Wick is quickly joining the ranks of modern iconic action heroes like Bond, Bourne, Hunt, Max, and Liam Neeson. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM furthers the epic violent journey and grand awesomeness that is retired assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves). While the franchise stalls a bit in storytelling in this third installment, Wick 3 delivers some absolutely mind-blowing action. And that’s all that really matters.
CHAPTER 3 picks up immediately after CHAPTER 2 with John Wick on the run. Time is ticking with under an hour before a 14 million dollar bounty on Wick’s head goes public. It was a thrilling “to be continued” ending from CHAPTER 2. Thankfully, for the first half hour or more, CHAPTER 3 runs at a breakneck pace of incredible choreographed fight sequences. My audience audibly cheered and cringed together as Wick battles his way through some truly gruesome and amazing sequences of, kicking, punching, shooting, stabbing, book beating and doing any other thing possible in order to survive. Horses and dogs are particularly used in entertaining and creative ways to take down the enemy.
Unfortunately, the thrilling and awe-inspiring action does not quite sustain its high standard the whole way through. At times the violence and killing is almost video game esque by its gratuitous ease and is perhaps monotonous in its love for gun play. Things take a slight dip when Wick briefly teams up with Sofia (Halle Berry), who owes him a favor marked by a blood coin locket. Along with her equal love for dogs, Sofia’s time on screen almost feels as though they want to pass the torch or be sure to build the character for future installments as we watch her shoot and reload on countless faceless men in similar fashion as Wick, but sadly without much Wick. I want my sick Wick fix!
Ian McShane returns as Winston the hotel manager along with his trusty front desk clerk, Charon, played by Lance Reddick. Laurence Fishburne also returns as the Bowery King and Anjelica Huston pops up as The Director. But they are all facing the judgment by their very strict standard and rules placed by The High Table represented by The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon). The Adjudicator hires another top assassin, Zero (Mark Dacascos) to rid John Wick for his crimes against this high class assassin society. This of course is in addition to the thousands who want to kill Wick for the the bounty reward as well. I’m not sure of all their crazy rules, but each film seems to up the ante of paying for past sins and fulfilling old debts.
What ties it all together is Keanu Reeves as John Wick. Reeves is no slouch to the action genre, already proving himself as Neo in THE MATRIX series. But Reeves is hitting that wine status by getting finer with age. The creativity and direction from Chad Stahelski behind these action sequences might go down in history within the niche fandom of the genre, but I’m not sure it gets the attention without the charisma and ability of Keanu Reeves in the title role.
I enjoyed JOHN WICK, but I LOVED JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM isn’t quite to the standard of CHAPTER 2, but it is another insanely fun ride of impressive stunts and choreography. If there was ever an Oscar category worth adding it’s stunt work. Seriously, a library fight using a book against a giant of a man, a wildly gruesome and humorous knife throwing fight, and a samurai motorcycle chase are just a few of the magnificently impressive action sequences that are an absolute must see.
