The Rise of John Wick
The original John Wick movie feels quite different nowadays, especially in comparison to its multiple sequels. The first John Wick was released back in 2014 and wasn't initially expected to turn into the highly profitable Keanu Reeves action shoot-em-up franchise that it is today.
Keanu Reeves as a battered and bruised John Wick in John Wick.
The film quickly became an instant cult classic and would become the impressive first installment of a billion-dollar box office franchise after just four movies. A great deal of John Wick's appeal and success is due to Reeves himself, whose incredible effort as an actor and stuntman has made the John Wick films some of the best of his lengthy Hollywood career. The franchise director Chad Stahelski also plays a major role in the John Wick movies and is the perfect fit for the stunt-heavy franchise since he was Keanu Reeves' stunt double for The Matrix movies.
Keanu Reeves holding a samurai sword in John Wick
Although each of the John Wick movies seems to be better than the previous one, the original John Wick feels like a bit of an outlier of the entire franchise.
Keanu Reeves as John Wick holding a puppy in John Wick
Differences in Budget and Scope
Compared to the other John Wick movies, the original John Wick feels different from the others mostly due to its relatively small budget. The budget for the first John Wick movie was reportedly $30 million while the budget for John Wick: Chapter 4 was $100 million. Each John Wick movie ups the ante in just about every category, from the budget and action sequences to the runtimes and kill counts. Because of this, the latter, and arguably better, John Wick movies feel like great but different revolutions from the original's foundation.
Keanu Reeves facing The Elder in John Wick Chapter 4
The plot of the first John Wick movie is actually really pretty simple and the scope is relatively small, which can't be said for any of the sequels. The most glaring difference is in the action components, which John Wick: Chapter 2 enhanced with a greater variation of fighting styles. The same can be said of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, which also saw significant enhancements in the world of John Wick. John Wick: Chapter 4 added some stylized elements of classic kung fu movies as well.
Keanu Reeves leaning against a pillar and pointing a gun in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Narrative and Evolution
Outside of the obvious updates to the action styles and sequences in the John Wick movies, another major difference between the sequels and the original film is the narrative. While the action expanded and got better in the sequels, the first film still has the best story in the John Wick universe. This is pretty standard for many franchises, particularly action and horror films, which have excellent stories in their first installment only to lean into the tropes of the genre more heavily in the latter installments. While John Wick is different from its sequels, it is also arguably better for that reason.
Laurence Fishburne as the Bowery King in John Wick
