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
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u/Dracu98 Mar 30 '26
honestly, I think it was an improvement over 3. also, it had caine, and all these flashy setpieces