Burning the wick
Third time is definitely not the charm
They say third time’s the charm. But that presupposes the first two weren’t charms already. Case in point: John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, whose subtitle is the second half of an old Latin proverb, “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Though John Wick does a lot more than prepare.
The first two John Wick movies, basically about Keanu Reeves’ character out for blood after some thug killed his dog, were violent but winkingly so, with moments of farcical humour, like a guy getting shot by a second person while playing a first-person shooter. Half punch, half punchline, all charm.
This one starts out in a similar vein — a jugular vein, if you will. John Wick has been excommunicated from the worldwide guild of assassins for all that
mayhem in Chapter 2, and has a $14-million bounty placed on his head. This bureaucratic decision requires all manner of analogue toys: rotary phones, file cabinets, rubber stamps, tickertape — everything short of pneumatic tubes and one of those big map tables with croupier sticks.
Open season on John Wick turns out to be pretty fun. Come at him in a public library and he’ll throw the book at you, shushing you for good. Pull a knife and he’ll pull one out of you — he just stabbed you before you knew it — and plunge it back in again. Go after him on motorcycles and he’ll defeat your 70 horsepower with just one. This is not a man to be trifled with, though $14 million invites triflers to trife their best.
Alas, it all starts falling apart about 30 minutes into the movie’s two-plus hours. I’m not even sure why. Former Reeves stunt double turned director Chad Stahelski is back at the helm, and Derek Kolstad returns as scriptwriter, although he’s got three accomplices this time. But about the same time Wick goes to see an old comrade named Sofia (Halle Berry, answering the question: Where is she now?), the movie seems to decide that all we really want is to watch him shoot people in the head at close range. Where’s the fun in that?
And for all the chin-wagging about “rules and consequences,” people in Wick’s circle seem pretty eager to give him second, third and fourth chances. These include Ian McShane as the manager of a hotel for assassins (don’t complain about the noise coming from room 235 if you know what’s good for you), Lance Reddick as his aide-de-camp, Anjelica Huston as a Belorussian power broker with a thing for ballet, Mark Dacascos as Wick’s nemesis and also No. 1 fan, and many more.
About the only one not giving an inch is the unnamed Adjudicator, played by Asia Kate Dillon, who forces Wick to seek an even higher power by literally following the advice to “walk through the desert until you are almost dead, then keep walking.” This he does, ending up cauterized, branded, punctured, dehydrated and at one point left for dead.
After the giddiness that was John Wick: Chapter 2, I was excited to see what badassery Reeves and his team would pull off this time. But by the saggy middle of Parabellum — which should really be two words, by the way — I was prepared to let the series go. Third time’s the harm.