As has been mentioned Covid caused MANY problems. From the information released there were supposed to be 2 movies (4 and 5) shot to end the series. With all the delays and other issues it was decided to end with just 4. Because of this I feel they tried to get all the good ideas for 2 movies crammed into 1.
Yes, I like 4, but feel that if they had done the two movies with more story between the action it would have been better.
It was much better than the third one which felt like filler with nothing achieved at the end of it. First, second and fourth one - big bad guy dies, third one - a bunch of henchmen die.
2+ were just shells of the original. Sure they continued the overall world but they could never match the way you felt after the "That Nobody is John Wick" scene. Hell, they couldn't even match the simple "Oh" that Viggo says after hearing why Aurelio struck his son.
I thought it was fairly ridiculous, but this new spinoff is even more so. Ballerina something.
And when they resurrect John Wick in 5 the series is beyond any level of believability or credibility. It crossed into comic book action with part 3. And more cgi as it went on and less believable stunts.
The first one was pretty entertaining. After that it just got too unrealistic with the scope of the whole global underworld economy / society with seemingly thousands upon thousands of assassins. How would anyone even find work? I watched a sequel with Laurence Fishburne and another with Halle Berry. Each sequel seemed to be half as good as what preceded it. I am in no way interested in watching the latest.
From the second one onwards, they are unnecessary. The plot becomes increasingly absurd, the fights are so spectacular that they end up being unrealistic, and John Wick has reached the point of being immortal. They can do anything to him and he will never die. There have been situations, even in the first one, where no matter how elite a killer he is, he should have died. The first movie was very good with an original idea executed brilliantly. But the usual thing happened. With so much success, they wanted to expand the franchise as much as possible, but in my opinion, it’s already enough. Although now they are going to release another movie in the same universe with a female assassin. Let's see how that turns out.