John Wick (2014) was one of the most surprisingly delightful new IPs in the last twenty years. The formula is simple: give a man a reason to seek revenge, then surround him with goons, then watch the blood spatter. What set the Wickiverse apart was its keen sense of style, fascinating world-building, and ballet-like choreographed violence.
John Wick: Chapter 2 dropped in 2017 and, while it remained true to the gun-fu absurdity that defined its forebear, it also widened the scope of the film's lore and universe in interesting ways. It was clear that the team behind this series, director Chad Stahelski and lead writer Derek Kolstad, had grand designs on an epic franchise.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (you are not hallucinating, that is an unwieldy title) dropped this weekend.
So where does our titular assassin go, when you've killed his dog, destroyed his house and car, and made him excommunicado?
I. What Is It?
This is the story of John Wick. John has been made excommunicado (he is no longer privy to the resources and benefits of this vast underworld), and a $14 million bounty has been placed on his head. Everyone (everyone? EVERYONE) in New York is out to get him. John needs to set things right, and he'll have to go visit some figures from his past to make that happen.II. If it Ain't Broke...
If you loved the first two movies in this franchise, you will likely love this movie.
Back are the intricately choreographed fight sequences. Characters reload their guns in flashy ways, fight defensively with belts, destroy their environments and find new, brutal methods to break the human body. The stunt crew have outdone themselves, weaving in knife-fights, book fights (yes, BOOK fights), horse fights (YEAH), motorcycle chases, attack dogs, mirrored surfaces, and bullet-proof body armor. The action is electric, and you will find yourself Ooh-ing and Ahh-ing and possibly laughing-out-loud (as I did a number of times) watching it all play out.
Back is the stylish construction that set the Wickiverse apart. Everyone's in a sharp suit; there are splashes of neon light in the background; and the guns are paid a reverent, nigh fetishistic attention and care. And it is all photographed by Dan Laustsen's keen camera. The movie is as gorgeous as it is bone-crushingly brutal.
Back is the mad-cap world of assassins and secret hotels. The creative team has seemingly decided to embrace the idea that the Wickiverse is something akin to a lovechild of a video game and an anime. The world is bonkers with a capital B, and the fight scenes feel like John is the vengeful protagonist of an FPS game on crack. By leaning into these absurdities, however, the film has pardoned its own silliness and given itself permission to reach for the stars. The train left the station three films ago, and if you are still here hoping for some nuanced realism, I have bad news for you. If you find joy in absurd gold coins, intricate coded body tattoos, bizarre codes of honor and dogs with body armor, you have definitely booked passage to the right place. Where the second film expanded the scope of the first, the third film solidified the power structures and many of the players in the world. What we have is enough fodder for a fourth film, and possibly a few spin-offs (the film lingers on a ballerina-in-training with a set of wicked tattoos a bit too long to mean nothing: I would watch Murder Ballerina; they should make Murder Ballerina).
Back is Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richards' odd-ball score. It is equal parts symphonic beauty, synth-drenched dance party and crunchy nu-metal jackassery. It is, in a word, perfect.
I'd like to give a shout out to Mark Decascos for taking the unenviable task of playing villain to Reeve's stoic hero. Decascos hams it up, playing Zero as a kind of John Wick superfan who has finally been given the opportunity to kill his hero. He can't help but fanboy out inbetween fights. And it is a delight. He is joined by The Raid stand outs and Pencak Silat devotees Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman: they are Zero's Shinobis, and their fight with John is slathered in due respect and murderous intent. Halle Berry also acquits herself well as Sofia, an old acquaintance of John's, partial to her pair of trained attack dogs: she zips along, breaks necks and delivers head-shots with the best of them. Let's hope she sticks around for future films.
