John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Has Almost as Many Words in the Title as There Are in the Movie

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum picks up immediately after John Wick 2, with John having one hour before he is excommunicated and has a contract placed on his head. I can believe, but I was also surprised to find out that the three John Wick movies have taken place over the course of only a few weeks. The movie covers Wick’s efforts to survive and lose the contract, as well as mete out a little revenge. It was brilliant. The movie was a little more than 2 hours, and there was only about 20 minutes of dialogue. The rest was just good, old fashioned action. Keanu Reeves, his stuntmen, and the rest of the stunt and action performers were stellar. Their combat scenes were coordinated perfectly and the directors didn’t need a lot of camera tricks, like perspective or shaky cams, to make them believable. Even Halle Berry, who isn’t known for her action movies, appeared very adept at gunplay. The other actors were fine in their roles, with Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne dominating their respective scenes. This movie also reinforced that I would rather have Ian McShane over Morgan Freeman narrating my life. McShane’s voice is an all-timer. And his voice lends itself to the role, especially in this chapter of John Wick’s adventure, because he gets the most character development and he will play a crucial role in the next movie, which is set up very well. The story of Parabellum was much grander in scale than the previous two John Wick movies. The first movie was a small scale, New York centric action movie about pure revenge. The second expanded the scope to include the grander assassination organization, and now that organization gains additional layers and characters. I don’t know why I am really talking about the story. It is still very basic, with shallow motivations that only exist to add one layer to every action scene. The story exists only to connect the masterful action set pieces. Simply put, if you want high quality action, then the John Wick series is perfect for you. You can understand most of what is happening if you haven’t seen the first two, but I highly recommend seeing all three. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a blast and achieves that level of fun that so many modern action movies fail to reach. I give John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum $12 million of the $14 million bounty that was on John Wick’s head.