John Wick, Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019) – Film Review – “Smitten With Wick-en”
I guess it’s safe to say—and without spoiling anything—that this is not the end of John Wick (the franchise, not necessarily the character). With the upcoming The Continental TV series, in which Wick is rumored to make various appearances, the franchise is far from over. Also, there’s a Chapter 4 slated for 2021 *impatient groan*—no spoilers, here…just check out the film’s IMDb page.
Smooth, well-paced action sequences, with Chad Stahelski’s cinematography, scene framing, and ability to compose action scenes very well, and we’re witnessing the Wick films at their finest. The encounters Wick has with all the different assassins after him are varied and dynamic; all happening within different environs and with different rules, stakes, and modes of attack. The fights progress, evolve, change, move between rooms and locales, and with Wick pulling out all the stops to survive the endless waves, he isn’t afraid to fight a little dirty. There are a few of those “Oh, sh*t!” moments, throughout, where the kills are just so Wick-ish that it’s like watching live-action Mortal Kombat or something. Just brutal—but that’s why we all came, that’s why you’re here.
It was cool to see Halle Berry back in action. She’s kind of fallen off my radar, really, since the ill-fated X-Men of the 2000s. She’s fun to watch, though, as she keeps up with Wick move-for-move during their few sequences together—yea, she’s not so involved in the proceedings as the trailers would have you believe… But their scenes are cool, and mix it up with what we’ve seen before, by deploying two of the goodest boys ever depicted on-screen. Her German Shepherd mixes add a whole other layer to each encounter, and that’s a good sign the filmmakers can still find ways to innovate, three films in and counting.
The world keeps getting bigger, too. The stakes are larger—not just for Wick, but others involved; Winston (Ian McShane reprising his role for a third time), for example, has his own dog in the fight—no pun intended—as well as Charon, the concierge (once again played by Lance Reddick), whom finally gets his own time in the sun. As the enigmatic High Table comes bearing down on John and all those who help him against Their wishes, we get a sense of the bigger world the films have been building towards; hopefully, this continues into the fourth film and the series.
A few notable cameos: Robin Lord Taylor (Fox’s Gotham), as a High Table call clerk; Angelica Huston (The Addams Family films (1991, 1993)) as another, reluctant ally of John’s; and Randall Duk Kim—another Matrix: Reloaded alum, but this time as the underground doctor that stitches John up before all the hounds are let loose upon his becoming Excommunicado.
All this being said, there are several, head-scratchingly-obvious moments of plot conveniences and loopholes in storytelling that I have to (without spoiling anything) address…
Some fights could’ve ended a lot sooner, had some of the antagonists—or Wick, himself—not held back so much. One shot, in particular, near the end played with my suspension of disbelief, especially since it all culminates in a cliff-hanger ending that sets up Chapter 4 (can’t wait!!). The personal stakes, as well—which someone on YouTube just talked about with some superhero film…but I can’t remember the creator or the topic, at the moment—are pretty low; it’s not like the High Table is set to commit a mass culling of New York because of Wick’s indiscretions, and he must, therefore, put a stop to them before they do. Literally everything that happens, kill-wise, in this film is ignored by the passing public. I find that a little hard to stomach—that these people are being flayed and going missing right before people’s eyes—bearing knives and assault rifles, and are going so often unnoticed. Either every civilian is complicit in the goings-on of the Table and the assassins under it, or are so used to this crap happening that they’re numb to it (which, either way…a tad on-the-nose with the real-world allegory, don’tcha think…?). I wanted there to be…at least once…someone having called the cops on this emo band-looking MFer in an all-black, apparently-bulletproof one-piece suit just laying these other guys out, and now Wick has to make a moral decision to fight the police (ooh! who may or may not be controlled by the Table…?!) or flee, maybe leaving them with a few broken bones.
Other than those few gripes, though, these films continue to entertain and astound me. Pure filmmaking at its finest, the likes of which are rare, in this day of nostalgia-baiting and re-telling.
The score is nice and complimentary, as always, and I love all the characters…save Asia Kate Dillon’s Adjudicator, for being a bland, idol threat without much agency in the piece. She never picks up a gun, which may be the reason why Wick never offs her grating self sooner. He’s like some version of the Predator, if the Predator wore a night-black suit and had yet to lose his moral compass, I guess…
I proudly and honestly give John Wick, Chapter 3: Parabellum (the right way to annotate the title, by the way, with its varying punctuations), a ****/* ‘Risk Assessment rating. Go out and see this one in theatres, if for nothing else than the continuation of a modern marvel (Keanu Reeves)’s career-defining opus.
