John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum

JOHN WICK 2 ended on a cliffhanger and so does 2019's JOHN WICK 3: PARABELLUM.  Those bastards.  Just when you think you've seen enough carnage, feel like you needn't see one more moment of Keanu Reeves versus every underworld minion in mankind they again fail to resolve the story of a man who, and the movie even admits this, decides to rejoin the world of super assassins because someone stole his car and killed his puppy.  The first two movies follow Mr. Wick as he battles armies, always surviving, if a bit scratched up.  Why? To earn the memory of the love he had with his deceased wife.  But how long is long enough to honor his wife?  How many bullets and knives have to pierce him before one finally takes him out? When that happens, will he have sufficiently earned the memory? Am I not supposed to ask questions like this?

Of course not.  I've attempted to ponder the implications of the John Wick saga and always come up wanting.  Maybe it's me.  Derek Kolstad's world is intriguing and seductive enough, and his screenplays (this time with four co-writers) set up a storyline that borrows heavily from Greek mythology and superhero comics, but any serious exploration is always jettisoned for the big thrills.  That's what these movies are all about, let's be honest.  Like so many contemporary movies, it all looks and plays like a video game.  Somehow it never gets old, watching John Wick (Keanu Reeves) annihilate scores of enemies.  He even uses special coins as if he were in the world of Super Mario Brothers.

PARABELLUM picks up right where part 2 left off.  Wick killed a member of the "High Table" within the hallowed halls of the New York Continental Hotel, a major violation  of criminal code.  He has been branded persona non grata, excommunicado, and has a $14 million dollar bounty on his head.  Would be collectors come out of the woodwork, leading to elaborate set pieces that take places in an antique weapons store, all through Casablanca, and finally in the Continental Hotel's high tech hall of mirrors, in a scene that will recall James Bond and Orson Welles movies. This third chapter in fact will at various moments evoke memories of everything from Buster Keaton to Sergio Leone to Bruce Lee. 

Meanwhile, an enforcer from the High Table called the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) has come to even the score with those who previously helped Mr. Wick.  She visits Winston (Ian McShane), operator of the Continental, the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), and 'The Director" (Anjelica Huston), who oversees a Russian ballet company.  Each are given some sort of deal/ultimatum.  Will they betray their old friend?

PARABELLUM, which comes from the Latin meaning "prepare for war", is also a brand of a German semiautomatic.  Appropriate.  Just about every imaginable firearm comes out to play.  Plenty of martial arts, too.  Just like before.  Keanu again tosses off his patented "yeah"   The ultraviolence is ramped up to keep pace with insatiable action movie tastes.  No lecture from me, invisible audience, I had a ball watching this broken glass saga, in all its Zeiss Master Anamorphic and Dolby Atmos glory.  The movie is quite funny, too.