Review roundup: Critics praise ‘John Wick: Chapter 3

Image: mark rogers / lionsgate

We’re a week out from the highly-anticipated release of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum — and critics are promising big things.

First reviews of the action franchise’s new installment reveal a positive critical consensus, highlighting the film’s meticulous world-building, all-star cast, and totally bonkers level of commitment. 

Star Keanu Reeves and Wickverse-newcomer Halle Berry are celebrated in many reviews, although Berry’s much-discussed attack dogs/co-stars, seen first at CinemaCon, steal plenty of press spotlight. 

That being said, the Wick news isn’t all positive. Numerous critics noted Parabellum‘s weak plot and use of excessive violence as a storytelling crutch.

In theaters May 17, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum will likely dazzle long-term fans, but leave franchise newcomers scratching their heads. Plus side, there are dogs.

Check out critics’ takes on John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum below.

The Wick-verse expands impressively

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

While this franchise is starting to feel a bit long in the tooth, such details suggest that screenwriter Derek Kolstad (here sharing credit with three other scribes) can still mine this world for plenty of new life, so long as future installments find a way to deepen the John Wick mythos instead of just stretching it out. With the significant exception of “Mission: Impossible,” this is easily the best action franchise Hollywood has going these days, and it would be great for it to keep going with renewed focus.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly:

The thing that’s always set the John Wick films a notch above their ultraviolent action flick peers is the Byzantine world that screenwriter Derek Kolstad created for the first film. The Wickverse is a wildly creative, elaborately detailed pulp realm of rules, codes of conduct, Masonic hierarchies, and even old-world civility. One of the new characters introduced in John Wick 3 is Asia Kate Dillon’s “Adjudicator”, who spells out the fine print of the High Table like a scowling font of footnotes. As the franchise has unfolded, that world has broadened and become more and more fleshed out, so much so that it now risks becoming ridiculously baroque. Still, it adds a dash of intelligence and class to a movie filed under what a lot of moviegoers still dismiss as a gutter genre.

That classic action is back, but this time it’s almost too much

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club: 

His advantage is reflex, and his reloads are smoother than melted butter; he seems to move without having to think about it. Parabellum makes the comparisons to choreographed dance obvious (see: the aforementioned ballet school), yet in many respects, the violence is ickier and more cartoonish than in either of its predecessors; the body count might be in the triple figures, and it involves a lot of skewered, crushed, and blown-off heads.

Andrew Barker, Variety: 

It would be difficult to estimate the total number of people who are shot in the head in this film – likely somewhere in the range of 30 or 40 – and it’s possible that “John Wick: Chapter 2” might have contained just as many. But it certainly feels like more here. Each headshot has its own slight variations: it might be preceded by a bout of judo-style grappling, or a kick to the crotch, or a punch, or a shot to the chest. One headshot is delivered underwater … After a certain point, watching John Wick shoot people in the head starts to weirdly resemble a gardener misting orchids with a spray bottle.

The central narrative struggles to find its footing

John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter:

What happens after that very drawn-out fight does not quite leave viewers in the state of suspended excitement they might’ve enjoyed at the end of Chapter 2; in fact, there may be a couple of stifled groans of disbelief in the crowd. But few who’ve endured the escalating punishments of chapters one through three are likely to bail out before the next installment.

Alissa Wilkinson, Vox: 

But anything resembling a plot in Parabellum really exists for one reason: to get us from cool-looking scene to cool-looking scene. When I saw the first film in the series, I thought it seemed vaguely like what would happen if Nancy Meyers directed an assassin movie, what with Wick’s improbably gorgeous house and the sleek, sophisticated Continental. Now, in its third installment, the series has grown into what would happen if the entire Travel Channel directed a movie, with Wick’s story hurling him from New York to the furthest reaches of the planet and back again.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is the best kind of action hero

Karen Han, Polygon: 

There is something profoundly funny about the idea that John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is so much better at his job (that is, killing people) than everyone around him that he has the time to reload his gun multiple times during any given fight. It’s not that he’s not capable of doing it quickly — he’s John freakin’ Wick, he could do this in his sleep — but that it puts distinct pauses in the action that would be inconceivable in any other movie. Each time, a few seconds pass as he jams new bullets into his pistol and his opponents simply stagger around him. He doesn’t have to rush! He’s just that good!

Halle Berry shines as Sofia

Mike Reyes, Cinema Blend: 

It should also be noted that not only is it an absolute treat to see Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves wreck shop together, but Berry’s Sofia is totally worthy of a spin-off/sequel return of her own, in my opinion. She’s trained harder than ever for this film, and the results show; plus, the added bonus of Sofia’s pair of Malinois attack dogs ups the ante in terms of animal combat in this series.

David Crow, Den of Geek!:

Halle Berry is also a nice addition to the franchise. Despite only showing up for an extended cameo action sequence, she gets to shine here more than she ever did in the James Bond or Kingsman franchises, and she is not so subtly made to be John’s perfect double right down to a love for dogs. Except her pooches are German Shepherds who she’s trained to be of greater badass ability than either of them. A spinoff about Berry’s Sofia running into one tricky situation after another with her killer canines launching themselves from her shoulder at bad guys probably could go for as many years as Wick.