When a film reaches its third entry and seems to have no intention of stopping, you have moved beyond cult appeal into franchise territory. This is not always a bad thing, and in the case of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, it was an amazing step in the right direction for Chad Stahelski. With the most recent entry being Chapter 4 and a supposed Chapter 5 on the horizon, it is interesting that Chapter 3 is the only one with a subtitle.
Keanu Reeves returns for the third entry as the title character, who has been granted a one-hour reprieve before his excommunication from the world of The Table is in effect. With little time to spare and few allies to count on, John must make his way through a city of assassins hiding in plain sight to secure his safe passage and keep his life. As we have come to expect from a John Wick film, numerous bodies litter the streets of New York before an hour has passed.
The world of John Wick grows richer in Parabellum as we explore more about the Table and the power that sits above it. The first film laid the groundwork for the world below the Table, the second film introduced successive members of the Table, and this film brought to us the one who sits above the Table, in the form of the Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui), who John is informed to be the only person who can possibly wipe his slate clean. Parabellum spends its runtime propelling John Wick towards that fateful meeting, with countless foes standing in between him and the Elder, many of whom are sent by the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillion). Much like their actor, the Adjudicator is presented as nonbinary – or, at the very least, no gender is clearly defined by pronouns save for them and them. Their role in the world of the Table is maintaining order or ensuring that others do it for them. When Winston Scott (Ian McShane) proves unwilling to do it for them, they dispatch their own muscle: Zero (Mark Dacascos).
Much like I espoused in my previous reviews and will undoubtedly espouse in the next (and currently final) entry, the world of John Wick is vibrant despite its air of mystique. The series does not feel the need or inclination to explain more than it has to at any given moment. So far, we know very little about the twelve people who sit at the High Table other than the fact that they lead some of the most dangerous criminal organizations in our world. For that reason, whenever the head of an organization is introduced, I immediately wonder if they are a member of the High Table Council or just another associated criminal organization. There may come a day when we know which organizations make it up and who sits on their respective seats until John Wick puts a bullet in them (or multiple), but today is not that day.
The major new characters of Parabellum are the Director (Angelica Houston), who leads the Ruska Roma, the organization that John Wick was a member of before he broke away for his late wife, Helen (Bridget Moynahan).
When John is desperate for any kind of assistance to make his way across the ocean to search for a way out of his predicament, she is who he goes to. The Director is presented as a strict ballet matron who trains young girls and boys in the art of ballet and sambo to produce a new generation of John Wicks. She trains them to the point of breaking and then pushes them past it with an expectation of beautiful perfection. Despite agreeing with the Table, the Director agrees to aid John Wick by tearing his ticket and granting him safe passage to Europe – though she suffers the consequences for it later, much like the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne).
Zero, as mentioned earlier, acts as the Adjudicator’s main muscle. He is an extreme fan of John Wick and his work, though he doesn’t let it get in the way of his attempts to kill John. He just considers it an honor to be the one to kill John. Zero leads his students on a hunt across New York to take down John Wick, but they don’t pursue him when he ends up in Casablanca, as they are all certain that he will return eventually to face them in battle.
Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian play the Shinobi, Zero’s chief disciples and the only men to go up against John thus far, whom he allows to leave with their lives. All three of them give John a tough time, proving to be capable combatants with blades and their bare fists across the film.
The Adjudicator is similar to Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) in that they are a noncombatant, yet still the driving antagonist of their film. Both of them are in stark contrast to Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), the overarching antagonist from the first film, who went down fighting (unlike his son, Iosef – played by Alfie Allen). What they lack in personal combat ability, they make up in resources. While the Continental hotels seem to be on their own regarding security, the Adjudicator launches multiple waves of men and women to hunt down John Wick, Winston, and Charon (Lance Reddick). They also make it clear that, while John and his allies might survive the next wave and the next, they can’t kill everybody that the Table sends at them, which leads to a treatise that alters the direction of the final act.
Finally, for the new major characters, we have Sofia Al-Azwar (Halle Berry), the manager of the Moroccan Continental in Casablanca, and despite being willing to torment John, he owes him a marker much like he did Santino. In the past, John helped to protect Sofia’s child, and this life-saving help is why she offers to broker a meeting between John and Berrada, who is in charge of minting the coins that those who move in the world of the Table use as currency. She raises Belgian Malinois as her companions, Lerna and Orthrus, and, like John before her, when one of them is threatened, all bets are off no matter how much power or backup you have.
Halle Berry may have only appeared in the second act, but she makes her presence memorable. She is fierce, loyal, witty, and sarcastic – and at no point should one mistake any action she takes not to be in her best interest.
Her dogs are an extension of her – they fight alongside her, they fiercely defend her, and they are expertly execute every order that she gives. When they’re threatened, the gloves come off. It’s a reminder of why John is in all of this in the first place and the primary reason she goes as far for him as she does: marker be damned. By the time they split up, one hopes they can pair back up and take on the crushing weight of the world they are in, all to make their lives just a little bit better. Alas, Sofia doesn’t rejoin him. Perhaps in a prospective fifth film.
This entry is one long journey for John to survive the chaotic world he had attempted to leave behind for love. But, those who encircle the Table, whether above, below, or at level, refuse to let him out despite how much simpler it would be for them. Certainly, many of them would have lived longer lives if they had just left him alone. This brings us to the main theme of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the cycle of revenge, and the cycle of assistance. These wheels are constantly turning, and while the consequences that come from them are not always equal, they are damn near realistic. For each character’s individual motive, their fate seems predetermined. Only time will tell if that is the case for everybody in this hellish world of assassination and intrigue.
Like its predecessors, the fight choreography is grandiose but always on point and never fails to be brutal with vicious speed. We watch men on motorcycles attempt to cut John down with blades; all the while, he must fight back in kind. A violinist attempts to garrote him, an especially eager knife-wielding assassin who goes after John before his time is even up, and teams of assassins who would all like to be the ones to claim his head. And that’s just in the first twenty minutes. John is not especially kind in dispatching them and uses whatever he can to dispose of them. One can only hope that every entry ups the ante like so.
Lloydd Marshall Books 