Film Review: John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (Dir: Chad Stahelski)

0

starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, Halle Berry

Keanu Reeves returns as the unkillable underworld boogeyman in John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, delivering some of the best action scenes in the highly stylised franchise amidst a convoluted overall narrative.

The beauty of the John Wick franchise is in its simplicity: bad people wrong the titular character, and the reluctant assassin with the drawl of a grizzly bear hunts them down, leaving a trail of carnage in his wake. In John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, it makes sense that we’d see some of the best Gun-Fu action sequences so far, which the film happily delivers in its first few minutes.

Storywise, the film continues directly from the previous installment, with John Wick on the run from a city full of assassins after breaking a cardinal hitman rule and being made ‘excommunicado’ as a result. This might have set for an intense, street-level escape through New York City similar to a one-man The Warriors, but instead the film tortures itself by overcomplicating the storyline across its two-hour-plus runtime.

Much of this is in travelling to cameo locations to introduce cameo characters, some of which work brilliantly and others not so much. Anjelica Huston brings the scowling menace of her character from The Witches to her role as The Director, the head of a training school for ballerinas and hitmen, while Halle Berry’s cameo as Sofia – a Morocco-based assassin and old associate of Wick’s – is overshadowed by her two, well-trained attack dogs.

These all-powerful characters also show how quickly these films can tangle themselves in plot, leaving you wondering why Wick never visited or contacted these extremely helpful people in either of the previous films. Still, many of these filler scenes carry the franchise’s trademark grim comedy, which often makes them a welcome diversion from the brutal and extended action.

However, it’s the action that defines the success of a John Wick film, and Parabellum (from the latin phrase ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ meaning “If you want peace, prepare for war.”) definitely lives up to its name. Fight scenes in John Wick are brutal, violent, and often exhausting. It’s a welcome stylistic change from the fast-cut method of most action films, and aligns itself closer with the steady-cam action of the Indonesian Serbuan Maut (The Raid) franchise.

The film shows Wick using books, knives, a belt, an arsenal of weapons, and almost everything at his disposal to dispatch intermittent waves of assassins, and while the fight scenes require some suspension of disbelief, it’s the camera work, framing, and stunt direction throughout that make them all the more realistic. By the end of its runtime, it’s the Shakespearean performances by franchise regulars, Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne, that seem the most out of place against the gritty action, while newcomers Asia Kate Dillon and Mark Dacascos both provide slightly sterilised and robotic performances that fail to meet their potential.

Despite struggling to hit its groove, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum delivers the best of what we’ve seen so far in the franchise: fast, frantic action sequences, a perfect performance by Reeves, and an overwhelming sense of style. Just don’t expect much more from it.

Oxford Lamoureaux

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oxford Lamoureaux
Latest posts by Oxford Lamoureaux (see all)