3/10. What a waste of time. John Wick 3: Parabellum is a disappointing entry in an action-movie franchise that is meant to be good mindless fun. But instead, it’s more mindless than it is fun.
Although the original wasn’t an action movie classic, it nevertheless was smart enough to be aware of how ridiculous and enjoyable nonsensical gun violence can be. I mean what else can you expect from a movie that’s sole premise is based on a man getting revenge on people who killed his dog. It’s silly but it works because it knows how silly it is and uses that to highlight some very fun action scenes that your typical action movie won’t have.
Sadly, none of those aspects are present in John Wick 3: Parabellum.
This movie goes downhill incredibly fast, with the opening action scene being by far the best and most entertaining of the whole film. Mostly because even though John Wick is known for being an expert with using guns, it’s more enjoyable to see him use other tools of death like knives, tables, books or even just a pencil – which is what the opening is all about.
Hell, seeing him kill people in new and creative ways is one of the main reasons I enjoy watching the John Wick series.
The charm of why I like John Wick is because it’s different to typical action films. Maybe that’s showing how desensitised I’ve become to seeing so many people over the years die on screen through typical means like guns. But it’s entertaining to see original action scenes films like John Wick can come up with instead of the same old mainstream cookie cutter violence I’ve become used to.
Unfortunately, apart from some new methods where dogs are involved, John Wick 3: Parabellum lacks creativity and importantly, any fun. Almost all of it is just dumb action.
Most of the film was mindless violence akin to that of seeing Superman destroy everything in Man of Steel. Countless henchmen would die but none of it felt rewarding, risky or entertaining. At no point did I ever genuinely felt John Wick was earning each of his kills, feared his well-being as a character or thought he was an interesting persona to watch compared to the previous films.
Sure there’s a few witty one liners and great moments here and there. But for the most part, everything was just uninspired and didn’t make much sense.
So even though my dreams of seeing John Wick killing people while riding a horse were fulfilled, ultimately it felt like a waste of my time and I can’t recommend watching this unless you are absolutely a die-hard fan. Spoilers alert, there’s going to be a fourth one anyways, so I’d be willing to wait for that one and hope that redeems this disappointing third entry. Skip it.