Review: John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum turns the headshot into high art

John Wick is a strange franchise. The first entry in 2014 was a lean and brutal thriller about an extremely efficient retired hitman named John Wick (Keanu Reeves), who unleashes a killing spree against a group of mobsters after they kill his dog.

2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 greatly expanded the universe of the franchise, focusing on Wick’s debt to an Italian assassin, which brought him back into the world of The Continental, a posh hotel-for-assassins turned high-end clubhouse, run by the charismatic Winston (Ian McShane). When Wick breaks one of the central rules of The Continental by shooting a gangster on the premises, Winston declares Wick “excommunicado,” shutting him off from any help from around the world, and upping the bounty on his head to a cool $14 million.

As the films grew increasingly more complex, the grit and simplicity of the original entry gave way to a sort of reverse Bond or Bourne franchise, filled with globe-hopping escapades, increasingly elaborate stunts verging on the superhuman, and untold geysers of bloodshed.

John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Latin for “prepare for war”) strikes a balance between the first two entries — the action spreads out across the globe, but in many ways this is a much simpler film than its predecessor, with almost no semblance of a plot whatsoever, even as the kill count creatively skyrockets up.

Opening immediately following the events of Chapter 2, the film begins with John Wick frantically running through the streets of New York in seek of help from his vast underground network of assassins and their contacts. When his “excommunicado” order takes effect, following a stylish countdown from the tattooed women of all-ages running the contracts section of The Continental, every assassin in New York (and the rest of the world) is suddenly alerted to the massive bounty on Wick’s head, leaving the injured Wick to face off against scores of assassins looking to take him out.

Some of the earliest fight scenes in the movie are among the best action set pieces we’ve seen in decades. With rapid-fire fight choreography and inventive real-world techniques, they provide the sort of visceral audience reaction that has made this franchise so successful. You can’t help but yell out in support when Wick takes out a mountain of a man in a public library by essentially impaling him on a book, or during the wildly creative fight sequence in an antique shop that almost plays out like an ultra-violent Marx Brothers routine, where shelf after shelf of locked-up artifacts become tools to violently implant in someone’s head.

The fight sequences here are truly the star of the show, and director Chad Stahelski (formerly a stunt performer and Martial Arts instructor) showcases them beautifully. Most take place without any trace of a score, just the sounds of grunts and yells as Wick methodically snaps and twist bones into unnatural positions or throws knifes directly into the foreheads of his would-be assassins. If you’ve seen the trailer it’s no surprise that our man Wick is also on a horse in this movie, taking out baddies while galloping down the rain-drenched streets of NYC. If that wasn’t enough of a set piece, there’s also an incredible sequence with Wick attacking his aggressors with a sword (!) during a high-speed motorcycle chase.

Wick does eventually leave the rain-slicked streets of New York for the unlikely environs of Morocco, where he manages to pursue an old acquaintance Sofia (Halle Berry) to help him track down the mysterious Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui). Against her better judgment, Sofia agrees to help Wick, and the two set off on an incredible battle in the desert, aided by Sofia’s pack of crotch-tearing killer dogs. Though not given too much to do, Berry is great here, bringing a burning intensity (not to mention serious action chops) that pair up perfectly with Reeves’ steely-cool performance.

While Wick is overseas, an adjudicator for the High Table organization behind The Continental and the worldwide league of assassins (Asia Kate Dillon) is out to punish anyone who helped Wick survive in the previous entry. Everyone from Winston at The Continental, the “King of the Bowery” (Laurence Fishburne), and the Director (Anjelica Huston, who is somehow in this movie) are at risk of losing their turf and / or their limbs unless Wick is brought down.

The addition of the Adjudicator expands the world of the film, showing the intricacies of the High Table organization, and deepening the world-building of the Wick-verse. It’s clear that the screenwriters (Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins and Marc Abrams) are slowly peeling back the intricate layers of the organization and its various tentacles to explore in future films, much like the way Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. were slowly rolled out in the MCU.

Even with those attempts to further build out this complex hierarchy of worldwide assassins, this latest entry of the franchise truly feels like a video game movie. The world-building scenes might as well just be video game cut scenes, a quick breather before the next round of action, or a well-timed bathroom break (this movie does run over 2 hours). When the action sequences do break out they are often thrilling, but so video game-like that you can almost imagine the combo hit points flashing across the screen with each punch Wick lands.

With such a threadbare plot, and little in the way of actual human motivation to root for, the film manages to run out of steam well before its climactic fight sequence, which is strangely one of the least interesting set pieces in the entire film. The movie then just abruptly ends, teasing the set-up for the next chapter but offering little in the way of closure after 120+ minutes of draining action, making everything that’s come before it seem like an extra-long episode of a violent new Netflix show.

With some spectacular action sequences, an exciting new locale, and Reeves’ stoic charisma, John Wick Chapter 3 is another solid addition to what has now become one of the most dependable action franchises of all time. I’m not sure what it says about our culture at this moment that we eagerly want to watch hordes of people being brutally killed on-screen, but the John Wick series has at least found some artful and stylish ways to satiate our bloodlust.

John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum is in theatres now.