From “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to any of the “Alien” films directed by Ridley Scott, there are just those films that I get excited for the day they are announced. Sure, there are ones that are the other side of that coin (which I have well documented in my reviews), but when I heard about “John Wick, Chapter 3: Parabellum,” I was pretty excited to see where this story went next.
Chad Stahelski returns again to direct with Keanu Reeves playing the title character joined by others from the films like Laurence Fishburne, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane while adding Angelica Houston, Halle Barry, and Asia Kate Dillon. Taking place right after “Chapter 2” ends, John Wick is about to be labeled “ex communicado” by “The High Table,” the network of assassins he has been a part of as long as we can remember, with a fourteen million dollar bounty on his head. Wick uses all of the resources as his disposal to get across the ocean in search of someone whom even “The High Table” answers to, while a representative known as an Adjudicator (Dillon) works to make those who have helped Wick in the past pay for their actions.
Taking place mostly in New York City and Casablanca, the contrast between the two locations is shown very nicely within the same story. The cinematography also complements the two films that came before it very nicely. My acting shout out really goes to Dillon, who echoes the character she plays in the Showtime series “Billions,” and the robotic-style calculating schemer.
Although this is my least favorite of the three films, that is not to say I did not enjoy “John Wick, Chapter 3: Parabellum”. Continuing the tradition of a ton of action and violence, the fight scenes at the height of the film went on too long for me. It was neat to see some of the assassins give respect to Wick as he fights (literally) his way through the story while they all try to kill him, but it just got to be too much. Even though I have heard that this is the final chapter in the series, do any of us think that will happen? We’ll see, but I will recommend this as a twilight showing in the theater.