The movies are influenced by several directors and styles, including Jean-Pierre Melville, Jackie Chan, Buster Keaton, John Woo, Fred Astaire, Point Blank, the Three Stooges and Get Carter.
The plot is stripped down to minimalism, which sets it apart from the average superhero movie. The first movie centers on Wick's revenge against gangsters who killed his puppy and stole his car.
Despite its seemingly Hobbesian aspect, Wick World has rules, and by the second movie, the character is declared "excommunicado" by the High Table, a shadowy, quasi-religious elite manifestation of absolute power.
The series' director, Chad Stahelski, is a stunt veteran and likes to show off bodies as they move - pivot, soar and fall - in space. He uses plenty of close-ups and medium shots, but he also likes to pull back for full-figure framing à la Astaire.
The fourth installment of the series, written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, is generally fast-moving despite its 169-minute runtime. There is relatively little dialogue and downtime.
The movie introduces new faces and expands its geographical coordinates, jumping to the Middle East, Japan, and Europe, but it continues to stick close to its circumscribed template.
Wick World is a full-blown fantasy that gives the series the feel of a grim fairy tale. Violence, despite the arterial spray, is as untethered from reality as it is in zombie flicks.
Life for many in Wick World is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short," but it's also sentimental and filled with friendships or at least alliances. It's also reassuringly ordered, never more so than in its violence, which is pure, eye-popping, body-shaking, transporting entertainment.