JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM Review

It's been five years in real time, but in the life of John Wick (the entirely endearing Keanu Reeves) the man has had one hell of a month - if that. From losing his wife to losing the puppy his wife bought him to killing the son of the mob boss that killed his dog and stole his car leading him back into a life he only thought he'd left behind. In this ill-fated scenario, Mr. Wick found himself dealing with more and more repercussions of his actions to the point that at the end of the second film he was so filled with rage that he would seemingly never be able to forgive anyone who dared cross him again...much less himself for having allowed his life to slip back into these old routines. So filled with rage, in fact, that he broke the only rules he'd ever had to follow thus forcing the hand of his powerful friend, Winston (Ian McShane), the owner of the grounds on which Wick had broken said rules of the league of extraordinary assassins that he was assigned the label of "excommunicado" therefore placing a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail. These are the kinds of things that happen when one kills a member of a shadowy international assassin's guild though, not to mention a member who was seated at what is referred to as the "High Table". John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum begins with the stakes as high as they've ever been-even Wick's closest friends are unable to look past the bounty in order to give this broken man another chance. It is in this scenario and current mental state the character inhabits that make it fairly critical to have seen the previous films in director Chad Stehelski's now trilogy of films. Parabellum kind of assumes we're present in the theater because we're already invested in the character and then moves forward with such a momentum that there's little time to catch-up if you're not already in it. That said, the pacing is not just an excuse to continually grow the breakneck speed of the action as well as the scope, but is more a stylistic choice that every function of the script adheres to and if the John Wick trilogy has done one thing consistently it's adhere to stylistic choices. As the series has progressed more layers have been added, but never have these brought the story, character development, or action beats down. Rather, each of these elements necessary to making a feature motion picture are held to the same standards the action is. That isn't to say the dialogue is as Shakespearian as the action, but does it function so as to effectively elicit the intended visceral reaction of the audience? Damn straight.

First Trailer for JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM

The third entry in Keanu Reeves' latest franchise, John Wick, that began as a humble one-off revenge thriller in 2014 with little to no aspirations has (finally) released its first full trailer and this neon-soaked barrage of violence and fine tailoring couldn't look more badass. John Wick: Chapter 3 or Parabellum as it has now been subtitled will follow the events of Chapter 2 in allowing audiences to witness the "excommunicado” of its titular assassin as he is now a wanted man by the entire criminal underworld, but without the safe haven of places like The Continental to escape to. While it looks as if much of this latest film will see Wick on the run, eluding and deflecting those with balls big enough to try and claim the bounty on his head it also looks as if director Chad Stahelski (who co-directed the first film, but went solo on the sequel), directing a script from Derek Kolstad, will be introducing plenty of new faces-not least of all a character played by Halle Berry. While Berry hasn't exactly spurned the promising beginnings of her career into one of widely adored projects or a franchise or character that has catapulted her to insane levels of fame, she seems right at home in this world of Wick and given she seems to essentially be teaming up with Reeves I can only hope the chemistry and banter between them is as good as I might venture to guess; the touch of her having a pair of attack dogs isn't bad either. Of course, what most come to the John Wick franchise for is the action and it would be hard to blame them as both the aesthetic of the film in general and the look of the many large action sequences here look to be downright striking. Taking place mostly at night, with lots of moody rain we see Wick chase sword-wielding motor cyclists on a horse in a chase sequence I can't imagine will be anything less than bonkers while Wick also seems to have figured out a way to make even reading lethal. Needless to say, this looks to be exactly what any sequel to that 2014 original would promise itself to be. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum once again reunites Reeves with his Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne, with other newcomers including Anjelica Huston, Jason Mantzoukas, Hiroyuki Sanada, Robin Lord Taylor, Tiger Hu Chen, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman, while Ian McShane,  Lance Reddick, Common, and Ruby Rose all return when the film opens on May 17th, 2019.