Directed by Chad Stahelski

Starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne

I suppose John Wick Parabellum is good enough to undo the damage done by the despicably boring John Wick 2. The first John Wick was so great because he was the boogey man, and all the ruthless bad guys of the world cowered in fear of him. Then the second John Wick ruined its own mythology, and suddenly everyone forgot who he was, and $7 million was apparently enough to warrant killing yourself. Wave after wave of bad guys shamelessly diving to their deaths against a man they know they cannot kill. Didn’t any of these people see the first movie? Didn’t you just watch Wick murder 400 of your friends? It made NO sense. Plus the first John Wick benefited from a great revenge story involving an adorable puppy. And then the sequel we had…coins. And the Continental. Who gives a fucking shit. The inventive and colorful lighting and camera work from 1 was gone. All that dragged on was ugly and dim and shaky action, so very unwatchable. It ranks as one of the worst sequels I have ever seen. You know what, I’m just gonna go ahead and call it one of the worst sequels ever made. Later entries in stories are supposed to expand upon their lore, hell even just CONTINUE it for god’s sake. Chapter 2 destroyed its own property, and was a boring useless movie all the way through.

But Parabellum is good, although it does suffer from some of the same problems the second movie did. If John Wick 1 is a great movie, and 2 is a useless piece of fucking shit, Parabellum is somewhere in the middle. It picks up right where the 2nd one ended, John on the run from the organization he once retired from. The one he came back to. The one he murdered a member of the High Table of. On the Continental’s grounds.

Is any of this ringing a bell? Didn’t think so. Don’t pay much attention to the story, there isn’t one anymore. Wick’s been excommunicated. That means no more help or services from the people he knows and once worked with. Everyone is out to kill him and anyone who aids him. Now, the bounty is $14 million. Okay. Let’s just ignore he’s the boogey man and run straight to our deaths again. At least the bloodshed is a lot more awesome this time around.

You can turn your thoughts off for this movie, and let the choreography wow you. Wick kills a man with a book in a library, and then has an extended chain of fights with some guys. It involves a lot of knives and maybe is my favorite action set piece in the whole trilogy.

The violence we’ve come to expect from the Wick movies is heavily over the top, veering close to animated levels of gore and blood. Parabellum delivers on those grounds, and makes up for its lackluster storytelling. If you go to this movie just for the action, then you’l be satisfied from the opening scenes alone.

Halle Berry is in this movie. Why? I don’t know. She’s so very hit or miss in all her career. I love her in Cloud Atlas (but I love everything about Cloud Atlas), but here she’s just Halle Berry. But I guess her name’s Sofia, and she has a dark past with John. I do like that it’s only revealed a little in their seated conversation. Her dogs are cool too, and so is the pendant that they use to make those blood pacts. Or favors. Or exchanges. Whatever.

Now I said that this movie has some of the same issues as 2. It does. Parabellum drags into boredom during a couple of its action scenes. Maybe it was 2 or 3 times. But I felt myself zoning out more than once. They just go on way too long sometimes. Hint: it’s right after Jerome Flynn shows up (Bronn from Game of Thrones). Yeah, we get the consequences. This shootout didn’t need to be 15 minutes.

Wick finds himself in the desert. Am I to believe this man he meets is the head of the High Table? Or the Elder above it all? Because I can’t believe it. Unbelievable letdown of a meeting. More stuff to make you care less about what happens. But I like how John pays penance here. And how he pays penance earlier on to another old friend he visits.

Through the movie is the Adjudicator, appearing everywhere to judge the actions of the people who helped John along the way. She’s pretty bad. I wish the filmmakers had done something, anything interesting with this character. But alas, she’s just there. To judge and punish. Don’t care

The movie was directed again by Chad Stahelski, and shares the same writer who has been working on the whole trilogy. One of the best moments in Parabellum comes when an enthusiastic hitman who tries, and very nearly almost kills Wick, is called to stop by a higher authority. As they wait for what happens next on a couch in the Continental, the hitman proudly confesses what an honor it is to meet the infamous John Wick. His inner fanboy comes out, and you realize, he was a fan of Wick’s before he was called to kill him. This is filmmakers acknowledging how awful Chapter 2 was, and is their way of winking at us to say, “see, we remember he’s the boogey man!”. It’s wonderful when artists improve their work by recognizing the mistakes they made. Everyone makes mistakes, the very best know they have, and move on to improve themselves. It is only the worst people alive who think they are above criticism.

Anyway, what does Parabellum even mean? Apparently it’s some type of gun, but is also Latin. A phrase said near the end by Winston, which translates to “prepare for war”. Yeah, sure buddy. The final showdown also goes on forever. And shows a big weakness this franchise has is that John Wick has no arch nemesis. It’s just more wave after wave of mediocre assassins. But sometimes great ones, like the fanboy. And two more dudes who pause in killing Wick to proclaim their adulation, at least one of whom was in the Raid movies.

Parabellum has already smashed at the box office, and in less than a week of release has almost outgrossed both the other two Wick movies (that’s insane). John Wick 4 is coming, it’s already been announced. I hope next time around they find someone scarier than the boogeyman. Or at least can make this so called war more epic. Because this movie ends where it started, but not before going back and forth a couple times, and being slightly different than before. But it’s all good, I love how his pitbull eagerly waits for him in the hotel. And how he runs at the end is too adorable for words. Let’s hope they do away with all these bounties, and rules, and adjudicators. Maybe John can start his own league to counter the High Table. And maybe then we can rid of those fucking coins