John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum

The first John Wick film took many, including myself, by surprise. A smart simple action film with a straight forward plot. John Wick was a man paying for his past sins. Directed by a stunt man, John Wick was choreographed with precision and had just the right amount of character development and world building to make for a satisfying 100 minutes.

Inspired by the success of the first film, the sequel took the story to the next level raising the bar perhaps a bit too far. It entered a more ridiculous phase. Yes John Wick's world of assassins and crime lords was fantasy but the first film felt a bit grounded. The second left that behind for a far more fantastic take on the criminal underworld. But the film also upped its game in the visuals. Stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski found a visual poetry in his art and his cinematographer and art director were given free reign to create a world that we couldn't take our eyes off of. What John Wick Chapter 2 lost in realism it gained in sheer aesthetics. It remained a very satisfying boost to the adrenalin even when it was pushing our suspension of disbelief.

And as these things tend to go it appears John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum (yup, that is a real mouthful) may be the most gorgeous and watchable of the series... but also the least convincing. As this film series has continued the foes Wick faces give him more and more time to get himself ready to take them on, he takes on harder and harder blows while soldiering on, and the motivations of characters adjust more and more rapidly away from anything feeling organic and more towards what moves the plot in the direction we want to go.

The whole Wick saga remains simple. That is part of the beauty of it. We start out with a contract being put out on John and he has to just make his way through a city of assassins who want to be the one to collect the reward. This goes on just long enough before Stahelski introduces some new plot developments which really work more for their ability to showcase characters like Angelica Huston's eastern european matriarch. Stahelski knows just how far to push it, and films everything with such a truly beautiful eye that Parabellum is a stunning film.

But there were too many times I just went hmm. Too many plot devices that seemed a little too much. And then there is the ending. What could have been an interesting, and rather unresolved, twist is executed in a way that just takes you out of the film, takes away any credibility the story had going for it. And it descends a bit into self-parody, the most obvious example is the sheer amount of dead dog jokes. The film series so far has taken itself seriously and this one feels a little too tongue in cheek for my comfort level. 

Basically the John Wick series is surrendering to sheer silliness. I can embrace that. For what it is doing it does well. I guess perhaps I just hoped it would have kept more of an edge.

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishbourne, Mark Decascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Angelica Huston
Director: Chad Stahelski
Writers: Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, Marc Abrams