THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s crazy how when stories continue, they can become bigger than life chapter by chapter. The John Wick franchise is living proof of that because the third film felt like the biggest one at that point.
PLOT
The sequel dubbed Parabellum follows the iconic assassin on the run with a $14 million excommunicado bounty on him. The bounty is a result of his unauthorized killing of crime lord Santino D’Antonio on Continental grounds. He has a head start thanks to his friend Winston who is in charge of the New York Continental. Before his excommunicado status goes into effect, he is able to retrieve a marker medallion and a rosary that’ll help him fight for his life. He first gets attacked by an assassin named Ernest (Boban Marjanovic) before the countdown concludes, resulting in him to successfully defend himself. After this, he gets himself patched up and continues the fight. He also drops off his pet pitbull at the Continental to be protected. When his new status is officially in effect, he fights multiple assassins and kills most of them in hopes to escape New York. After killing a slew in a closed weapons shop and continuing to run via briefly riding a horse, he reaches out to ‘The Director’, head of the Ruska Roma cryme syndicate and with his rosary, he is granted safe passage to Casablanca. As he makes his way there, a High Table Adjudicator comes to New York to confront Winston and the Bowery King. Due to their decision to help Wick, they give them seven days to resign from their positions. They also decide to hire another assassin named Zero as a right hand man. They order him to stab through the Director’s hands as penance for helping Wick as well. In Casablanca, Baba Yaga is able to contact Sofia Al-Azwar, a former friend who runs the Moroccan Continental. With his medallion, she returns debt by helping him find The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui), the only person above the High Table. They go to her former boss Berrada (Jerome Flynn), who knows exactly where to go. According to him, one must wander through the desert until no longer being able to walk. In exchange for the information, he requests one of Sofia’s trained Belgian Malinois. When she refuses, he chooses to shoot at it. Since it was wearing a bulletproof vest, she shoots him back with a stashed gun, resulting in her, Wick and both dogs to fight their way out. Once they succeed in doing so, she leaves Wick in the desert. The assassin does find The Elder himself who makes his request on wanting to live. The latter accepts it in exchange of killing Winston and remain subservient to the High Table for the remainder of his life. Baba Yaga proves fealty by cutting off his ring finger and gives his wedding ring to him. With the week passing by, The Bowery King refuses to abdicate the throne. This results in him losing most of his forces and being slashed seven times by Zero, as ordered by the Adjudicator. When Wick returns to New York, he does get confronted by Zero, but he is still protected by the Continental. Since he refuses to kill Winston and his friend refuses to abdicate, the Adjudicator decides to revoke the hotel’s neutral status. This allows Zero and more assassins to attack. With Winston giving him access to weapons and the concierge Charon being a helping hand in the fight for their lives, Zero and company fail to fulfill the contract. Just when he seems to be safe, a parley has been made between Winston and the Adjudicator: he proves his fealty by shooting his friend, causing him to fall from the rooftop. Surprisingly, his body disappears by the time the Adjudicator looks for it in the alley way he landed in. They would share this to Winston, warning that there will be consequences if he survives. As they leave the hotel, so does Wick’s pit bull. The film would end in a cliffhanger, revealing Baba Yaga to have survived the fall, being taken to the Bowery King in an underground bunker, where both agree to go against the High Table.
THOUGHTS
As a fan of the action genre, it was bound for me to become invested in this high octane franchise. When Chapter 2 left its own cliffhanger, expectations were high. David Leitch & Chad Stahelski were able to exceed them so successfully that by the time the end credits were rolling, I quote the trolley kid from The Incredibles when I say "That was totally wicked". This is an instant classic of the genre for keeping me hooked from beginning to end. Whether or not Tyler Bates' exhilarating score would be playing, Dan Lausten's cinematography ensures that you pay attention with every action sequence that exceeds one another. Starting from the library, to the horse chase, to the bike chase, to the shootout in Moracco and the climax within the NY Continental, it is the most entertaining chunk of chaos I have ever experienced. Since this is a new franchise sequel, I definitely felt the patience made to continue building new lore to make things more clear than before. But the true selling point apart from this comes from its creative perspective on explaining there will be always be consequences no matter what kind of rule is broken. John Wick is learning that in the hardest way imaginable. At his most breathtaking, Keanu Reeves still reminds us that this assassin is not to be fucked with if he can kill with a book, but he is at most vulnerable because he put himself in a paradox he can't get out of in his liking. He is fighting for his life because he really cares about living longer than he should. His relationship with the Director confirms his upbringing to have been difficult, which only motivated him on finding a way out of the life of crime. He chose to return to the High Table because he doesn't want to lose the memories of his wife once he goes which only shows how strong willed of a heart he's got. So he can't help choosing to spare Winston because he wants to avoid being selfish. But seeing him continue his fight against the High Table and put himself through physical pain further proves how some goals are too difficult to achieve and you can't always get what you want. He had peace and he lost it; Now he has a long way to go to get it back. Wick may be the star, but the supporting cast surrounding him all had memorable