The epitome of what the John Wick series has evolved into
can be summarized perfectly by a scene about halfway through Parabellum when John and an associate
are running and gunning through a stronghold in Casablanca. Wick and a baddie
have both run out of ammo; both have a spare magazine nearby. The baddie is
deleted from the screen because absolutely no one in the John Wick Cinematic Universe
is better at reloading than the Baba Yaga himself. A John Wick movie is, above
other things, an exhibition where the goal is to see how far and how high the
set pieces can go without producing the whole thing on a computer bay. In that
sense alone, this is the perfect John Wick movie.
Chapter 3 picks up minutes after the previous installment
ended. John Wick has been ruled "Excommunicado" for spilling blood on neutral
ground but has been given an hour to find higher ground before every assassin
in New York City moves to collect the multi-million-dollar bounty on his head.
It should be said here that this movie really leans into the hitman underworld
angle – even a homeless man in an alleyway knows that John Wick has less than
thirty minutes before the ban hammer comes down. John has to get out of New
York while the whole city is after him, fighting through waves of killers to do
so. The First Act is punctuated by this struggle as well as two extended,
excellent action sequences. One that involves a horse and another that involves
a hall of knives and blades.
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| Something, something, Old Town Road |
John Wick gains safe passage to Casablanca in order to call
in a favor. He finds Sofia (Halle Berry) whose blood marker he holds. John
saved her daughter years ago and helped spirit her away to a life safe from her
mother’s profession. Even so, Sofia is not happy to see John and is not shy
about saying so. She agrees to help him, if only because she’s certain he will
be dead by the week’s end.
From there, the story becomes one of pain. “Consequences” is
a word that comes up several times. John is suffering the consequences of
breaking Continental rules. Countless others are suffering the consequences of
helping him. If they aren’t being killed outright by Zero (Mark Dacascos) and
his students, they are being audited by a mysterious figure (Asia Kate Dillon)
who refers to themselves as the Adjudicator of the High Table. She does no
fighting herself, but is still a formidable and chilling obstacle, as they collect various forms of sacrament on behalf of the assassin elite.
It does increasingly seem like John Wick exists in a separate multi-verse where everyone that isn’t
a trained killer knows they are no more than two handshakes away from meeting
one. In Chapter 2, Wick and Cassian
engaged in a back-and-forth game of tag on a crowded metro station (which
wouldn’t be so bad if they were using NERF guns and not silenced pistols).
Here, three punk assassins get cut down in the subway and no one even slows up
their walk. Had this been sprung on us in the first movie, it probably wouldn’t
have worked at all. As such, they only thing we saw was the cool hotel and
sleek bars where all the assassins hung out. It’s been a slow build to this
point as more and more of this hidden world was revealed to us. The John Wick series rivals Marvel Studios for
the efficiency of its world-building.
The film is snug with a two-hour runtime. No portion feels
rushed. Not even the middle section where John, Sofia and her dogs tear
through, literally, dozens of bogeys. It was a short time after this sequence
when John resumes his quest that I realized, “Hey! This movie is gorgeous!” In
Casablanca, the focus is on the starry skies and sandy dunes. In New York, the artificial
neon lighting is reflected off the soggy city streets. Indoors, the colors are dingy
and muted so that the blood of John’s victims pops off the screen. This is all before one mention of the repeated
use of silhouettes to impose upon the screen which I fell in love with.
Upon first viewing, my immediate reaction was that Chapter 2 was maybe a bit better – more consistent
perhaps. The more I think about it, the more I think I like Parabellum the best of all three. Chad
Stahelski returns to helm the ship here and it really does feel like he’s
perfected this niche he made with the first installment. Keanu Reeves cements
himself with this performance as one of the great action stars of all time.
Countless months spent training with firearms and judo masters alike have paid
off in scene after scene of visceral, bone-rattling engagements. It has been
noted elsewhere that John Wick fights like a “lady action hero” where the idea
is to break down your opponent rather than charge head on. Allowing a person of
Keanu’s stature to perform in this way without compulsively making him a bruiser
has given the industry a bit of notice.
If you’re a fan of John Wick; if you like Keanu; if action
movies are your jam; it’s hard to imagine you won’t love this flick. It never sags,
nor does it overstay its welcome. There are moments in the middle portion where
it feels like the action is getting a bit repetitive, but before you can
complete the thought, a new wrinkle is found. It also helps that Keanu spends
the first and last 15 minutes or so fighting hand-to-hand. Just in case you forgot,
you’re dealing with The One.
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| You better ask somebody. |
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