Summary:
Super-Assassin John Wick flees as the members of the International Assassin’s Guild seek retribution for the death of one of their leaders.
My Thoughts:
Si vis pacem, parabellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
It’s rare that I get super excited for action movies, but I personally think the John Wick series is something special.
For one thing, I love the world of International Assassins that Wick lives in. Simultaneously, I think the international assassins guild is a ridiculous concept that requires a ton of suspension of disbelief, and I know that a lot of people (including a lot of my friends) who saw the second film had a hard time accepting that world.
But hey, I look at it this way: if I can get behind movies like “The Matrix”, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “Kill Bill Vol 1”, “Skyfall” or “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, where their worlds also reach far beyond the realm of possibilities, then why shouldn’t I be able to get behind a movie like this?
The world in this movie is incredibly farfetched, but you know what? It’s also a world that is really well-developed and thought-out. The actions the characters take (even the most violent ones) are done with a sense of reverence and honor; there are rules that must be followed, and consequences for when those rules are broken. I’ve already told you that I personally have no problem suspending my disbelief in the name of some incredible action sequences, but some people will have a hard time suspending their disbelief to this level. I wont say this is a ‘turn off your brain and enjoy the fun’ kind of movie, because there’s actually quite a few great moments as far as story and symbolism go, but this is a movie where, if you can’t accept the impossible, you’re going to have a bad time.
The first “John Wick” movie only hinted at the world that Wick lived in; “John Wick: Chapter 2” pulled back the curtain to reveal how big that world was; “Parabellum” is where Wick heads out to conquer that world.
“How can you fight the wind?”
After super-assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”) kills a member of the International Assassins Guild, he is excommunicated from the guild and a $14 Million dollar contract is put on his head. As assassins descend in droves, an Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon, “Orange is the New Black”) is sent from the Assassin’s High Table to New York to clean up the mess Wick left behind. The Adjudicator tells the Continental director Winston (Ian McShane, forthcoming “Deadwood” movie) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, “Last Flag Flying”) that they are subject to judgment for their actions; she also hires a highly trained assassin named Zero (Mark Dacascos, “Brotherhood of the Wolf”) to pursue Wick. Meanwhile, John Wick approaches a few remaining contacts like Sofia (Halle Berry, “Die Another Day”) and The Director (Anjelica Huston, “The Witches”) for help.
This film picks up quite literally where the last film left off. If you remember, John Wick killed Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio, “Loose Cannons”) on Continental grounds, which is against the rules of the Guild. Winston gives Wick one hour before a fourteen million dollar contract on his head goes live. As our film starts, the International Assassin’s guild is eagerly awaiting the moment the contract goes live and the assassins can then begin hunting Wick legally, while Wick flees across New York for help. I was actually surprised that we didn’t start off this film with a giant fight scene; instead the screenwriters opted for time to set the stage. We get a little back story, set up a few characters that will later expand the world, and then we get into the action… I’ll get to the action parts later; everyone knows the action is why we come here, but how is the story?
While the story itself is sort of thin, the world building around this story give the movie a ton of depth, and that really puts this movie a head and shoulder above most action flicks. Our story is pretty much: John Wick runs away until he can’t run anymore, and then he stands and fights. I don’t think a thin story for an action movie is necessarily a bad thing, and action films are probably the only genre of movie I’ll ever say that about. Look at movies like “Mad Max: Fury Road” or “The Raid: Redemption”. What are the stories in those movies? In “Fury Road” we follow Furiosa and Max across the desert as they hope to find ‘The Green Place’ and then when they don’t find it we follow them back to Immortan Joe’s hideaway. “The Raid: Redemption” we just watch police officers fight their way up a building. Both of those action movies are of the best action films in the last decade, and the John Wick trilogy fits right alongside movies like that.
As I keep saying, it’s the world building that makes this world special, and in this film we really get more of that world. In this film we actually learn a bit more about John Wick as a character too. It seems that Wick’s backstory is even more shrouded in secrecy and ritual than we knew, and I personally love some of the subtle hints we get about where he came from. We get a sense that this International Assassins Guild might stretch back to the beginning of human history; it feels much like the lore we see in “Assassins Creed” or “Wanted”. Again, this is a pretty farfetched world; if you can’t suspend your disbelief for some escapist fun, then you’re going to have a bad time.
I was surprised by some of the themes that were worked into this movie too. I can’t say that the previous “John Wick” films had any sort of theme other than ‘John Wick Seeks Vengeance’. But this film had a lot of religious iconography, and it also addressed a lot the more ritualistic parts of the International Assassins Guild with a ton of reverence; it made John’s journey in this film feel like a battle for his soul. Honestly, that little added theme wasn’t expected, but it totally worked for me.
Alright, lets talk about the action.
Now, there are a large number of action sequences in this movie, and some of them are a bit long, to the point where I almost got battle fatigue. I honestly went back and forth with my rating for this movie; it could’ve gone anywhere from a 4-5, but I ended up going with a 4.5 just because of the sheer amount of stunts and coordination that must’ve gone into all of these scenes. Whether Wick is fighting one guy or twenty, this movie is pretty freaking intense. The action in this movie is structured like a lot of martial arts films; we start off small with a few skirmishes, then we build to a few massive battles in the middle part of the movie, and then the final battle is against a few higher-class assassins. I actually really loved this structure because it feels like Wick is working up to fight harder people, not like he’s constantly fighting a horde of faceless dummies (though there’s plenty of that too). When we’re shown fighters who are built up to be a challenge, it gives the fight scenes more gravity. Side note: two of the fighters towards the end of the film are two of the main characters from “The Raid: Redemption”.
There are some moments that feel like we’re watching a video game. This movie tries desperately to show us things that we haven’t seen before, and in doing so, it not only produces some absolutely stunning action sequences, but it also produces some ludicrous ones as well. There’s a scene where Wick rides motorcycles and fights people with a katana, another scene where he fights in a stable and slaps the horses to kick people in the heads, another scene where he and Halle Berry kill probably seventy or eighty people… So… yeah, take the action with a grain of salt; it might be unbelievable, but it’s also incredibly fun!
Verdict:
At this point in the John Wick series we’ve tossed believability out the window; you can either get on board and accept it, and if you do that you’ll be in for one of the best action movies of the decade, or, you can nitpick this movie apart and talk about how nothing here is remotely possible. For me, this entry is just as good as “John Wick Chapter 2”, and the way that this film ends has me itching to see “John Wick 4”.
Review Written By: