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View Full Version : John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (Stahelski)



Milky Joe
05-19-2019, 06:28 AM
No thread for this? Are there not a lot of John Wick fans here?

These are the best action movies of the decade, possibly century. Just absolutely hog-bonkers stuff here.

Halle Berry at 52 is a smokeshow and almost steals the show. Well, her dogs do steal the show.

Scar
05-19-2019, 10:38 PM
Saw this last night. Loved the Hell out of it. I was worried going in that it was going to be too ridiculous. Yeah, ridiculously AWESOME. The whole theater was hooting and laughing and enjoying themselves, (at least the crew of five I was with, with drink in hand).

The steel slug magnums in the shotguns had me hyperventilating.

Milky Joe
05-20-2019, 12:05 AM
That fucking knife fight in the beginning. Absolutely brutal. The whole opening sequence, with the horses. Never seen anything like that before.

Ivan Drago
05-20-2019, 04:34 AM
For a new character, Jason Mantzoukas was given nothing to do and there was one thing about the ending that I couldn't buy. But otherwise, the action sequences were stellar, the sound design was immaculate, and it had more humor than either of the first two movies. This series just gets better and more inventive with its universe in every movie and I love it.

MadMan
05-20-2019, 04:47 AM
John Wick killed a guy with a book. The main enemy he had to fight was a huge fanboy of his haha. Also the ending was a surprise to me somewhat in terms of what happened. I still think the second one is the best in the series, with 3 and 1 being about equal. This is probably my favorite action series right now.

Peng
05-23-2019, 02:16 PM
Least of the JWCU films, even if the franchise’s foundation is so strong that its flaws prove just minor bumps. The goofily grand mythology, previously elevating its spectacular action and John Wick’s character to mythic status so well, somehow gets heavy-footed when it lands in Casablanca. Maybe because instead of getting imaginative and cheeky as in the past two films, the main thrust of this bit of mythology is to get Wick out of last film’s complicated cliffhanger. Even killer dogs can only help things so far when it just feels like plot pieces being moved creakily around, and that somehow affects the New York parts during this section as well.

Thankfully, the entry also contains many series-best set-pieces to compensate (if not the delectably thick atmosphere of Chapter 2, still my favorite), those killer dogs included. Love the glorious opening half hour of John Wick fighting for his life, with a million ways to kill and escape throughout New York (those horses a particular highlight). And just when the Casablanca detour starts to seriously lose me, the Continental works its magic again and brings both action and mythology back to the brutally efficient and blissfully atmospheric beauty of previous chapters. That its worldbuilding also returns to the franchise's simultaneously sincere and tongue-in-cheek tenor, like Wick having to fight his own fanboys, is just the unexpected cherry on top. 7.5/10

Ivan Drago
05-23-2019, 03:45 PM
This is probably my favorite action series right now.

One thing I love about it is it didn't bank on the first one to get its story off the ground, unlike other franchises that teased a trilogy only to start and end with their first movie. Instead, it started out with a movie that stands on its own before expanding its universe and going into a story the filmmakers wanted to tell. That's something more franchises should do, in my opinion.

MadMan
05-25-2019, 08:17 AM
Well perhaps those who made it didn't think it would take off like it did. But yes I agree.

TGM
05-27-2019, 07:49 AM
I liked it better than the second one, though I still feel this series should've been a stand-alone. There's absolutely no plot whatsoever to speak of, the movie is just a series of excuses to have the next big action sequence. I guess the 2nd movie was that way too (I don't know, I honestly barely remember the 2nd movie), and really the only one of these with any sort of real story or characters is the first movie. But unlike the 2nd movie, I never found the action to become boring or tedious this go around, and actually liked the way they continued to find ways to amp things up. Sorta reminded me of a poor-man's The Raid or The Raid 2 in that regard.

Unlike the Raid movies however, like I said, there's almost no plot to be had here at all, and I can't help but feel that the writers find this little assassin world they've built about a million times more interesting than it actually is. It was neat in the first movie, but the further they explore it, really, the dumber the whole thing starts to feel.

I also feel that these sequels really fail to understand the actual character of John Wick, or how he operated in the first movie, and what made him so interesting. He had this whole mystique around him, how he's so un-killable. However, in that movie, we see that he has a lot of help from the shadows that add to that mystique, and which also gets him out of a lot of sticky situations. He actually gets his ass beat A LOT in that first movie, and comes close to death several times over, in a way that's rarely shown in the follow-ups. In the sequels however, he doesn't have that help, and he's just an invincible superman, and everything his legend painted him to be. But that's what was precisely so interesting about Wick in the first one, was that he was shown to be so vulnerable, and not the least bit invincible. There were actual stakes, his life felt like it was in actual danger. That's not the case in the 2 sequels though, he's just exactly what those rumors about him always portrayed him to be, completely invincible, which I can't help to find a hell of a lot more boring than what we were shown in the first movie.

