Action cinema that ranks well against others in its class; but can it offer more than a chase movie?
The third instalment of John Wick 3 sees the return of Keanu Reeves as John Wick in a rabid, action packed movie that has, for me, a lot of nostalgic nods to the past 25+ years action movies.
One can see care has been taken care of in the filming and framing of shots and how the camera allows the audience to digest the fight and gun sequences, lessons have clearly been learned from Hong Kong action cinema of the 90s right through to the mistakes made by other “modern” Hollywood movies where shaky cam hides or masks the action.
Whether its a motorcycle scene that pays homage to a similar sequence to the South Korean action-movie, The Villainess; or whether its fight and gun sequences that nod to other movies, John Wick 3 not only knows where it sits against these other movies; but also on whose shoulders it sits upon.
In this third instalment, John Wick is considered “excommunicado” and is now on the run, with nearly every assassin in the game looking to collect the bounty.
In this chase, Wick escapes to Morrocco where he meets Halle Berry’s character, in the hope of being connected to a high table insider who he can bargain his penance back into the society that bore him.
Later, Wick returns to New York only to find the high table have decided to settle debts themselves, and wants to ensure those who break the rules must die; even if its Wick’s “friends”.
In this movie, the action is fast, brutal; but crucially, allows the viewer to see the full gamut of what is going on. Geographically, the place where people and even dogs are within the scene are given great care to ensure the audience is not lost or confused as to what is happening, and where everybody is.
As a chase movie, it allows Wick to try both political and then, war avenues as a means to get what he wants.
Although I must admit; upon reflection – I don’t really understand why he went all the way to Morocco only to come straight back. I’m sure it served some purpose; but it did feel a bit bloated. I’m not even sure what the inclusion of Halle Berry adds to this movie. Its good to see Wick have friends, but for me; Wick is better when he’s alone.
I found the ideas of free will, or duty; and the choices people took in respect of free will vs duty seemed very interesting.
Beyond this, I was very happy to see Mark Dacascos back on the big screen; he’s certainly deserved it. I remember seeing him in Drive and Crying Freeman back in the day. Well done on getting him back to the big screen.
Also I was happy to see a place for the main enemies from the Raid series in this movie; they were a wonderful addition, and again – were great to see on the big screen again.
Finally, with all the training and the effort made in this movie I wonder if the end titles should have ended with a film reel of their training (Jackie Chan style) to give impact to the audience of how much effort was put into the movie.
I’m not sure where else they go with John Wick; in places it seemed to push credulity to the maximum, other times it seemed to try to give Wick too many outs.
Maybe they’ll put Wick in his black suit against snow commandos in the snow, or something equally weird. Regardless, I’m interested in seeing where they will take it.
One only hopes they will convince Chow Yun Fat to come back to action for one last hurrah.
I did enjoy the movie; despite a bit of bloat here and there. I think its a very good action movie and certainly worth watching either as part of the original series or by itself.
Overall: 8.5/10