“John Wick 3: Parabellum spared no expense and creativity in giving us the best action movie for Keanu Reeves.”
In a surprisingly thrilling movie franchise that started in 2014, the John Wick character and films have made a significant impact on movie-going fans and the action genre. Now into its third film titled John Wick 3: Parabellum (Latin for “Prepare for War”), the filmmakers have spared no expense and creativity in giving us the best action movie for Keanu Reeves and this creative universe they created only five years ago. I would expect situations to get tiresome in a third adventure, but that’s not the case at all here. There are so many different aspects to the fight scenes that we haven’t seen before, along with some great, new John Wick assassin universe knowledge that makes this unique and deadly world seem much bigger than it is.
The film takes place right where Part II left off, with John Wick rushing to get out of New York City, before his suspension takes effect. He has 20 minutes to get to safety, before he is not allowed into any of the luxurious hotel hideouts, access to weapons, and on top of that – a multi-million dollar bounty on his head that has every single other assassin trying to kill him. Meanwhile, the “corporation” that runs this worldwide club of assassins known as the High Table has come to collect the mistakes that John Wick made in Part II and make sure Wick is dead.
This puts Wick across the globe in Casablanca where he asks for help from one of his old cohorts Sofia (Halle Berry), who comes with a pair of cute, yet ruthless German Shepards who will take you out from neck to nuts in a split second. John’s mission is to meet with someone in the desert that can bring him back in good graces with the High Table, which then sends him back to New York for many final showdowns, including the High Table’s deadly assassins led by Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian (The Raid and The Raid II), along with their boss Mark Dacascos.
In between the unbelievably good action sequences, we get to witness more mythology in this assassin universe, what makes it run and tick, along with where John Wick trained, grew up, along with several other people he might have done some killer things with, including the lovely Angelica Huston, who seemed to have raised our hero. These rules, traditions, and executions are done in a subtle way as they don’t fully explain the history of this elite club, but it’s just enough to know that John Wick is the most popular and most successful assassin out there. This is also evident when Rahman, Ruhian, and Dacascos cross paths with him, as they comedically are in awe of John Wick, but still try and put him on ice.
The new mix of comedic interactions and over-the-top performances from Dacascos and Laurence Fishburne here are much welcome in this universe, because we get to see both sides of their personalities. One being a cold blooded killer for hire, and the other is basically a fanboy for their assassin idol who they get to work with. It’s such a delight to see. The new action sequences bring in various animals, the most epic knife fight in cinema, motorcycles, and more to this highly entertaining third film.
The filmmakers are aware of the popularity, the fun they can have, and their characters traits that I hope they make three more films in this universe with the same people. As evident at the end of the film, you can rest assure there will be more carnage and enjoyment soon.