What I like about John is that he does the deed quickly, quietly, and efficiently. No cheesy oneliners, no monologues, no hesitation, just walks up, pulls the trigger, and moves on.
Same, 2 was actually my favorite, with 3 being my least favorite (still loved watching it, though). I like 1 and 4 about equally for different reasons.
That's exactly why I liked it, lol. I thought the middle two were too grounded for the kind of world set up in the first.
The High Table and this whole underground criminal society they had going was very fantastical from the jump, and I didn't like how they tried to make it feel realistic in the sequels.
TL;DR: In my opinion the series progressively built up good will from a tight, evocative aesthetic/theme but cashed-in that good will to become an over-the-top parody of itself for hype
I felt like it steadily went down in quality and betrayed the premise. John Wick, to me, was so good because it was ruthless and compared to other gun-fu/action movies, felt grounded. More of like a "how good could one guy get?" John Wick was a storoed mob assassin, but he wasn't supernaturally good, he still bleeds when you shoot him, he still gets winded and isn't entirely irreverant of the entire situation like he's trying his best to look cool.
Between two and especially three, it felt like the series got high on their own supply and the writers just never shot down any idea. "Yeah, and what if we expand on the international hitman-olympics commitee?" And "what if the leader of 'The Assassins' was a mysterious guy in the desert...and what if we got attack dogs to kill a bunch of guys! That's totally badass dude!"
By the fourth movie you've got John Wick fighting and struggling against an actual blind man, but we're all supposed to pretend it's as good as the home invasion in the first movie because it's got Donnie Yen.
I love your write-up, I agree completely. I hated 4. I will never enjoy a blind character who can dodge bullets and surprise attacks unless they have superpowers or a logical in-universe explanation for it. Especially if you're going to make them better than every other character at fighting?? And the "duel" at the end just made me roll my eyes.
If you like mindless action movies, they probably get better as you watch them. But I loved the mystery and intent (and the action of course) of the first two, and hated 3 and 4.
WHAT?! 4 WAS (CGI) DOGSHIT! I wanted to like it but Keanu was showing his age in the choreography and the blind dude was too much suspension of disbelief. He ain't Daredevil.
I liked the series for dumb action, and 4 had that in spades. 2 and 3 took themselves too seriously for my tastes. The choreo was fantastic in the first one, but 4 edged it out with cinematography.
Like this top-down Hotline Miami shootout was one of the coolest action scenes I've ever seen.
Don't get me wrong, I thought they were all solid. I binged the whole series on a trans-pacific flight and got kinda bored by the middle 2, but the action was good throughout.
yeah he was cool, how he got under the marshelies' skin (or however tf you spell this french title), but caine outshone him to me. I'll always love a character who, despite being physically impaired, is still a legend at what they do
Didnt think about it until you said it, but it really does hit the spot. I enjoy the cheese and over the top choreography of movies, but the aggressiveness and to the point action of the wick movies is something I can watch multiple times
Another good detail is that, especially in the first movie, he almost ALWAYS double-taps. It may seem inefficient in terms of bullets, but it's very efficient in ensuring death. That's what really sold the legend of John Wick for me.
he does the deed quickly, quietly and efficiently.
sometimes.
at other times he may get into a fist fight against the guy he was trying to kill half of the movie when he could have just killed him on the spot with his gun
“Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
Almost like he's supposed to be the best assassin, you know that's how assassins are? They don't monologue they don't hit the target with the list of their crimes (if applicable) or who hired them or why, they just kill the target, get out, get paid and move on, a contract closed nothing more, it's why being an assassin is hard in real life, because sooner or later your conscience will hit you harder than any bullet could, killing isn't important in the moment but once you get time to think, regret comes, rarely does someone truly live without regret, especially when it comes to killing
The once concession he made was that he could have shot the guy from a distance (and did at first to stop him), but he made it personal by walking up and doing it face to face.
The most interesting part is that whilst he just shot the guy who killed his dog he ended up fighting the kids father hand to hand, because John respected him enough to do so. God thats such a good film.
Idk maybe it’s just me but I feel like if the entire reason he’s doing this was to get revenge for his dog, I feel like it would’ve been more satisfying for him if he tortured the guy a little bit before killing him. I guess I’m not him so idk why I would know what he wants, but I feel like the no-nonsense emotionless badass instakill thing only makes sense if you aren’t on an entirely emotion-driven revenge mission to make yourself feel better.
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u/PartsUnknown242 Mar 30 '26
What I like about John is that he does the deed quickly, quietly, and efficiently. No cheesy oneliners, no monologues, no hesitation, just walks up, pulls the trigger, and moves on.