Erik Jimenez/Staff Writer
Thinking of how small and independent the “John Wick” films started off as, it’s incredible to see how much it upgraded to summer blockbuster status in just three films.
The creative talents of director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad have created a world of underground crime and assassins so dense and intriguing, mainly due to the rules around duty, loyalty, and destiny that surrounds them. It becomes cool to see “criminals” that supposedly break all the rules in their actions have rules in themselves. And all of it is based around Keanu Reeves’s titular character of John Wick, quite possibly the greatest assassin ever put to film.
All of this results in the most stylishly and creative fight scenes and shootouts to come out of American Cinema. And Chapter 3 is the best entry in the series yet.
The film picks up after Chapter 2 ended, with John Wick now a marked man and on the run after committing an unsanctioned killing of his enemy, High Table Member Santino D’Antonio thus resulting in him being declared “excommunicado” by his handlers at the High Table and is placed under a $14 million bounty to be collected by any one of his million fellow assassins.
And that’s pretty much the whole movie, a two-hour long-running sequence in which John has to fight his way out of New York while finding a way to get the bounty off his head. The second act does take him to Casablanca, where he teams up with Halle Berry.
Overall the film is more concerned with its action sequences. And wow, what action.
From an incredible knife fight in an antique shop to a sequence where Wick uses a shotgun with armor-piercing ammo, and fight scenes with major-Wick-fan Marc Decasco as an assassin, as well as Zero’s pupils played by YaYa Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman from “The Raid”, “John Wick: Chapter 3” has the best action in the franchise and with colorful cinematography by Dan Laustsen that allows you to see all the action in its glory, thanks to editor Evan Schiff.
If you’re a fan of the last two films, this one is mandatory. The plot is rather minimal and only there to drive the sequences, but the plot was never this franchise’s main priority. Not to mention the world and characters have compelling personalities that the acting and dialogue make up for it.
Basically, if you haven’t seen “John Wick: Chapter 3”, and the previous two films, just go see it.
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