EXCOMMUNICADO: a review of "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum"

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3-PARABELLUM"
Based upon characters created by Derek Kolstad
Story by Derek Kolstad
Screenplay Written by Dreek Kolstad and Shay Hatten and Chris Collins & Marc Abrams
Directed by Chad Stahelski
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
RATED R

What is it about or cultural relationship with violence that speaks to us as a society? What are we alleviating or even exorcising within ourselves when we watch? And for how much pop culture violence is utilized as a scapegoat for horrific acts of real world violence, we continue to experience and consume.

I have always been able to draw that line between the real and the fantasy regarding violence and I am not one to use movie violence, for instance as that aforementioned scapegoat. But, as I get older, I do wonder if there is something that is touching some deep nerves when exceedingly violent films do arrive into the world. Frankly, is it a reflection of our cultural anxieties or are we numbing ourselves, providing a release or some combination of all and even more?

The continuing and increasingly successful "John Wick" film series is something that has confounded me. Essentially a collection of highly stylized grindhouse pictures with scant dialogue and a ferociously, furiously paced onslaught of killing and mayhem has captured the excitement of audiences to an escalating degree and I cannot help but to wonder precisely why. I can speculate, of course, especially as we are all engulfed in anxiety ridden times, desperately in need of some sense of absolution. Or maybe I am just over-analyzing and audiences are just enthralled and entertained by a good shoot-em-up...something I thoroughly enjoy from time to time.

Whatever the reasons, former stuntman turned Director Chad Stahelski's "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum," is unquestionably the series' highest point to date. A spectacular opera of brilliantly, beautifully orchestrated ultraviolence that firmly owes its existence to the films of Sergio Leone, Walter Hill, John Woo, '70's Asian cinema and undeniably Quentin Tarantino's orgiastic "Kill Bill: Volume 1" (2003) while carving its own brutal, bloody path forwards in grandly outrageous style.

For something I would normally question would be desensitizing due to its excesses, Stahelski has delivered a work that is exhilarating, and even hysterical, as it is clearly not taking itself too seriously. And with Keanu Reeves, now at the age of 55 (!), more formidable and engaging than ever, I was enormously entertained, excited and filled with explosive bouts of exclamations and even laughter from one end to the other. In a way, this thing has to be seen to be believed!

Opening nearly one hour after the events of "John Wick: Chapter 2" (2017), out titular anti-hero, ex-assassin and reluctant killing machine adorned with the impeccably tailored suits (again played by Keanu Reeves) is a marked man after his unsanctioned killing of a crime lord in consecrated Continental Hotel. Now declared "ex-communicado" and with a newly placed $14 million bounty on his head, John Wick is on the run from what feels like an entire world of assassins, all wishing to kill him and collect the fortune.

Wick's relentless escape plans lead him first to The Director (Angelica Huston) and then all the way to Casablanca, where he is reunited with ex -assassin Sofia (Halle Berry) as he seeks aid to to  having his bounty waived and his life spared.

Meanwhile back in New York, we meet The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon), a member of the High Table syndicate, who confronts both Continental Hotel manager Winston (Ian McShane) as well as The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) to admonish them both for aiding Wick in the previous film and to also  inform them to each settle their affairs, leave their respective posts or suffer the consequences within seven days. She also hires the services of Zero (Mark Dacasscos), a Japanese assassin ready to enforce the will of the High Table.

Now, it is funny because just today, a friend of mine asked me if "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum" was any different than the previous two installments, to which I began laughing and exclaimed, "Well...not really!" On second thought, that answer is not quite entirely true.

Yes, what we have is a third installment of Keanu Reeves' reluctant killing machine killing absolutely everyone in his path, making a character who continues to live up to the reputation set by the first film when John Wick is referred to as not being The Boogeyman but is in actuality, the man who is able to hunt down and kill The Boogeyman. In some respects you are receiving more of the same and in other ways, not at all.

