John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum Review

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum escalates the franchise further, and while it delivers on the fun factor, it also may be a bit bloated for its own good.

That was a noticeably shorter plot summary, wasn’t it? But that’s pretty much the gist of this movie. Parabellum wants to give you the goods, and considering the setup, it gets right to business. Secret pasts? World domination? Evil businessmen? No time to discuss that; John Wick has over 100 men to kill, and he has to look stylish while doing so. It’s simple, yet so addicting and clean-cut. That makes these films perfect for visual pleasure.

Unfortunately, this also means I honestly don’t have much to talk about here. And it’s not because the film’s bad. On the contrary, Parabellum is another high-adrenaline action film Keanu has graced us with. Reeves, along with Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, has to be one of my most respected actors in the industry for the sheer dedication he gives into his craft. Admittedly his acting is still a bit in the “whoa” stage, but he more than makes up for that with his stuntwork.

Good stuntwork leads to good action. Everything is caught in a clean frame, with barely any cuts, which only makes it more of a joy to the eyes. And even without any violence, there are so many screensaver worthy moments here, all of them with vibrant color palettes showing neon-soaked streets or sprawling golden deserts. I even caught an homage to the 2017 South Korean film The Villainess, with its motorcycle katana chase. Why are they using katanas on top of a motorcycle, you ask? Are you complaining?

Those looking for more lore would be satisfied here as well. There are ninjas coming after John Wick now. Ninjas. And yet I still took them 100% seriously. This secret high society of killers walks the fine line between utter ludicrousness and complete seriousness, but that’s the fun of it. Its reveals all have a certain amount of style to it that feels consistent with all other aspects of that world.

Unfortunately, in its haste to give us as much action and cool setpieces as possible, the story’s pacing took a bit of a hit. When you sum up the film, not much really happens. John Wick goes on the run, and by the end of the film, he decides to fight back against the hitman society. The film goes for 131 minutes, the second longest runtime in the series, and I don’t know if the level of plot progression warrants that runtime.

And even the action can get a bit excessive. While the gunplay and hand to hand sequences are all great, I was getting a bit tired by the climax, which dragged on a bit too much. It might be because the action sequences are grouped so close together, firing off my dopamine receptors in quick succession, that I get a little worn out eventually. Beauty in simplicity was this franchise’s key, but this movie decided to overdecorate a bit much.

In addition, as much as I praise the stuntwork, I can’t help but feel the movie bit off more than it can chew here. Keanu Reeves was in his 50s when he filmed this, and as much as the man works for his action, his age still shows. He’s noticeably slower in his hand to hand sequences compared to his gunplay. With the previous two movies, it wasn’t a huge problem, as the gunplay was the majority of the action. Here though, there’s a lot more setpieces that get up close and personal, and there are moments where the choreography dips in pacing.

In the wake of the franchise concluding (for now) with John Wick: Chapter 4, I have to say that unfortunately, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is the weakest movie in the franchise. Of course, it is still a great action movie, nothing much more to say about it. But it’s probably the point where the franchise got a little too full of itself, and skirted the line between coolness and pretentiousness. If nothing else, I am glad that the series concluded with the following entry, and didn’t try to drag on like this film almost did.

For now, at least. I hate that I can never truly write off any franchise as concluded these days…

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is now available to watch on digital and on demand. Read our review of The Continental!

Loud and Clear Reviews has an affiliate partnership with Apple, so we receive a share of the revenue from your purchase or streaming of the films when you click on some of the links on this page. This won’t affect how much you pay for them and helps us keep the site free for everyone.