John Wick 4: Baba Yaga

Most American action flicks released these days have poor screenplays and overuse computer-generated imagery. The John Wick franchise is one of the few exceptions, along with Mission Impossible. These franchises keep getting better with every entry. Hollywood can make action masterpieces, but Marvel has greater demand, so that's what we get most of. It's a shame.

The stunts and choreography are beyond impressive. Every artist involved does their job to perfection. Donnie Yen's performance is unbelievable. Not only does he fight great, but he also has to move like a blind man. Keanu Reeves is also very impressive. Keanu IS John Wick. Although there are a few scenes where his enemies stand by and wait for their turn to attack, it's easy to overlook because everything else is so great.

I can't fathom how anyone could choose to watch Ant-Man over John Wick. It's so fast-paced, and the choreography and stunts are mesmerizing and brutal. When the action breaks out, it's unbelievable. It's hard to explain -- you have to see it! Why watch a computer-generated "superhero" fly around when you can witness Reeves and Yen engage in a genuine and thrilling fight?

By now you know what to expect from a John Wick movie. I thought the franchise was losing a little momentum in chapter 3 so I was worried this could be disappointing. It's not. It's even more on steroids than any Wick before! Even close to 3 hours it doesn't feel to long which is very special for a action movie. This franchise has set new standards. If anybody says a movie is good like John Wick, it better f'n be! The set pieces as everyone mentioned before are really insane this time. The Tokyo sceney with illuminated cherry blossoms was beautiful. The only super illogical thing that bothered me was that nobody flinched at the nightclub, eventually they did but after a whole 10 minute beatdown through the whole club, but then again it's a shady nightclub for high table people. If you liked the first three movies, get your ass to the cinema. Yeah.

Henchmen just standing there, waiting to get hit, reacting to things that didn't hit them, people in the club just doing the same dance even while people are being killed right in front of them, the cars in traffic keeps moving even while people are getting killed, cars are crashing and bullets are flying, but nope.. traffic just keeps on going. I can't unsee any of it.

It looks painfully unnatural compared to how well the previous 3 films handled the fighting.

There's a ton of wasted movement and shot decisions based on making a scene look "pretty" rather than "good."

I know they can do better. I've seen it.

A couple cute twists of the story doesn't really carry the rest of the film, but it was at least still entertaining.

For a conclusion to a franchise (at least the Wick story arc) you'd expect story. Each movie has gotten a little further away from telling an interesting story. I even enjoyed when they layered in more of this far-fetched stuff with the high-table & continental in 2 & 3. But, we still don't know much about this world, how it was created, or who is in charge. I thought this movie would do more with this secret government for criminals, but instead this movie made those aspects of the story pointless. So many elements from the past movies were just glazed over to essentially give this movie no story. No Elder, No Winston's betrayal, No past characters except Winston & The King, No Dog, No Wife. All of those things amounted to a few 1-liners in this movie. Instead they focused on the worst aspect of 3 and multiplied it with fights that last too long, and people that need to be shot 20 times. I personally preferred the realism and tactical focus to the action of 1 & 2.

I've enjoyed the entire Wick collection but this was my least favorite' The fight scenes were just way too long and usually followed immediately with another way too long fight scene. This movie felt like one long fight scene with a little dialogue mixed in. I could have done with a lot more story dialogue and a lot less fighting. The other movies felt like the fight scenes were part of the story and this one feels like they did fight scenes just to do fight scenes.

It's kinda hard to put into words but watch it, and I recommend watching it, and you'll see what I mean. You might like it a lot more than I did.