John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  7 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Like the other John Wicks (and let's not kid ourselves by pretending that the these films are any different from each other), 'John Wick - Chapter 3: Pebblebum' is an exercise in how to do style-over-substance filmmaking right.
  It takes a very simple story (Keanu Reeves on the run from literally everyone in some slightly dystopian future) and then operates almost entirely on action set-pieces which are choreographed like sadistic dances and shot just as gracefully and directly as the stunt work on show. The colour palette is richly stylised to bring a gorgeously futuristic and yet melancholic and grounded appeal to the whole thing, and the sound design - everything up to and including the gruesome squelching of flesh and cracking of limbs - also helps to give everything weight in a story which could quite easily have become entirely fluffy.
  The world-building also makes for an interesting layer of mystery to keep you engaged, but in reality there's little more to it than all of that - aside perhaps from Reeves' performance which builds a character that you can root for where a little humanity miraculously shines through at times.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It really is style over substance stuff this... There are still no attempts to ground the characters, no attempts to truly explore the boundaries or foundations of the mysterious world, and no real attempts to make affects of all the killing hit home either.
  
  VERDICT: An exercise in how to do style-over-substance filmmaking right, 'John Wick 3,' is so stylish that it manages to keep you engaged all without developing what's beyond the surface of its simple story. It's escapist entertainment with an arty veneer, and whilst that's a beautiful thing, it's very easy to be fooled into thinking that it's more than that when you're presented with so much style.

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