While I would've preferred this to be a stand-alone series, I would've at least liked for it to be a nice concise trilogy if not that. However, the thing that annoys me is that it straight up sets up a fourth movie. Once we reach the last scene, I was like, wait, this is either going to go on for another 20 minutes to wrap things up, or we're seriously about to get sequel-baited here. And sadly, it's the latter that happens, and I can't help but think that this might be it for me. Like I keep repeating, I didn't think the first movie needed a sequel, so needless to say, making this a long-running series doesn't even begin to interest me in the least.

Also kinda peeved about the ending credits. My brother worked on this movie as a rigging technician in the lighting department, and he's even got the credits for his work on IMDB. However, I don't know why, but his name didn't appear in the credits here, so that also kinda put me off. Don't know what that's about. *shrug*

Morris Schæffer
05-30-2019, 09:59 PM
Man gotta say those first 15 minutes were absolutely bathshit crazy. Kinetic, inspired, funny, gory, insanely well choreographed. Theater was going wild. And I thought that was going to be the movie for the next lean and mean 90 minutes. Or at least it fucking should have been. He's ex-communicado, every assassin in NY is coming after him. That was the premise. Buckle up old pal. But nooooooooooo. Suddenly, there's Anjelica Huston, and then there's Halle Berry, and Bronn who gets his cock mangled, and then we're in the fucking desert. and I got the feeling there was a lot of backstory there with some of them, except I couldn't remember shit about any of them. Why does this movie feel this stupid need to stop dead in its tracks and pretend it needs to do some world-building when that kinda stuff is way out of its reach? He's ex-communicado, every assassin in NY is coming after him. That's it! That's the movie. There's nothing more. So why not stick to that?!

The firefight in Casablanca outstayed its welcome by a huge bloody margin too. Worse, there were numerous occassions when Wick could have been taken out. Why do the Motorcycle thugs go after Wick with swords? If they want him dead, just shoot the fucker.

This started out as a simple revenge story about a man whose dog got murdered, any attempt made in this third outing or in the previous one to expand the scope stop this franchise dead in its tracks.

Mal
06-08-2019, 01:35 PM
Mild thumbs down on this. Same complaints as Morris. Do a 90 minute film next time, same structure, and it might be more successful.

Irish
08-25-2019, 08:21 AM
The opening, particularly the bit with the horse in New York City, was inspired.

The rest was a serious chore. As every supporting character vomited useless exposition, I continually wondered whether I was supposed to know what the fuck anyone was talkling about. High Table. Above the Table. Under the Table. Why are these fucking people obsessed with tables? The Brann scene was the worst of these. He talked about the coins as if it's new information for the characters and interesting detail for the audience, but it's neither. It's just shitty worldbuilding because it doesn't add anything to the world.

Watching this movie was like watching a "Let's Play" of some rando FPS, but without player commentary or even the marginal stakes of watching a health meter drop on a HUD. (The scenes with Halle Berry in Morocco were the cinematic equivalent to an escort quest.)

PS: Also, why was every female character a scold? Angelica Huston appears and basically calls Wick an asshole, repeatedly. Halle Berry shows up and basically calls Wick an asshole, repeatedly. Then we have the "adjudicator" character, played by a woman with no screen presence, who fronts like an accountant crossed with Judge Dredd, and whose sole function is to wander this world and talk shit to old favorites from previous films (who are decidedly all male, naturally). What the fuck?

Dukefrukem
08-28-2019, 01:59 AM
This was soooooooo much better than the 2nd movie. How many times have we seen a franchise bounce back after a super mediocre (and arguably bad 2nd outing)?

That opening; for a couple of minutes I thought the whole movie was going to be John going from room to room, set piece to set piece, just killing people for the duration. Library, to a glass case museum, to a stable, to riding on the streets of NYC on a horse next to motorcycles...

I thought the Halle Berry stuff was probably the worst; she goes back and forth to impressing me with her gun play to cringe worthy with some of her hand to hand combat... but that scene worked because of the dogs.

I also don't remember either of the two previous movies looking so gorgeous. Particularly the shots in time square, the set design inside the hotel, the shots of people standing in front of the crematorium and all of the house of mirror stuff at the end. I got a Skyfall vibe.

Grouchy
09-09-2019, 03:48 PM
I agree with the general judgment that it's the worst of the trilogy with some predictable awesome set pieces like the horse riding one. I found the dialogue scenes hilarious, particularly Berry and Bronn's. Everything that comes out of those characters mouths could easily have been replaced with "yada yada yada". They are essentially meaningless breathers until the next action bit kicks in. The cutscenes in the Time Crisis games had more meat in them.