John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

“Parabellum marks the most diverse entry into the John Wick franchise yet.”

Title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
Director: Chad Stahelski 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Derek Kolstad 👨🏼🇺🇸, Shay Hatten 👨🏼🇺🇸, Chris Collins 👨🏼🇺🇸, and Marc Abrams 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Robert Daniels 👨🏾🇺🇸

Note: This review was commissioned by Lionsgate. The content and methodology remain 100% independent and in line with Mediaversity's non-commissioned reviews.

Technical: 5/5

Typically, with each successive sequel, franchises slowly lose their winning punch. The John Wick series, which tracks a recently un-retired legendary assassin, however, breaks the mold. Chad Stahelski returns as director for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, resulting in a crowd-pleasing action flick less reliant on gunplay, and more on continued world building.

Stahelski introduces this new installment by picking up where 2017’s Chapter 2 left off. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) had broken the rules when he murdered the High Table crime lord Santino D'Antonio on the Continental Hotel’s neutral ground. As punishment, the powers that be have now labeled the contract killer “excommunicado,” placing a large bounty on his head for any hired gun to claim. In the John Wick universe, where everyone in Manhattan—from sushi chefs to the houseless to surgeons and cab drivers—could be Wick’s executioner, that amounts to a whole lotta deadly obstacles for our protagonist. His one Hail Mary amounts to him reaching the New York Public Library where he’d stashed a ticket that will grant him safe passage.

In Parabellum’s elaborate opening, Stahelski fully establishes this chapter’s new visceral tone through set pieces that might easily be summarized as “the many ways a person can inflict pain without a gun.” Wick’s strategies include breaking an individual’s neck over a Russian tome; whipping daggers and axes at assailants; using a horse’s kick to exact blunt-force trauma; and good old fashioned hand-to-hand combat. Stahelski, with the aid of Evan Schiff’s fluid editing, retains the signature clarity associated with the prior films. Their stitching of shots fashions easy-to-follow fights that do not lose steam from any unnecessary breaks in tempo.

With Parabellum, Stahelski not only evolves from gunplay, but further develops Wick’s circle, too. The hired gun calls on favors, starting with a Russian ballerina director (Anjelica Huston) and ending with a Moroccan frenemy in a globetrotting adventure whose arduous path is wracked by hitmen lurking around every corner. On all fronts, the bone-crunching thrills Parabellum provides, from its wide canvas to Reeves’ further established comfort in the character, translates into a new inventive high for Stahelski’s franchise.

Gender: 3.75/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

In a genre where women remain an infrequent commodity, the John Wick universe offers a rare exception. It’s true, some in the trilogy do exist on the margins, such as the tattooed pinup secretaries who occupy the underworld’s massive call center. But strong assassins with outsized roles also appear in the franchise, such as Ms. Perkins (Adrianne Palicki) and Ares (Ruby Rose). Parabellum not only continues this tradition, but takes the trend one step forward with the appearance of Sofia (Halle Berry).

We first meet her because Wick requires an audience with the sociopathic gold forger Berrada (Jerome Flynn) and he needs Sofia to mediate this consultation. But unlike previous women in the series, Sofia represents more than just a plot point. Instead, writers build out a backstory and motivations. The only reason Sofia agrees to help Wick is to repay a blood oath she made to him years ago, after he saved her daughter. The heartbroken Sofia, however, doesn’t know the whereabouts of her own child and the film spends time exploring that thread to great effect. At the end of the day, though, no supporting character in a John Wick film would be complete without a stylish aptitude for killing.

In addition to being a woman in a position of power—she helms the Moroccan Continental—Sofia features a unique fighting style that expresses her inner rage. She doesn’t just fight with her fists and guns, but with her two bloodthirsty Belgian Malinois dressed in bulletproof vests. So when the rendezvous with Berrada inevitably turns south, leading to her and Wick killing their way out of the situation, she and her dogs move as one organism. She aims for clean, precise headshots while the messier dogs target the genitals of opposing men. She alone commands these animals to attack and retract, making their masculine aggression submissive and channelled by her. Though the barrage could have felt tropeish, relying on a woman being “badass” in a cool fight sequence, Parabellum steps over that potential pitfall thanks to her established backstory.

Still, even though Sofia presents a step forward in the franchise for women heroes, the male gaze remains firmly attached. She’s “strong” on traditionally masculine terms, through physical violence and brute power. Future chapters might want to consider other interpretations of feminism.

Race: 4/5

Along with Sofia, this third chapter features several powerful Black folks. The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), a pigeon-toting leader of houseless goons, for instance, returns to reaffirm control over his seaside domain. A similar validation also occurs when High Table soldiers arrive at the Manhattan Continental to kill its leader Winston (Ian McShane). Their raid causes the usually mild-mannered concierge Charon (Lance Reddick) to join in on the fun. For the first time in the trilogy, Charon shows a personality apart from being a distinguished Black man with gravitas. He exhibits fear, anger, and a flair for heroic display.

For the final large-scale battle, Stahelski also conceives of an Asian character who exists beyond his chopping ability in the swordsman Zero (Mark Dacascos, of mixed Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish descent). Specifically hired by the Adjudicator (more on them soon) to hunt Wick, Zero is a big fan of the hitman—a fact used for comedic effect. When he tracks Wick down to the Continental, in fact, he goes full fanboy and fawns over his idol.

Asian final bosses rarely possess humor. Usually, they carry a menacing sneer or impenetrable glare. This isn’t to say Zero lacks that; he can certainly be just as intimidating in moments. But Dacascos adds hilarious flourishes derived from a lovingly eccentric temperament that sets him apart from other prototypical John Wick villains. He goes toe-to-toe with Wick in a protracted fight that demonstrates both his immense skill and big personality alike.

While an Asian individual like Zero shines in Parabellum, however, brown people are not given the same range. In a move reminiscent of Wonder Woman 1984’s offensive stereotypes of Middle Easterners, Parabellum’s Moroccan sequence finds North Africans receiving the most violent personalized punishment (via Sofia’s aforementioned dogs). That component makes for the lone knock against this otherwise forward-thinking movie.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50

Nonbinary people scarcely appear on combat landscapes, making Parabellum’s inclusion of the Adjudicator—played by Asia Kate Dillon, who also identifies as nonbinary—decidedly unique. Matching the mysterious nature of their boss, the High Table, the Adjudicator sports a black pixie cut and dresses in tailored pantsuits to create an androgynous individual who thematically tracks.

Tellingly, in a violent film, the writers avoid inflicting any trauma upon the Adjudicator. Rather this person exists above the fray—they don’t even fire a gun—directing powerful men like Winston and the Bowery King to fall on their swords for the High Table, while recruiting Zero to dispatch Wick. On its face, that might not sound impressive, but considering how many films use LGTBQ individuals as repositories of physical suffering, seeing an androgynous person unencumbered by such threats delivers a welcome change of pace.

Mediaversity Grade: A- 4.42/5

While grounded gunplay and Reeves’ sheer magnetism predominately attracts viewers to the John Wick movies, Stahelski expands the franchise’s scope by fashioning fresh hand-to-hand fighting sequences and a wider array of characters for new thrills. The additional people, ranging in race and identity, make Parabellum the most diverse entry into the John Wick franchise yet.

Like John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum? Try these other titles featuring whirlwind hand-to-hand combat.

Grade: ALiApril 2, 2021Great for: Technical, Great for: LGBTQ