JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM
US, 2019, 130 minutes, Colour.
Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian Mc Shane, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Tobias Segel, Anjelica Houston, Said Taghmaoui.
Directed by Chad Stahelski.
This is one of those screen franchises that took off, perhaps unexpectedly, from the first John Wick film, and, one might say, the resurrection of the career of Keanu Reeves. Then the sequel was more successful and might have been expected. And, for the devotees of John Wick, this chapter 3 has proven to be all that they wanted.
It seemed best to consult the meaning of Parabellum with reference to the title. It means preparation for war – and, is also suggested, that for those who want peace there is a necessary preparation for war. To that extent, this chapter 3 is definitely the preparation, practice one might say in attack, killing, defence, strategies, for an upcoming chapter 4. With the car final confrontation in this film and the taking of sides, the film just stops, knowing that the fans will be demanding a sequel and a conclusion.
For those not in the know, coming in to see this film could be quite a shock. A quick summary might say that it is a collection of many episodes of fights and killings, a great number of killings (in the Casablanca episode, quite a diminishment of the population). For those who have not experienced John Wick before, this is 130 minutes of brutality, graphically choreographed, almost like a summary manual of how to kill, with physical strength and manoeuvres, with guns, knives, and, particularly striking open(literally for the victims) horses bucking their back legs.
For those who would find this too brutal, it is an almost unrelieved succession of fights to the deaths – with some moments of relief with Tchaikovsky and Nutcracker ballet.
It is interesting to note that one of the words that recurs throughout the film, not a word that one uses frequently in real life, these days, is fealty. There is a high table of international criminal authority, subsidiary action “under the table�, and an unyielding demand for fealty to the authorities. (One hopes of this kind of international organisation, was an extraordinary Wall Street -like Central bureau with charts for million-dollar bounties on enemies, and especially those members who are now “excommunicated a�.
John Wick is being chased, has a deadline before he becomes excommunicated, makes contact with supportive connections, is condemned, $14 million bounty, and, before you know it, he is in Casablanca confronting Halle Berry, then rescued from Saharan dunes, back to the US – and generally wearing the same suit and tie all the time!. Kiana Reeves has never been noted for being an articulate actor – which suits his one-note, multi-physical manoeuvres, screen presence as John Wick.
Exciting for some, monotonous for others, action-packed for some, brutal for others, tense plot for some, an absurd story for others.