What Chad Stahelski has miraculously accomplished with each installment is to take this bare bones revenge story and somehow broaden and deepen its own mythology to where the proceedings are indeed becoming gradually more mythic in tone while also remaining gritty to the point of bone crunching.

Again, Stahelski does not load his film downwards with extraneous dialogue, thus making the films more visual, and therefore, visceral experiences. In short the excessive fight sequences are the story and in the case of "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum," we have a film where the constant carnage is in actuality a story about existential crisis and the elusive nature of redemption, for can John Wick's soul ever find relief after all of lives he has taken and does he deserve to find peace anyway?

Perhaps John Wick is destined to claw, fight and kill his way through life even though, by this stage, his soul is constantly being eroded. By adding this conceptual layer, Stahelski has ensured his series, and this film in particular, provides more than just mindless violence, the amount of which is more than considerable.

As you can gather, have you not seen any of these films, "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum" is excessively violent and more than earns its hard R rating. Even so, I never felt that what was presented was gratuitous and that had everything to do with Stahelski's cinematic vision which only continues to expand with each new installment.

In addition to all of the previously stated influences I felt clearly inspired this film, I also think this time around Stahelski has added nothing less than Ridley Scott's still influential and unquestionably iconic "Blade Runner" (1982) into the mix. "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum" is a film that is flying more into the slightly surreal, or at least, it is even more artistically stylized than the previous two installments, as the constant rain soaked neon streets indicated to my sensibilities. Trust me, the film looks absolutely gorgeous from end to end. It is remarkably opulent despite the enormous blood flow.

To that end, there are all of the action and fight sequences themselves and they are all absolutely staggering to behold. Remember, Keanu Reeves is providing most of his own stunt work again and to be able to witness the sheer physicality and agility of Reeves, Halle Berry plus all of his/their opponents in one beautifully choreographed and brilliantly executed fight sequence after another after another after another is astounding.

Just the film's first 30 minutes or so alone are more than worth the price of admission as we regard Wick fight his way out of New York (a battle with all manner of knives and sharp objects of destruction is especially jaw dropping). A later sequence featuring a motorcycle riding Wick fighting a squad of assassin motorcyclists brandishing swords equally astonishing. And the entire feral vibe, when it is working at its peak, feels like the closest thing to George Miller's rampaging "Mad Max" series, ending with a stellar cliffhanger that makes me more than ready for "Chapter 4" (which is due to arrive in 2021). 

I suppose another reason why a film series this violent has earned this much affection is that the filmmakers are clearly enjoying themselves with trying to devise how precisely to wow and excite audiences as well as themselves. Every fight sequence is beautifully staged and filmed in a series of long, unedited takes, completely unlike what we usually see with our ADD editing techniques, all of which become visually bludgeoning and even deceptive as we always miss the story of the fights themselves.

Stahelski avoids all of those considerable trappings as he has devised of fight sequences, chases and shoot-outs that could almost work as movie musical numbers. Yes, it is overwhelming but in a way, it all feels so fitting that is so over the top. And that is because, I have this feeling that the "John Wick" series is more self-aware than it may at first seem. In fact, it is practically gleeful, therefore giving the film an added layer of fun as well as diffusing the effect of the violence to a degree.

How can you not see Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves together and think of The Wachowski brothers' "The Matrix Trilogy" (1999/2003)? I also wonder if Fishburne's rooftop aviary dwelling Bowery King is at all a nod to Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai" (1999). "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum" is a movie that seems to know that it is a movie or is also just in  love with certain film styles and genres and here they all are lovingly displayed and honored...even as the blood is flowing and splattering all over the screen.

Chad Stahelski's "John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum," easily the best episode yet in this series, is an action film triumph filled with an imagination, invention and inspiration that is as intense as it is also insane. And as for Keanu Reeves, I wonder how he would feel if having his John Wick take on Tom Cruise, who is also 55 and insistently performs most of his own stunts as Ethan Hunt in his "Mission: Impossible" series. 

Wouldn't that be something???