Keanu Reeves wreaks yet more revenge in John Wick: Chapter 4

The number four is considered unlucky in much of Asia because the word in Chinese (“si” or “sei”) sounds similar to the word for death. So it proves in the fourth, and hopefully last, instalment of the John Wick franchise, in which there are many, many deaths, from scores of nameless extras to several major characters. It’s also fitting that of all the big, globe-trotting action movies series to come out of Hollywood in recent years, this is the one most indebted to Asian filmmaking, especially the wuxia martial arts tradition. Even its star, Keanu Reeves, is himself part Asian, though John Wick is meant to be Belarusian.

Those who’ve been following the saga will know that it all started when some minor-league Russian gangsters killed the hitman’s dog, setting off a falling-domino cascade of revenge murders by Wick. Every film since has built a bigger picture of a world secretly run by a guild of assassins governed by ancient traditions and a strict hierarchy, like the Mercers or the Haberdashers but with more bloodshed.

At this point, Wick is still on the outs with the guild (see chapters 2 and 3), leading head honcho Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) to put a bounty on his head. This brings various killers out hunting, including Wick’s supposed old friend Caine (Hong Kong legend Donnie Yen), who is blind but deadly, and an unnamed scruffy American (Shamier Anderson) who insists he’s “nobody” but we’re clearly meant to like because he has a dog. Reeves still moves with grace even if his line readings are as stiff as ever.

The story, what little there is of it, clearly isn’t the point here. The almost abstract balletic interludes of fight choreography are the highlights, like the scenes in a musical when everyone starts singing and dancing (Chad Stahelski is the director). There is music here too, but mostly it’s background noise to the constant percussive rhythm of bullets.

Bravura action sequences include a single-shot shootout filmed looking down through a cutaway ceiling, an ascent not once but twice up the hundreds of steps to Sacré-Coeur and the destruction of an antiquities and glass art exhibition. If watching all that annihilation and fake death is your idea of fun, this will be the bomb, but for those who like a little more emotional meat on the bones, it’s thin broth.

★★☆☆☆

In cinemas from March 24