The Wickiverse isn't everyone's cup of tea. But this film series does not disappoint its fans. This series proves that you can stick to what you do well and succeed as long as you commit to excellence in that endeavor. If all "simple" films tried this hard, the world would be a better place.Back are the intricately choreographed fight sequences. Characters reload their guns in flashy ways, fight defensively with belts, destroy their environments and find new, brutal methods to break the human body. The stunt crew have outdone themselves, weaving in knife-fights, book fights (yes, BOOK fights), horse fights (YEAH), motorcycle chases, attack dogs, mirrored surfaces, and bullet-proof body armor. The action is electric, and you will find yourself Ooh-ing and Ahh-ing and possibly laughing-out-loud (as I did a number of times) watching it all play out.
Back is the stylish construction that set the Wickiverse apart. Everyone's in a sharp suit; there are splashes of neon light in the background; and the guns are paid a reverent, nigh fetishistic attention and care. And it is all photographed by Dan Laustsen's keen camera. The movie is as gorgeous as it is bone-crushingly brutal.
Back is the mad-cap world of assassins and secret hotels. The creative team has seemingly decided to embrace the idea that the Wickiverse is something akin to a lovechild of a video game and an anime. The world is bonkers with a capital B, and the fight scenes feel like John is the vengeful protagonist of an FPS game on crack. By leaning into these absurdities, however, the film has pardoned its own silliness and given itself permission to reach for the stars. The train left the station three films ago, and if you are still here hoping for some nuanced realism, I have bad news for you. If you find joy in absurd gold coins, intricate coded body tattoos, bizarre codes of honor and dogs with body armor, you have definitely booked passage to the right place. Where the second film expanded the scope of the first, the third film solidified the power structures and many of the players in the world. What we have is enough fodder for a fourth film, and possibly a few spin-offs (the film lingers on a ballerina-in-training with a set of wicked tattoos a bit too long to mean nothing: I would watch Murder Ballerina; they should make Murder Ballerina).
Back is Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richards' odd-ball score. It is equal parts symphonic beauty, synth-drenched dance party and crunchy nu-metal jackassery. It is, in a word, perfect.
I'd like to give a shout out to Mark Decascos for taking the unenviable task of playing villain to Reeve's stoic hero. Decascos hams it up, playing Zero as a kind of John Wick superfan who has finally been given the opportunity to kill his hero. He can't help but fanboy out inbetween fights. And it is a delight. He is joined by The Raid stand outs and Pencak Silat devotees Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman: they are Zero's Shinobis, and their fight with John is slathered in due respect and murderous intent. Halle Berry also acquits herself well as Sofia, an old acquaintance of John's, partial to her pair of trained attack dogs: she zips along, breaks necks and delivers head-shots with the best of them. Let's hope she sticks around for future films.
III. The Devil's in the Details
One of the things that makes these movies work is the attention to minute details in the fight scenes. The characters reload; John has to deduce how to kill the armored High Table thugs; in the antique store knife fight, some of the knives land hilt first and bounce off, while others hit their mark blade first; John fights an adversary underwater, and both men struggle to get close enough for the water-slowed bullets to do their damage; Sofia uses her body as a springboard for one of her dogs to leap onto the roof of an adjacent building. Yes, theses characters are super-humanly tough, but the fight scenes are all imbued with logic and rhythm and clever details. You could watch this movie again and again and pick out new little bits each time. Action movies are fun; action movies that unfold like beautiful deadly flowers each time are a treasure. The Wickiverse is a treasure.
IV. Maybe Too Long
At 130 minutes, this movie sags a bit in between its marquee fight sequences. And it's not like the movie is laden with exposition or long-winded character beats. If you took all of the action sequences out, this film's script might be something like 15 pages. While I am HERE for epic fights and creatively constructed violence, I do think the film could lose somewhere around twenty minutes. Especially when much of the dialogue only serves as prologue to various extended fight sequences.
V. Should You See It?
Miscellany
- Halle Berry broke three ribs during filming.- The Morocco set was plagued by stray cats, and the crew had to go to elaborate lengths to keep the cats out of the shots and away from the stunt dogs.
- The stunt team (and the camera crew, and the stars) worked for five months, on a daily basis, training the dogs to be able to do the stunts correctly.
- In the antique shop, John disassembles an antique revolver and reassembles it from spare parts. This is a direct reference to one of Stahelski's favorite movies, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966).
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