Movie Review: John Wick 3

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The most surprising movie to turn into a franchise in recent years has become an internet sensation thanks to Keanu Reeves and his iconic depiction of cold badassery as the retired contract killer John Wick.

The movie was most likely meant to be a stand-alone project but fans loved it so much the studios were encouraged to milk it into a trilogy and beyond. So is the 3rd instalment worth watching? Let's shoot through it shall we, I mean literally there's A LOT of shooting, so why not one more?

Image source - Johnwick.movie

What is John Wick 3 about?

Parabellum continues directly after the second movie as we see John try to escape his newly acquired excommunicado status.

After gunning down a member of the untouchable High Table and on company grounds this is a big no no and John needs to be made an example of in the shadowy international assassin's guild. The legendary hitman John Wick finds himself stripped of the organization's protective services and is stuck with a $14 million bounty on his head.

Wick must fight his way through the streets of New York as he becomes the target of the world's most ruthless killers.

What I thought of John Wick 3

First thing I have to get off my chest, this movie is WAY too long and the action scenes, while well-done drag out the movie to a point where you have murder fatigue. Personally though, after about 60 minutes I got a bit tired of the movie. There's only so many times someone getting headshot can be entertaining.

The movie is an endless line of contract killers coming up to Wick and them fighting. The sheer unfiltered violence and a constant fight for survival is where this movie does this well. There was even a fantastic sequence featuring German shepherds, the scene with the dogs added more excitement to the brutal showcase of John Wick's and Halle Berry's gun skills.

While these fight scenes are a highlight, they can't be the only thing to the movie and unfortunately, this is where I have to draw the line. John Wick 3 does very little by the way of character and world-building.

This is where it falls short, with the actual story.

There was an opportunity here to do more with the story, unfortunately, it took a backstage. It does not work to John's benefit, it makes him rather not so special - a flat and shallow character, apart of amazing survivability skills he has nothing else to offer.

Is he really just a blunt weapon, the tip of the spear, instrument of destruction?
You really start to question what is the whole point of this destructive adventure?
Why does he even bother any more?

We have here this faceless organization, their cruel motives and ways, their world dominance. The movie fails to explain this to us more or take us deeper down the rabbit hole on how this organisation has so much power.

Why not show John decide that this world needs to be torn down and taken down from the inside?

The story and subsequently the movie is severely lacking depth!

The entire 3rd act of the film is literally like watching someone play a video game with god mode on. Nothing stops him. He gets stabbed in the neck, that's ok.

Stitch it up, move on. People fire hundreds of rounds at him. It's ok, they all missed. He gets hit with two cars literally back to back.

He is literally a one-man army which we've all been lead to believe but surely there needs to be more to him than just rage mode.

He gets shot point-blank 5/6 times and falls out of a 4th or 5th story balcony, bounces off of everything and splats on the street, it's ok, he's still alive and just "angry" now.

My rating for John Wick 3

I liked the first two movies, both had a meaning behind all the action that takes place, this movie the plot is weak and the fight scenes way too long for the weak plot.

The best part of the movie is, of course, Mr Wick himself, as Keanu still portrays his character as the Boogeyman really well. I don't see how much longer they can milk this dead horse or it could quickly turn into a parody of what made the first movie and to an extent the second one such an instant hit with fans.

I'll have to give it 6 headshots out of 10

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