Entertainment site Collider has published an opinion piece by writer Marcel Ardivan arguing that, despite John Wick being widely regarded as one of the best modern action franchises, several other action thrillers surpass it. The article celebrates John Wick for reviving Keanu Reeves' action career and popularising stylised "gun-fu" choreography, while contending that certain films released both before and after it represent higher benchmarks in the genre.

The piece profiles a selection of these films, noting that later releases had the advantage of building on John Wick's template while earlier ones set the standards it drew upon. Titles discussed include Vietnam's Furie (2019), a grounded revenge thriller starring Veronica Ngo; Netflix's Extraction 2 (2023), praised for its extended prison-break sequence with Chris Hemsworth; the AI-augmented Upgrade (2018) directed by Leigh Whannell; and John Woo's 1992 Hong Kong classic Hard Boiled, cited as a key origin of the gun-fu style. The article also references The Raid among its wider selections.