For someone who is not a big fan of action movies, it is a glaring contradiction to say that I love the John Wick franchise. The world created by Chad Stahelski is dense. The slick action within extraordinary set pieces is the highlight of the franchise. My favorite action films are the ones where I feel the action in my gut, for example – Oldboy and Nobody. That kind of feeling and thrill was given to me by the John Wick films. The films are a global phenomenon being critically and commercially successful. John Wick: Chapter 4 was not only a hit with critics, but it ended up making $432.2 million worldwide, a franchise record and was made on only $100 million. While, we’re not sure when John Wick Chapter 5 will come out, I think it is time we rank the four films available to us to hype you up for the upcoming John Wick Spin-off, The Continental.
4) John Wick: Chapter 4
This was not a difficult choice for me. While the world might be in love with this film, I count it in my worst of 2023 list. A lot of things didn’t work for me: the overbearing runtime, the underwhelming climax that suggests John Wick’s death, Bill Skarsgård’s awful villain, generic action sequences, the wasted world building and what not. If you want to know all my thoughts on John Wick 4 then click here. The film is beautifully shot, no doubt about that but it is not a worthy sequel to Parabellum.
3) John Wick: Chapter Two
Before Chapter Four, I considered the second part of John Wick, the worst the film of the lot. Because more than anything what the film gets wrong is its insistence on world building and departure from action sequences. I was bored within the first half hour of John Wick 2, so much so that I dozed off until my friend woke me up. None of the John Wick films have had an incredible story and that is fine but Chapter Two desperately tries to give us an illusion of one.
3) John Wick
Where it all began. I have no problem with this film. When I watched I liked it. It felt like a massy Bollywood film the way Keanu Reeves’ character was introduced up at the start. I’ll never forget the line, “Well, John wasn’t exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the f##ing Boogeyman.” Chills. The action was well done, there was enough emotional connect to keep me hooked. Loved the way they added the dog angle. To start off a successful action franchise, there could be no better film than John Wick.
1) John Wick: Chapter Three – Parabellum
I absolutely love this film. If you’re making an all out action film then better make it like this one where the attention to detail and the variety of action set pieces offered to us are simply unparalleled to anything we’ve seen. For me this is where the franchise peaked. Until an hour in the film, the experience was so edge of the seat that I was physically leaning forward. The climax is a little shaky with assassins not murdering John out of respect but you can look past that. So, many times I gasped when I saw how brutally John has put someone down. John Wick: Chapter Three – Parabellum is undoubtedly one of the best action films ever made and one of my all time favorites.
The franchise stars Keanu Reeves in the lead role. The other cast includes Clancy Brown, Donnie Yen, Bill Skasrsgard, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Rina Sawayama, Ian Mcshane, Lance Reddick and Laurence Fishburne.
Chapter Four is available for purchase on Digital.
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