John Wick 3 (2019) – Review

When John Wick (Keanu Reeves) guns down a member of the prestigious high table on restricted grounds, the elite assassin finds himself stripped off all protection and wondering around with a huge bounty on his head. Wick must work his way through the streets of New York and beyond with the world’s most ruthless and sadistic killers trailing him. This is the third movie of the John Wick series and much like the previous two, it is a terrific advert for action movies of today.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Director: Chad Stahelski
Writers: Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, Marc Abrams
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Mark Dacascos

Having picked up almost instantaneously from the second flick, John Wick 2 (2017), John Wick 3 does a great job in revealing more little snippets of detail in regard to the John Wick universe, touching on the reason behind the mysterious gold coins and markers given and received by the assassins in the trilogy. Sofia (Halle Berry) was even a character introduced to the viewers as a person that had worked alongside Wick in the past, revealing some character backstory and intrigue in the process.

It has to be said that the stunts in this film were as special as they always tend to be in the franchise. Most were really unique and brutal, especially when you take into consideration the fact that the filmmakers decided to throw a large amount of knife scenes into the mix, along with dog attacks and even the use of horses. These action scenes were extremely well choreographed and some of the best I’ve seen – especially the knife scenes. On more than one occasion I found myself having to look away with the vicious nature of some of deaths that were occurring.

If I had to pick one word to summarise the movie however, I’d go with relentless. The sheer volume of violence and constant fight for survival was shown brilliantly, not only by Wick, but by other characters too, and as with the previous two installments, the movie demonstrated the fact that many nameless and at times faceless people can be instantly killed off in a variety of different methods without a second thought.

In terms of the casting, it felt as if this movie had stepped up somewhat in comparison to the first two films. Obviously, Keanu Reeves found himself adopting the role of John Wick and as usual did a great job. Laurence Fishburne became more prominent in his role as Bowery, while Halle Berry also appeared as Sofia – an important character with power and influence that was there to return a favour for John Wick – albeit begrudgingly. It’s probably worth mentioning Mark Dacascos too, he was also involved as he picked up the role of Zero, the enemy of Wick.

As with John Wick 2 (2017), this picture did a really good job of setting the viewer up for another movie down the line. Overall, another impressive John Wick tale but one that didn’t quite match up to the first two installments, in my opinion.

“To remember Helen. To remember us.”

John Wick – John Wick 3