John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum review

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM:

WICK’S THIRD OUTING IS PURE ACTION MOVIE ADRENALINE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

LIONSGATE

Keanu Reeves is back in John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum

            Keanu Reeves (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Speed, The Matrix trilogy) returns as former assassin John Wick in John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum, the latest installment of the critically and commercially successful John Wick film series. Before we dig into the new film, allow me to take a moment and recap my brief history with the previous installments…and I mean brief. 

Confession time, I sadly did not see the original John Wick movie from 2014 nor its 2017 follow-up, John Wick: Chapter 2 when they came out in theaters. I recall John Wick being released the exact same weekend as Birdman and the sequel coming out the same day as The Lego Batman Movie, so unfortunately I was pretty busy with other movies at the time which is why I’ve never reviewed a John Wick movie before and as far as I’m concerned I made a big mistake. 

While I missed them theatrically, I watched both movies back to back in one night when they came out on home media after many people requested that I watch them. Yep, all those recommendations were completely valid, these are terrific action movies and the start of a comeback career for Keanu Reeves after several unfortunate misfires 

I can almost describe these movies as the Mad Max: Fury Road of neo-noir action films with consistently well-choreographed and phenomenally over-the-top action sequences all throughout the movies but still allowing breathing time to establish its characters and environments in a surprisingly intelligent way. And all this started with a movie in which Keanu Reeves gets revenge on a group of gang members who shot his dog. 

The first film is a pretty basic and simple concept but as the series progresses the plots get more conspiracy-driven and complex without ever feeling out of place. You still get the over-the-top action along with a well-crafted mystery that keeps you on your toes.

So, after two successful movies, we have this third installment with Reeves reprising his role as Wick and Chad Stahelski (The Crow, The Matrix trilogy) and David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) returning as director and executive producer. How does Parabellum hold up compared to its predecessors? Honestly, compared to the previous John Wick movies this is probably the most chaotic, adrenaline-filled rush out of all of them. 

I’m still debating which movie I think is the best but Parabellum in my opinion is the most entertaining to watch. Parabellum takes the John Wick action formula and cranks it up to infinity with absolutely ridiculous and insane results…and you know what? I love it for that very reason. 

Immediately following the events of the last film, John Wick (Reeves) is now excommunicado by the ruthless High Table and has a $14 million bounty on himself with every single assassin in New York City on the hunt for him. John travels to Casablanca where he meets up with a hit-woman from his past named Sofia (Halle Berry-X-Men franchise, Swordfish, Die Another Day) who reluctantly agrees to help him locate a senior member of the High Table known as The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui-Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, Wonder Woman) in hopes to remove the bounty on his head. 

Meanwhile, the Adjudicator of the High Table (Asia Kate Dillon-Orange is the New Black, Billions, The Outside Story) and her top assassin, Zero (Mark Dacascos-Cradle 2 the Grave, Hawaii Five-0, Mortal Kombat: Legacy) start tracking down the people involved in Wick’s actions, Winston (Ian McShane-Deadwood, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hellboy (2019)) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne-The Matrix trilogy, DC Extended Universe, Ant-Man and the Wasp) and order them to relinquish their positions of authority or be faced with deadly consequences. John, Winston, the Bowery King, and the trusty concierge of the Continental, Charon (Lance Reddick-The Wire, Fringe, Lost) prepare not to hunt another gang but to go to war between the Continental assassins and the High Table. 

The film also stars Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor, The Addams Family 1 and 2, The Royal Tenenbaums) as the Director, Jason Mantzoukas (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Disaster Artist) as Tick Tock Man, Robin Lord Taylor (Another Earth, The Walking Dead, You) as the Administrator, NBA superstar, Boban Marjanovićas Ernest, Jerome Flynn (Soldier Soldier, Game of Thrones, Ripper Street) as Berrada, and Tobias Segal (Petunia, The Good Wife, The Drop) as Earl.

Overall, John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum may not quite be as strong as its predecessors but it’s nevertheless a milestone in action movie filmmaking and an explosive blast of summer blockbuster fun from beginning to end. From the stunt work, energy, and offering new and imaginative scenarios for action sequences, it gives the CGI-filled final battle in Avengers: Endgame a run for its money. 

Making a movie that’s nothing but over-the-top action and stunts while still giving a sh*t about the characters involved is a very difficult task but films like the John Wick series, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Mission: Impossible: Fallout have proven that it’s not impossible. You see John Wick shooting enemy assassins and gang members, getting into bloody fistfights and intense motorcycle chases, and a completely ridiculous fight sequence in an antique shop involving a bunch of knives as the highlight of the movie, but you understand what he’s going through and his tragic past even without much dialogue and you want him to win. 

Since it takes place immediately after the second film it’s best to watch all three films back to back not just for continuity purposes but to see how a movie that started off as a basic revenge action film and evolved into something bigger. There are even some callbacks to the previous two films that are actually quite funny that fans will notice.

John Wick: Chapter 3 isn’t a flawless movie; in fact, I’ll go on record and say the narrative gets lost during the film’s second act. I felt there wasn’t much of a purpose for John Wick to travel to Casablanca aside from getting more exposition about the High Table and Halle Berry’s character just disappears after a while, but those flaws don’t ruin the experience.

John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum delivers pure action movie adrenaline and another hard-hitting installment of the John Wick trilogy which is quite possibly the Die Hard of this generation. I’m glad I finally got the chance to review a John Wick movie and make up for an old mistake, I guarantee if a John Wick: Chapter 4 gets made I’ll be there.