Rating of
3/4
Three Times the Fun, Run Wick Run
Chris Kavan - wrote on 08/28/19
While The Matrix may have made Keanu Reeves a star, I think John Wick is going to his legacy. Because, franky, The Matrix films fell apart after the first film - while John Wick just keeps getting better and better. And it's not just because the third film made more money - it's because every time I think they can't come up with something even more impressive, action-wise, they manage to exceed my expectations.
Parabellum picks up pretty much immediately after John Wick 2 - Wick has been declared "Excommunicado" by the secrative assassin's guild after murdering a member of the High Table at the Continental Hotel run by his old friend Winston (Ian McShane). He has just one hour before he gets a mighty bounty on his head - and attracting every assassin in the vicinity. But he's not about to run without cashing in a few favors, so a quick trip to the library (and an interesting fight with NBA giant Boban Marjanovic) - and a quick visit to doctor (Randall Duk Kim) to patch him up leaves him with precious little time.
Wick, however, isn't alone in his punishment as both Winston and The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) are visited by a High Table agent known as The Adjudicator (played with absolute cool malice by Asia Kate Dillon) who tells them in no uncertain terms that they will both be losing their positions for helping Wick - and essentially putting him above the High Table. We also get a glimpse into Wick's past when he visits a Russian ballet school run by The Director (Anjelica Huston), where he was trained in the arts from his birth in Belarus. After cashing in his ticket - he travels to Casablana where he meets up with another person from his past, Sofia (Halle Berry) and her trained dogs. She owes him a blood debt, one he trades in for information on how to find The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui) perhaps the only man in the world who can reverse his excommunicado status. Meanwhile our Adjudicator friend has called on the help of Zero (Mark Dacascos) and his cadre of highly-trained ninjas for backup. Thus Wick is presented with a choice: in order to gain his status back, he will have to fully commit to becoming a pawn of the High Table - and, as his first task, is ordered to take out Winston.
The John Wick films are an amazing presentation of fight choreography - and Parabellum does not disappoint. From a chase featuring motorcycles and a horse, to a massive gun/dog fight in Morocco to a knife throwing to martial arts in a glass room - the film flits between hand-to-hand to guns to blades with ease and each fight is so well done, it continues to amaze me just how much work must go into pulling this off. And Reeves continues to be the epitome of the mostly silent, but certainly deadly, Wick with cool ease. There are some nice comedic bits thrown about here and there as well. And I can't say enough how impressive Berry is as essentially a female version of Wick (she even likes dogs) - she can kick just as much ass as Reeves and it shows and I well and truly hope she appears in the future as well.
The Wick films have done well with presenting Reeves as a man conflicted - he really just wants a normal life but is thrust into this violent world where is obviously can take care of himself - but it's not the life he wants to have, but the life he is has been chosen for. Parabellum no longer has him seeking revenge but simply seeking survival - but he still has his own loyalties and even when given the chance to get his life back - he still chooses to walk his own path - damn the consequences. But it seems every characters has to prove their loyalty at some point and no one gets by unscathed - and I'm hoping in part 4 Wick finally goes after this High Table, because damn, that would be something.
John Wick is violent, not doubt, but there I cannot think of another action series that has enthralled me as much with its characters and its amazing battles. This is a series that thrives on the beauty of its brutality and audiences seem to agree - it just keeps getting better and better.
