John Wick
I saw the John Wick quadrilogy over the weekend. They had been on my list, but I had not made time to see any of them prior to last Friday. I was kid free this past weekend and as I sat there Friday night trying to think of what I was going to do for the weekend, I decided to scroll through what was playing at the theater. Iâm a Cinemark movie club member and I have some extra credits built up, so thatâs always an option for an activity. John Wick Chapter 4 was one of the choices, of course, since it was opening weekend for the film.
That got me thinking; maybe this was finally the weekend I should watch these movies, and maybe on Sunday, I could go see it in the theater? No, that was probably too much of a commitment. I would try to watch the first three this weekend, and then that would give me the option to see the 4th one before it leaves theaters.
So that settled it and I cued up the first one for Friday eveningâs entertainment, and entertaining it was, although also hard to watch at parts. I mean, if it wasnât bad enough that they killed the puppy, it tugs even more at the heart when he comes to and you see that the dog has managed to drag itself across the floor to die next to him, or to comfort him as her last act. Either one is pretty heart breaking. Despite that, the movie overall was good and quite a ride really.
The next morning I was in bed and happened to text my brother about something. The idea of hanging out was floated and he suggested we see John Wick 4 in IMAX. I said, âThat would be a great idea except I just saw the first one for the first time last night.
âWell get to watchin,â he replied. âThe show starts at 5. Iâll get the tickets.â
So began my impromptu movie marathon and a day that started off pretty empty and suddenly filled up. John Wick 2, followed by John Wick 3 and lunch simultaneously. After that was a shower and then jumping in the car for the drive to Kalamazoo. All of the films were quite good, including the 4th installment, however, I am going to save any review of number 4 for the time being since it still has a spoiler ban in my opinion. Instead Iâm going to focus my thoughts on the first three.
At its heart, this trilogy is about loss. John goes through a lot of it, and he isnât really given the chance to grieve. Having experienced a lot of loss myself, I found this difficult to watch at times. It wasnât so bad in the first one because he gets his revenge, and then at the end of the film he gets another dog. There is at least the beginning of a rise out of the valley of despair that he has found himself in. The movie also has a lot of kickass fights in it along with a taste of some super cool, super secret assassin world building.Â
The second and the third movies have even more of this world building and each one pulls back the curtain a little more on this secret society that I found so fascinating from the first one.Â
However, with every step into this world, we also have another loss that John has to endure. This time with no dips up from the valley. Itâs just one loss after another and there is zero chance to grieve. Again, it has a lot of kickass stuff in it, and the action keeps it moving to the point where you hardly have time to wallow too much in your feelings. At the same time, I canât help but yearn for some kind of relief for John.Â
Admittedly this is all likely influenced by my own personal experiences, and not everyone will feel the way that I did while watching. Some might simply see some great action flicks, and the truth is, they are also those, so I canât blame them. Itâs just interesting how your trauma can have such an influence on how you see things. It becomes the lens from which we view the entire world.












