3 out of 5

Directed by: Chad Stahelski

As before, we pick up right where we left off: John (Keanu Reaves) is persona non grata amongst this nation of assassins, or “excommunicado,” and has been granted – by Winston (Ian McShane), who runs the New York Continental – one hour to get himself straight before that excommunication turns into a call to all agents of a $14 million price tag on his head.

While John Wick 2 felt contiguous with the first film – they pair together well, doing similar things, but each with a unique vibe – Parabellum is clearly scaled up from the start, even if it seems to borrow the same trick as 2’s contract call-out: the wide broadcast of the excommunication and the ticking, 60-minute clock gives this third entry an amazingly tense opening, followed by a doubly intense run of every assassin under the sun coming after John. The way it’s stitched together – and that Wick is essentially on the backfoot, just scraping by and picking up wound after wound along the way – makes for one long chase, with director Chad Stahelski and editor Evan Schiff expertly splicing several scuffles atop one another (amidst well-paced breathers), such that we’re roped along, dragged on tenterhooks the entire while. The varying assassins bring with them different disciplines, allowing each fight to have their own flavor, alongside continually inventive settings and lighting. So while John may continually resort to the same head shots and arm locks and throws, it’s all being dressed up in new, exciting ways, and sincerely never flags.

Meanwhile, an “adjudicator” (a rather distractingly stiff Asia Kate Dillon) is out on behalf of “the High Table” – the ruling body over the assassins – and essentially laying down the house rules and doling out punishments to those who’ve assisted John along the way. This stuff treads a line between being a little too cute and leaning into it – again, as with 2, the more this team tries to flesh out the lore, the more unsteady the story becomes – but the kind of scorched Earth approach of the High Table does add to a building sense of stakes for anyone with whom Wick interacts.

Spoiler: John survives this first wave of assassins. And he also makes it to what proved to be his goal: passage to Casablanca, and an old associate, played by Halle Berry. Berry’s character is lightly woven into Wick’s past, and we’re reminded of the more relatively grounded beats that built the Wick framework; this is stronger stuff than the assassin intrigue, and handled more subtly, which is kind of satisfying amidst all the clamor. This interaction builds into the film’s centerpiece: a long battle that brings in a new element (or elements) that I sincerely don’t think I’ve seen employed to this extent, and, for a series filled with insane choreography and action, had my jaw dropping at the spectacle and bravado. That, combined with the ante-up of the lead-in, had me turning a corner on this flick: this is the best one; this is an amazing film.

And then it kind of jumps the shark. Without spoiling, it just feels like the assassin ring stuff is built out of tropes, where once its vagueness made it more intriguing; the way John has to navigate his way through the politics feels very silly, somewhat un-Wick-y, and further pushes us to question what, exactly, John’s motivation is throughout this… requiring our writers (now up to four, not always a great sign) to pony up with some throwaway lines trying to justify exactly that. All to sort of get us back to where we were: more assassins, more chases. But the real “shark” moment came when one such chase went heavy on the CG. Obviously there’s computer enhancing plenty of this the whole while, but JW3 goes in for a motorcycle chase that’s way too video gamey, and ditches the relatively tangible vibe of the fights. Our adjudicator also tries to rope in a big bad villain for Wick to square off against – Zero, played by Mark Dacascos – and it similarly comes across as a forced addition, Dacascos varying between playing the role menacingly or unhinged; in a world of ultimate villains, Zero just never feels like a true factor, especially when only appearing partway through the film.

The flick does claw its way back from shark jumping for part of its final sequences, adding in some fun wrinkles via body armor and a setting filled with glass panes that crack and shatter cinematically, though we kind of cycle through these wrinkles a second time through and… I realized I was beginning to feel a little tired.

On the whole JW3 is absolutely still top tier action, and I’m impressed by how the team has carried this linear story this far along. By exploding the scope of the third movie, it does provide for the thrills to be ratcheted up as well, but this ends up being balanced by some of the series’ shakier aspects also getting more exposure, to the extent that we topple over into some lesser-than moments midway through.