As the title says, John Wick 3: Parabellum is an ultraviolent murderfest. And yes, I absolutely loved it.
If you remember, JW2 ended with John being classified Excommunicado by the High Table. Winston, the manager of The Continental, gave him an hour to prepare. Of course, JW3 picks up within minutes of JW2’s ending, so we jump right in with him on the run. The first several minutes are this visual tennis match of people preparing to go after John and him running. We also see that there are powers way above Winston’s head that are at play too.
However, the real action begins even before the designated hour hits, where the contract for John goes into effect. Someone has to jump the gun, right? This means that at 5 minutes before John is officially Excommunicado, the action starts.
And it doesn’t let up.
While both JW1 and 2 seemed to have more of a story narrative, Parabellum is almost more of a point A to point B kind of thing. He has one mission, to survive. There are a couple steps along the way to achieve that, though. After all, he can’t just keep killing everyone. Eventually he’ll either run out of bullets or be plain worn out.
So he hatches a plan, a plan that involves Halle Berry and her two amazing Belgian Malinois shepherds. I’ll just say this real quick, at 52, Ms. Berry is every bit as much of a badass as Keanu at 54. Hell, I’d watch a movie of her and the dogs.
And let’s talk about those dogs? Adorable, amazing, floofy killing machines! Parabellum is worth it just for the dogs. Berry’s shepherds come off as these highly trained killing machines, while John’s pit bull is just super adorable, the kind of dog you want to curl up on a couch with.
Then there are the horses. There’s the fantastic scene in a horse stable off Central Park. When John does the thing, and then the thing happens, and the bad guys just… die? Frickin’ amazing. (Was that spoiler-free enough for you?)
Like the other two movies, there’s an immense amount of killing, but certainly not gore. If you can stomach a little blood, but not too much, you’re just fine.
John Wick 3: Parabellum is ultimately a man’s best friend kind of movie, about what a person will do for the creature that gives unconditional love and loyalty. There’s a line in the movie that’s in the trailer where the Russian woman asks, “All this for a puppy?” to which John replies, “It wasn’t just a puppy.” While, of course this is true, in the end this is about the dog. It is about how our relationship with them is symbiotic and how they are a part of our families as much as the humans.
I don’t know… in my opinion, a dog is never “just” a dog.
Anyway, if you like movies with lots of guns and action, go see John Wick 3. It’s a damn fine movie.