I figured two weeks out from the newest movie in the John Wick series would be a good time to finish my rewatch of the first three movies. As I mentioned in my review of John Wick: Chapter 2 I wasn’t the biggest fan of it initially. That made me put off watching Chapter 3 but once I finally watched it I enjoyed it a great deal. Upon this rewatch I still enjoyed it but I did think it meandered a bit too much. I wouldn’t say that it even drags much because I didn’t feel the 131-minute length much.
The shift for The High Table from being this kind of nebulous organization to being much more of an antagonist is interesting. Seeing how not only the new elements of the world interact with them but also the already established elements of the world do is interesting. Seeing the power structure of the world and the interconnectivity of it is impressive. It very much has the same feel as a comic book.
Asia Kate Dillon is such a fantastic change of antagonist for the series. They have such a poise and screen presence that you can’t help but be worried about what they’re going to do. The detached nature of The Adjudicator is different from the emotional nature of the two previous ones. Mark Dacascos is a lot of fun as Zero, the more direct antagonist for John Wick to deal with. He seems similar to The Adjudicator at first but then there’s a shift where he seems to fanboy when around John Wick. They offer an interesting pairing. Halle Berry gets to flex hard with her time on screen. She gets to have emotional scenes while also getting to kick plenty of ass.
The action scenes are probably the best from the series so far. The stunt team did an absolutely amazing job with all of the different action sequences. The fact that there were multiple sequences that involved animals, and no animals or people were hurt is great. The visual effects for the after effects of the carnage look great. The score by Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard is great. The multiple iterations of the main theme is something I didn’t notice the first time I watched the movie.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a movie that hits the ground running. The amount of worldbuilding that goes into each of these movies is absolutely astonishing. The more that they reveal the more it feels like a comic book, which is what they were going for. This one also had a video gamey feel, especially with the confrontation in The Continental having a wave mode feel. I look forward to what’s going to be revealed in the next movie. Right now you can stream it on Peacock. I give John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum 9 gold coins out of 10.