After languishing for several years with forgettable crud
like 47 Ronin or The Day the Earth Stood Still remake, Keanu Reeves made a hell of a comeback in 2014’s John Wick.
This was the true successor to awesome blood-splattered eighties action revenge
flicks like the Death Wish series—bringing back balls to the wall bullet
spraying viscera with distinctive and elegant neon-lit style. Keanu started
going the action route in the early nineties with the likes of Point Break and
Speed, tripping up sometimes with cheesefests like Johnny Mnemonic, and rising
to a respected gun-toting star in the Matrix. This series cemented him for good
as a true action icon alongside the likes of Willis, Arnold, and Eastwood.
The first film was a fairly straightforward story of Keanu’s
ultimate hitman in a revenge war against the Russian Mafia, with a wider
universe of assassin societies and tradition-bound underworlds implied. The
second went deeper into this aspect, with plot points about blood oath
medallions, Laurence Fishburne as the king of New York’s homeless, and power
struggles afoot. It began to stray into the fantastical, with these rituals and
pacts becoming ever more arcane and elaborate, but that slick skull-popping
action remained on point, and by now, that’s what everyone was here for.
So, the question is, does the abruptly subtitled third
chapter, Parabellum, live up to all that?
Starting right where the last one left off, it sure as hell
doesn’t dick around. Five minutes in, Keanu is smashing faces against tables,
stumbling across the magenta and purple hued billboard-lit New York streets,
smashing in more faces, and that’s all before he gets his guns back. The film
knows exactly what the audience ones and deals it straight up—assassins come in
left and right, and Wick retaliates with just about everything, from vehicles
to horses to axes. Compared to dusty, incomprehensibly edited, repetitive
shakeycam crap that represents lesser contemporary action films (like all the
ones starring Gerald Butler), this one keeps it constantly fresh, smooth, and
dynamic. Mwah.
The style is slick enough that you don’t really notice all
the oddities that come from thinking about it too hard, like why Wick doesn’t
even bother with a change of clothes despite all the hitmen in the world after
him, or why nobody notices dead bodies falling in public transport hubs.
Considering we get deliciously stylized duels in literal art installations, I
guess you’re not really supposed to either.
Performances are solid here, with Keanu’s stoic act
perfected, and even Halle Berry shows up for a surprisingly intense performance
that makes you completely forget Die Another Day even happened. Asia Kate
Dillon is the closest thing to an overarching antagonist for this one, backed
up by a clan of sushi chef ninjas (yes, that’s basically what they are), and sells
the part of a criminal representative that simply gives no fucks. And
Fishburne, despite his short screen time, is memorable as always—let’s just say
Neo and Morpheus might be having a reunion.
Oh, and Indonesian ass-kicker Yayan Ruhain, aka Mad Dog from
The Raid, another balls to the wall bullet-spraying modern action classic, also
shows up. There’s some slightly meta touches to him going up against Wick, but
it doesn’t disappoint. A few other references, visual or otherwise, are
sprinkled in throughout, be it a motorcycle chase with shades of Akira, to a
less than subtle one to Keanu’s certain famous leatherbound role.
If there’s one thing to critique, however, is that I sort of
miss the more personal focus of the first film—Wick’s character felt its most
powerful there, for me, in the sense that you really felt his struggle, you got into
his conflict with the interconnected antagonists, and you had a sense for him
as a person. I was sold on him being conflicted and driven, fighting to
preserve what he has of his humanity while sinking back into his violence-strewn
past. They do have token nods here to his past and motivation, and we get more
pieces of his backstory, but while the action is ever more satisfying and
meaty, I do hope for just a little more of Keanu giving us raw character to
truly round it out.
All in all, Parabellum still gives you what everyone expects
from the series now, even if the story is slightly flimsier. You’ll grin, wince,
and grin some more—and let’s just say the story isn’t ending here. Some might
not like the resolution keeping itself open, but everything in between still
gives some fine limb-chopping, glass shattering, spent casing dropping
spectacle. Dust off your bulletproof suit and give it a shot. And forget not the real message: never mess with a guy's puppy.
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