John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum

Twenty-for-Seven #4 (Day 2):

2019, d. Chad Stahelski - AmazonPrime

Man, they do great poster designs for these films

When we left John Wick at the end of Chapter 2, he had just killed a dude inside the Continental.  One of the main rules of this universe is there is no "business" to be conducted on Continental grounds.  John has a preexisting relationship with the manager (Ian McShane) so he was given one hour to get his shit together before he was to be pronounced "excommunicated" and a $14million bounty is put on his head.  You can't kill a member of the High Table without repercussions.

Let's pause here:
Parabellum, as defined by the Free Dictionary, means :  

Latin for "prepare for war," from the phrase, Si vis pacem, para bellum, meaning "If you want peace, prepare for war"

It also has various intonations around firearm rounds or cartridges, which obviously tie into John Wick's motif.

Excommunicated, again as defined by the Free Dictionary, means:

To exclude by or as if by decree from membership or participation in a group.

Just so we're clear.

The opening of John Wick Chapter 3 is a bloody mess... in that it is both bloody, and messy.  John is running in the rain, still battered and wounded from all the fighting in Chapter 2.  His unnamed dog is running by his side.  He's being tracked by every hitmanperson and gang in town.  The administrative bureau of this whole underworld (consisting entirely of Hot Topic aficionados -- so many tattoos, piercings, angular haircuts and dye jobs) is counting down the hour before John is considered excommunicated, announcing it over their loudspeaker.  The first ten minutes or so jump between John on the run and these announcements of how much time is left, and it's really, really, really stupid, as if the film thinks we'd be unaware of the time pressure John is facing unless we're constantly reminded.  John is very wounded and needs some patching up.  He finds friendly support in his waning minutes before excommunication... but time runs out and he has to patch himself up.  The doc is worried he will be found out as helping someone excommunicado and forces John to shoot him, twice to infer he was pressured into service.

John retrieves some personal items from a library and then uses a family totum to call in a favour with the Belarus mafia in NY (led by Angelica Huston), since he is a child of their clan...or whatever the deal is there, it wasn't very clear.  He is reluctantly provided with passage to Casablanca where he uses he connections to get into the Continental there, and uses a blood oath coin to get Halle Berry to reluctantly put him in contact with the head of the underworld mint.  There John learns of the Elder of the High Table who can, possibly, absolve John of his sins, but he needs to wander the desert to do so.  Of course, a high body count is collected along this whole route.

Meanwhile, an Adjudicator for the High Table is running through New York with a gang of ninjas in tow advising that everyone who helped John in any way, including the Bowery King (Lawrence Fishbourne), Angelica Huston, and Ian McShane.  They broke the rules and must be punished.  But New Yorkers have an attitude and they don't take kindly to the High Table inflicting their unmediated judgement upon them.

John meets with the Elder, who asks why John wants to live so badly.  He states it's to remember his wife.  He's asked for a sacrifice, and John slices off his ring finger.  Then he asks John to kill the Manager of the New York Continental, since he's proving to be difficult in the Adjudication process.

John agree, but chooses to side with his friend, and he, the Manager and the Concierge stave off an attack from the Adjudicator's ninjas and the High Table's barrage of armored enforcers.  The film ends with the Manager seemingly turning on John and killing him (but his body being collected by the Bowery King's legion) and staving off being a target of the high council but also having his Continental being deconsecrated, and everyone in NYC preparing to war against the high table.

I know I'm just reiterating the plot above, but it's necessary to highlight the point I wanted to make... the team kind of shit the bed on this one.  The first two chapters of John Wick set up a world of organized rules and policies that everyone's to operate in or they face consequences.  But in this third chapter, the consequences, and enforcement thereof, seem entirely arbitrary.  The film acts as if John Wick were the first to ever break the rules and they have no precedent, which seems kind of silly, to think that this one man is just *that* special.

The point is, John calls in all sorts of favours, which people like Angelica Huston and Halle Berry seem honour-bound to obey (just as John was in Chapter 2 when his blood oath was called in).  But if you're forced to obey a blood oath, how can you be punished for obeying it? And yet people are punished severely for it (including John).  But if you're not supposed to fulfil your honour-bound oaths and whatnot for someone who is excommunicated then why on earth would Angelica or Halle actually help him.  This world, their rules, no longer makes sense.

I found some enjoyment in Chapter 3; it's a good-looking film with some amazing stunt choreography, yet, for the most part I found it frustrating to watch.  The inner logic of this world fell totally apart.  Plus it seems like half the population of the globe is part of this underworld, which seems insane to me.

I've noticed along the way John has not killed certain people outright, like Common in Chapter 2 or the Minter and a couple of the ninja goons who were fanboying out when fighting him.  It's a "professional courtesy" he seems to be extending to them, so my assumption is that he will be receiving some sort of reciprocation down the line... as was the case with the Bowery King in Chapter 2.  I'll still be in for Chapters 4 & 5 (and maybe that crossover with Atomic Blonde that was hinted at), but they need to work harder to solidify their world and how it operates.

(Toast's take on Parabellum)