For two films now, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has entertained audiences with palpable aplomb with his unique brand of justice and assassin centric morality. John Wick arrived and rocked our world in 2014 and John Wick: Chapter 2 upped the ante and expanded this fascinating forum of assassins in 2017. Now we’ve got John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and by the time the credits roll on this puppy (pun intended), nothing will ever be the same in the world of The Continental New York and with Wick himself.
The action picks up immediately after the closing moments of the middle chapter in this trilogy. Wick has broken the rules and must pay. Within 20 minutes or so of our story starting, there will be a $14 million bounty on his head. Every hired killer from each corner of the globe will drop everything and come after the fabled force of nature, John Wick.
As Ian McShane’s Winston states in that first John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum trailer, the odds of Wick coming out on top while the world’s assassins descend on him is about 50/50. Yes, that says something about our protagonist and his ability to stay alive while others drop like flies all around him. Remember, this is a guy whose name was made by killing someone with a pencil. He’s resourceful, imaginative in his violence and a priceless combination of innate supreme skill and transcendent training.
Reeves now has several roles he was born to play. Can you imagine anyone else portraying Ted in Bill and Ted’s? What about Neo or Johnny Utah? No, no and nope. John Wick, way back in 2014, gave the beloved actor another spoke in the awesome wheel that has been his career. It’s uncanny how lucky and gifted he is to have so many career-defining characters under his belt (after you see this third chapter… once again, pun intended) and he shows no signs of slowing.
Speaking of that, many things raced through my head while witnessing escapist movie magic at its finest. Reeves is 54 and as he is in every action scene, and this is fight choreography that is envelope pushing (exploding more like it), as such the grueling nature of making an action movie had to be exponentially more difficult physically than anything he’s done in Point Break, The Matrix and of course the first two John Wick films. There is stamina and there is what Reeves delivers in Parabellum. There are not enough words to heap praise on him for that part of his performance. The other part, which is minor, comes with a bit of emotive urgency in the latest chapter in the Wick saga. There’s a connection to his slain dog in the first film and the canine he inherits, that eclipses any decorum that the character has when it comes to following the rules of this blazingly violent yet grounded in strict guidelines with how things are done. Of course, we all know that he killed someone in The Continental Hotel in Chapter 2 and as such, he must pay.
But they killed his dog. As a dog lover who believes that the human-canine connection is one of the greatest gifts in the universe, all bets are off when it comes to the ends of the earth anyone of us would go to avenge our four-legged best friend’s untimely demise. That is one reason, certainly, why the first film had such surprise success. John Wick, in hindsight, it was seen as a mid-level studio (Lionsgate) cinematic effort to court Reeves’ longtime fans with an action flick that spotlighted fight sequences and action scenes unlike any we’ve seen prior. It outperformed that expectation tenfold. That is firmly because every soul that sat in the darkened theater five years ago and watched a man lose his wife, and then his dog, could appreciate and encourage the type of vengeance that Wick has extolled over two films now.
Joining Reeves in this violence voyeuristic journey in Chapter 3 is Halle Berry as Sofia. There isn’t much of a backstory here on her character and that is exactly as it should be as we are at the point in this franchise where audiences can take anything thrown at them and they will subconsciously embrace it. The Oscar winning actress is a fellow assassin, that much is known. She owes Wick her life, that too is revealed. She adores dogs as much as the titular character and when those two hook up and turn their highly skilled battle methods on, it is a sight to behold. There is a slew of scenes throughout this film that could be hailed as revolutionary in its violence as ballet beauty. The ones with Sofia and John are jaw-droppingly divine and should send a firm message to Hollywood casting agents. Both performers are over 50 and neither has been more badass then they are in John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. In fact, I believe that Berry’s Sofia should get a spin-off franchise—which would be historic, inspired and smash those cinematic glass ceilings that Charlize Theron put a nice crack in with Atomic Blonde.
The supporting cast is stellar, with each performer grasping the overt concept of this film series and its mission, but also is keenly aware of how they fit into the world of John Wick. Asia Kate Dillon makes a stunning new arrival as The Adjudicator, the person tasked with assessing the damage done by Wick with all his rule breaking in Chapter 2, but also she is tasked with bringing punishment for those who idly sat by at the least or encouraged John at the most. Lance Reddick and McShane, again, make a charming and classy one-two punch as the faces of The Continental Hotel. Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King rules his roost with such a generous heap of hubris that the role must go down as one of the esteemed actor’s most commanding—even though his actual screen presence is small. As our main antagonist (if there is one in this world, honestly!), Mark Dacascos plays his Zero pitch-perfectly. He is one part fanboy (of John Wick, they are kindred kind, after all) and another part keen killer of the highest order.
Then, there’s the legend that is Anjelica Huston. She dives into this world with both feet ready to play. Her The Director has a soft spot for Wick and his transgressions in the higher order of things in this firmly established world tests her adoration for him. As played by the Oscar winner, the part that could have been anyone else’s throw-away is elevated to a scene-stealer in a film filled with scenes that outdo each other with each successive manically moving moments.
Stylistically, there is a passionate amount of attention to detail that makes the film pop off the screen. The colors are electric and serve as a nice balance in their ability to soften the blows that is the blood-splattered violence. Cinematographer Dan Laustsen and production designer Kevin Kavanaugh have given Stahelski a palette from which to cull. He, in turn, illuminates those bone crunching fights, chase scenes involving samurai sword wielding motorcyclists and a bevy of bombastic moments and other assorted magnificent mayhem with a stunning slice of eye candy.
If there is any criticism to be had with John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, itis that as things progress from Act 2 to Act 3, there is a bit of a situational stall in the story. It’s one that had been chugging along quite fiercely. Don’t worry, it is merely just a tiny bump in the road in an otherwise breathless piece of summer entertainment.
Director Chad Stahelski and Reeves have a sensational shorthand that has been years in the making. Stahelski got his start as the actor’s stunt double on The Matrix and served that role for years. He then segued that priceless experience into becoming a full-fledged and fully informed filmmaker in the art of the action picture. It was with the first John Wick that Stahelski made an announcement of his arrival on the moviemaking stage. With John Wick Chapter 2 and now with this third chapter, Stahelski’s three films may have left a string of bodies in Wick’s wake, but in the process have entertained audiences to the point where I’ve seen them break out into full on applause after each explosive moment.
Since the arrival of MTV in the early 80s, action films have become more frenetic in nature. It takes someone raised on those quick cut music videos and shaped by movies like Die Hard and The Terminator to take the genre to another level—one that was honestly never even thought possible. Stahelski is cut from that mold and so too is The Raid and The Raid: Redemption’s Gareth Evans (who also writes his movies). Those two, and a few talented others, are filling a vivacious void for generations who not only are visually educated by music videos of the last 30 years, but also the evolution of video games and the technology behind them that has produced an audience that isn’t satisfied with what worked years ago. In fact, these moviegoers collectively demand that antes get upped with each passing year. If filmmakers continue to produce fantastically frenetic work like Stahelski has with his John Wick trilogy, those of us who comprise the action movie nation, could not be more stoked for living during an era with such visionary visual masterminds.
Grade: A-