It’s about the atmosphere, not plot – just plop an awesome action star into a delightfully baroque world where seemingly everyone on Earth is a tattooed assassin following arcane sets of rules. At this point, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski (collaborators since Stahelski was Reeves’ stunt double on the Matrix films) have the Wick formula down to a science – put Keanu Reeves in a tattered black suit, throw him in various neon-lit warehouses and nightclubs, put a pistol in his hand and watch him murder dozens, if not hundreds, of people, in the most creatively brutal ways. The plot, as with the prior films, is threadbare and serves only as an excuse to get our rattled protagonist from setpiece to setpiece. The John Wick series might just be some of the best Max Payne movies ever made, and Parabellum is no exception.

In a desperate attempt to survive the night and clear his name, Wick cashes in favors from everyone who might still owe him – from a mysterious mother figure ( Anjelica Huston) to former colleague-turned-manager Sofia ( Halle Berry) who might just be able to lead him to the mysterious leader of the organization.īut this time, Wick’s not the only one in hot water – everyone who helped him, from friend and former handler Winston ( Ian McShane) to the Bowery King ( Laurence Fishburne) who runs the city’s underground network of homeless informants, are targeted for punishment by a mysterious, no-nonsense Adjudicator ( Asia Kate Dillon, offering up some welcome nonbinary representation). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.Ĭhapter 3 picks up immediately after the events of Chapter 2, in which master assassin Wick ( Keanu Reeves) is declared ‘excommunicado’ from the mysterious league of assassins to which he belongs for killing a man on company grounds – no resources, no help, and a $15 million bounty on his head for every enterprising hitman to collect if they can take him down.

It’s also more of the same, but when you’ve perfected the art of on-screen action spectacle, it’s hard to complain. For this, the third chapter in the impossibly bloody, improbably excellent John Wick series, it’s a fitting subtitle – if the first two films felt like physically exhausting rampages through the dark streets of New York City, Chapter 3 feels like all-out war.

“Parabellum” is Latin for ‘prepare for war’ it’s also the alternate name for various German pistols manufactured throughout the 20th century.

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