I really didn't expect to leave a guilty pleasure like John Wick Chapter 3 so conflicted. I thought the first film was decent enough and the sequel seemed to spend way too much time needlessly diving into franchise building mode, with the fight scenes getting a little over the top - but come on, this time around he's fighting motorcycle assassins while riding a fucking horse! So the trailer sold me and I can't deny that despite it's flaws (of which it has many) I left having a really good time and a little embarrassed at how ready I am for the inevitable Chapter 4, even if Parabellum is nothing more than dumb, fun, mindless entertainment.
Before this movie, my fandom for Keanu Reeves pretty much began and ended with Bill and Ted. He's not terrible by any means (unless we're talking about Bram Stoker's Dracula) but I definitely wasn't somebody pining for his return to glory after he disappeared from the spotlight for a bit. I mean honestly, would he even be where he is right now if Will Smith hadn't turned down playing Neo in the Matrix? But this movie made a believer out of me. The dude absolutely owns the role of John Wick and deserves to be considered as one of the best action stars of his era with what he pulled off this time around in these long take fight scenes.
And Chad Stahelski is in ultimate flex mode with the stunts in this movie. They're seemingly endless and yet you can't turn away. Much the way that Mad Max: Fury Road felt like it was essentially just a 2 hour adrenaline fueled car chase - John Wick: Chapter 3 isn't much more than a 2 hour fight scene. Occasionally there's a change of scenery or some different props to mix what John Wick is killing people with - but mostly you're just continually picking your jaw up off of the ground as you watch Wick blast through what has to be close to a hundred assassins in a cacophony of chaos. It's truly something to behold and maybe the most graphic main stream action film this decade.
Which is such a bummer because when the action stops, the movie absolutely can't get out of its own way. The story is so laughably ridiculous and would probably be too flimsy and unrealistic to even support a video game. Ironically it reminded me a lot of the original Mortal Kombat adaptation in that way. The fights were incredible but everything else...not so much. But at least John Wick has the benefit of Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston and Laurence Fishburne giving performances that keep you watching even if the story can't. And Jesus, there are so many moments where the dialogue was more painful to watch than any of the choreographed kills - so you gotta feel for this cast in keeping it from unraveling entirely. They definitely did their part in selling the absurdity on screen when the script fails to.
So with basically the entire entertainment factor of the film being shouldered by drawn out, stylized fight scenes - it's easy to see this film aging about as gracefully as John Wick's dead ass dog. Or for a more apples to oranges comparison point, go ahead and try watching that 1995 Mortal Kombat movie you loved growing up. The sheer redundancy of Wick somersaulting and shooting his way through everyone he comes in contact with for 2 hours will obviously have a huge diminishing impact on the replay value for this movie, especially with Stahelski outdoing himself in each of these outings like he has already.
And yet, with so many reasons to write this franchise off, you can't deny the entertainment value it has. It may be intellectually banal and spiritually hollow, but the technical ability to put together such a massive string of mayhem in such a tantalizing series of events is a visual masterwork all its own. Especially in an era where original concepts are almost exclusively reserved for television and streaming services while ready made franchises and reboots dominate the theaters in droves - John Wick has built itself into its own blockbuster franchise, a feat thought unattainable in the modern era of cinema. And I'm here for it. If these films are this entertaining now, imagine if they actually figure out how to fully flesh out things like characters and dialogue in the next one. Hell, it took them a decade to figure out what to do with the Fast and the Furious franchise so I'm more than willing to give John Wick some leeway on continuing to grow their universe. Plus, what kind of animals will he fight people with in chapter four? A koala bear!? Is John Wick headed to Australia?! Is he going to spank a kangaroo into drop-kicking a henchman into the mouth of a nearby crocodile!? Is Jason Statham signing on as the snarky super villain who takes on John in a ninja sword wielding jet ski showdown on the Great Barrier Reef?! Am I'm gonna go slam a Red Bull and do scissor kicks in the backyard while I listen to Prodigy?!
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