed martial arts, stunts and point-blank shoot and kill techniques that were until then never created in front of the cameras.  The movie has a mind-numbing body drop rate, all with graphic violence and bullet to skull ratio that outmatches the Matrix gun fight in the lobby of the building with Carrie Anne Moss as Tonto. 

Keanu Reeves went from being the star of The Matrix with standard setting special effects to 15 years later headlining a movie about guns and hunting in urban landscapes that set new standards for choreography and ballet style close combat killing techniques. 

“John Wick, when set loose, was basically an unrivalled ballerina doing
a ballet of death dance number.”  Pierre Maertin, Senior Editor | West Coast Midnight Run March 2023

It’s a neat prop, the Kevlar suit, because Reeves waltzes through entire platoons and cuts them down like a hot knife slices through soft butter.  But it feels to me as if the director, Chad Stahelski, wanted John to have the same powers as Neo in the Matrix where he can stop bullets mid-air with the wave of his hand.

Does the hero get to walk into the sunset with his girl in his arms?  The movie in its attempt to upstage its own success overreaches for a mythical ending but never quite hits its mark.