moments. Ian McShane definitely brought a whole other layer to Winston we didn't expect to see. He is a man who is firm with his position and refuses to give it up for being a good friend. It was a surprise for him to shoot Wick but the grin he gave afterwards implies he knew he'd survive, intending to give each other more time. Since it didn't seem Baba Yaga knew that would happen, it surprises me how fast he chose to forgive during Chapter 4. I've never said it before, but I really admired Lance Reddick's presence as Charon. He always left a good impression for not only being able to be calm within the circumstances of the world he's in, but is clearly more honorable than others. Yes he knew John had a bounty on him but also knew the technicality at the Continental would work on everyone, honestly being the smartest decision of the whole film. Even he knows Baba Yaga will be back to finish what he started, so you can only imagine how helpful and fair he'll be as things progress. Laurence Fishburne still makes the Bowery King an interesting character because he's one who believes he shouldn't need to answer to anyone if he has his own power. Of course meeting the Adjudicator became a hard lesson for him that there is always higher power out there. He chooses to help John in Chapter 4 because it was time for them both to be their own person. His mind is clear that he doesn't want to be told what to do anymore and will do what he can to make that path possible. Going into new characters, I was very intrigued with Angelica Huston's appearance as the Director. This character has her own set of honor where she adopts people and give them a form of purpose. Oddly enough, being assassins is the said purpose. She did that for John and chose to help him out because she partially still saw him as a son, a feeling she likely doesn't share with everyone else before and after him. Since she survived her penance, I won't count her out either to make a return. I also thought Halle Berry was a great addition to the cast because she makes Sofia the closest thing John has to an equal. Apart from being a dog lover, she holds her own in the fight as well. She is on the right to be difficult towards him because him coming to Casablanca puts her on the hot seat. If they weren't friends, she would've taken the bounty in a heartbeat. She is about as selfless as him because even she still has a heart to bury to protect those she cares about. In her case, it's her unnamed daughter who John helped put into hiding. She proves her selflessness by avoiding to know whereabouts, as she is aware she won’t be able to help herself seeing her again. Knowing that she'll likely be on the run as well after betraying Berrada, it would make sense for her and Baba Yaga to cross paths again. Since Wick is against the world at this point, almost everyone is a villain to him and want him dead. It's no different when you witness the Adjudicator. Portrayed by Asia Kate Dillon, they make it clear there must be clear there must be order in the world and they are determined to ensure it stays so. With Wick's unwise decision to kill Santino on Continental grounds, the rattle had to be maintained and it was their job to do so. They parleyed with Winston because even they came to understand how dangerous Baba Yaga is. With other people in charge like Marquis as shown in Chapter 4, they should've prayed Wick would not come back. With Cassian and Aries out of the picture, it makes sense for other assassins to take their shot in trying to stop Wick. Mark Dacascos made big impact in making Zero the most formidable opponent at this point. He is a guy who enjoys the fight and the harder he gets to fight, the more he'll enjoy it. Like a lot of people who live his lifestyle, he can't help being fascinated with Wick because he is the ultimate challenge. While he didn't get the job done either, it was worth trying in his eyes. I've made it clear enough that this is a great action movie, but even great stuff have questionable moments I can't ignore. For starters, I get it's cool for John to stash the marker and rosary in the library, but why not somewhere safer like a safety deposit box? I'm not saying he should copy Jason Bourne, but being safer is more important than cheaper. He is at his dopest when he kills Ernest with a book, but my god is he lucky no one ever visited that portion of the library at that time. He doesn't even clean the book before putting it away. Either civilians are as oblivious as they were at the train station or that portion of the library is that irrelevant. And if I gotta go any further with John's luck, it ain't gonna be how he put good use of the hour head start, it would be how he is at his luckiest to survive the fall because he took a bunch of bumps on the way down. On top of that, why doesn't he have a disguise when he goes to Casablanca? At that point, he's asking for someone to get the bounty. I don't even blame the assassins for wanting to take their time in wanting to kill him, but they make it harder by not shooting him. I mean it only makes it a funny excuse for John to stack up the body count. One henchman is even dumb as hell for not noticing Sofia pull out her own stashed gun from the dog's vest. I really didn't think I'd bring up continuity errors here, yet here we are when I found myself surprised to see a tall woman in the background have two different appearances at the train station: One take shows her go towardsWick's left, only for the next to show her come from behind on his left. And in all honesty, why doesn't John kill the Adjudicator? Yes Winston regains the Continental's technicalities when he shoots him later on, but that could've been avoided if he shot them first to avoid deconsecration from the get go. Even if there would be guaranteed consequences, they would buy themselves more time if both guys made up a story of how sour things went. Ignore this, then you'll still be in for the wildest ride of 2019. In short, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is the best action movie of 2019 for making every moment memorably matter, becoming the franchise most investing at this point. If you are a fan of action and enjoyed the first two, see this now.
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