John Wick Parabellum

After gunning down a member of the High Table -- the shadowy international assassin's guild -- legendary hit man John Wick finds himself stripped of the organisation's protective services. Now stuck with a $14 million bounty on his head, Wick must fight his way through the streets of New York as he becomes the target of the world's most ruthless killers.

Wow, after 2 hours of a lot of fighting, countless smashed glass panes and a lot of knives I’ve finally experienced the latest film in the John Wick series. I haven’t seen any of the other John Wick films which may put me at a disadvantage in terms of viewing pleasure but there was still plenty to enjoy and think about this film. Not only did it really add a fresh twist to assassin films but it provided 2 hours of really intense and exciting viewing - action/thriller? Does it live up to its genre and expectations? Here are my thoughts.

In short, yes it definitely lived up to expectations in terms of how it matched up to the genre - it did definitely provide a lot of thrills and action throughout the film and it definitely lived up to its action theme. What I really liked about the start of this film though was the theme of mystery, we were lightly introduced to a series of characters but for a really good reason - not only did this keep the characters intense and mysterious but it also allowed us to find out ourselves and really get involved with the character relationships and various models by paying attention and making the assumptions ourselves. This was really powerful because it really made the characters seem mysterious and secretive which really made them seem exciting and interesting and definitely helped to add a lot of excitement and emotion into the film - the characters were kept mysterious for a reason and I thought that it relayed very well to us - in a way that made sure that scenes were exciting because of the mystery surrounding characters and how we slowly found out about the types of characters in the film, this really got us involved in the film and it’s characters very well. I also thought that the film engaged with us as an audience really nicely too, the fight scenes were key to this. Usually in a thriller you expect a few fights but this film was full of various types of fights, from knives to guns to fist fights this film had it all! The fights helped to keep the film interesting too, simply because they helped to keep up the excitement and intensity throughout the film, not only were the fights fast paced but they often included very shocking things (such as the knife in the eye) which really shocks the audience and keeps us from falling asleep!! The fights are nothing without the awesome character interactions though, I thought that they were really well done here, the dialogue really helps to portray how the characters are feeling and their emotions which is expertly relayed to us through violence, seeing the tension and how various characters communicated not only helped to establish the different character types really well but it also helped to keep scenes and dialogue engaging because they felt real and tense, so they always matched the mood well and this just helps to make scenes feel real and immersive. The acting in this film was amazing too, Keanu Reeves a.k.a John Wick is at his best when he’s killing people and adding to the death count like there’s no tomorrow. A very brutal fast-paced killing spree, but it’s entertaining and really exciting to witness how he goes about his business. Not good for kids or underage. For example, he can kills with just a book, literally, and that’s what makes the character so good - right from the very beginning we get a great implication of how powerful he is and then this character helps to take us into scenes knowing what will happen but excited and thrilled to see how. Laurence Fishburne, Ian Mcshane, Mark Dacascos and Halle Berry all give great supporting performances as well though, and the way in which they make their characters seem unique really stood out for me. It continues to successfully build on both John Wick's backstory and the unique world itself.

Not only did the characters feel really good but so so did the plot and the overall movie, I especially liked the really fast-paced theme of the film - it felt like there was always something happening and something going on so there really aren’t any boring or slow parts to this film, some films do that and it’s non stop but here it feels really well done. Of course we can’t not talk about the fight scenes some more though, they were absolutely epic - I loved the way in which they were choreographed because they just seemed to be put together so fluidly with so many twists and turns that kept them really exciting and immersive, they were really well done and I just loved how they all had different themes - again really helping to make them unique and to steer the film away from being boring at all! These scenes are very violent yes, but it works very well in their favour because it means that the film is so engaging and that we are always on edge to see the next gruesome thing that John Wick does and where the next knife is going to go, it genuinely felt like we were on the edge of our seats for the whole film! The actual plot of the film felt really nice though, seeing the timer at the start introduced us to the film nicely and then kept a really exciting countdown type of theme, then the plot of the film turned complex and even though I found it a little confusing - I am 99% sure that is because I haven’t seen the other films but the way in which it truly feels like a mission and a story is really entertaining and simple to follow. The well thought action scenes is what continues to be the driving force for the series, with sometimes up to 10+ mins scenes with pure ass-kicking!! The humour is still one of the film's strong points, with a lot of witty comments from the characters throughout its playtime, which helps to keep the film somewhat upbeat, even though there are bodies all around the building! I thought that the end battle scene was really amazing too, I loved how the various characters were spoken about and then introduced at the end because it built them up and make them exciting and added meaning to the scenes. Then the ending fight scenes were really immersive and exciting to witness because of how the mixture of humour and action was executed, although I’m sure the creators of the film will probably only break even with regards to profits - especially after the number of glass panels they broke!!

This film definitely wasn’t perfect though, my main ‘problem‘ (written like that because it was just for me really) was that as I hadn’t seen the films before a lot of the things didn’t make 100% sense to me so I spent a while trying to work out whether I was just being dumb or whether my lack of experience was affecting the film - it was a shame but to ensure that you enjoy this film to the fullest, you 100% need to watch the previous two films otherwise you will have a similar situation to me. However that is not the film's fault of course, but just in my opinion. I also felt like after a while though, the fight scenes lost a bit of their impact simply because they felt overused and overdone as the film went on, there were so many fights that they just lost a bit of their excitement and fresh value towards the end - even for a thriller. If you come to this for the much-advertised fight choreography or exciting chase scenes, you will be disappointed. We've seen more exciting examples of each many times. There's no new ground here, no stunts in the Tom Cruise sense to speak of. No risks at all.

Also, I will say this as, I hated it when in a fight the guy(s) can kill John they stop and give him another chance to kill them it happens several times and not only did it ruin the fluidity of the fights but it felt criminally unrealistic and poor because it just cut the tension which had been built up for so long right when it could’ve reached a climax. Some parts of the actions felt confusing. One example is when John Wick faces two opponents in the Casablanca alleyway while holding onto one knife attacker to fight the other, the first opponent remains inactive far too long to be unrealistic. It feels like the director compromised with that shot. Another scene in the end fight where two attackers with turtle neck sweater and jacket, both intentionally look similar going up against Wick. Wick kills one of them, but the other never reappears.

Overall, I would give this film an 8. I thought that it did its job of providing action through some great character models and a clearly well thought through storyline which meant that the film was entertaining from start to end, the main drawback for me though was that I didn’t see the previous films before and that left me at a severe disadvantage because there was a lot I didn't really get or understand and even though that’s my fault, I can‘t give the film a better rating because I might have had the same thoughts if I had seen the original 2. Would I recommend this? It’s decent and if you’re into action and excitement then this film definitely won’t disappoint, but if you aren’t then I’d steer clear of this film because it just won’t entertain you - especially if you’re squeamish! Oh, and if you haven’t seen the first two films then definitely don’t watch it until you have, unless you want to miss out on a lot of the storyline.

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this. Have a lovely day! :)