"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" (2019) Review

 

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" (2019) Review

I have seen all three films in the "JOHN WICK" franchise so far. All three of them. However, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" is the first film I saw in the movie theaters. And it is the first I have reviewed for my blog.

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" picked up a few minutes later after the franchise's last film, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2" left off. In the latter, former assassin John Wick had been approached by Italian crime lord Santino D'Antonio to assassinate his sister Gianna, so he can claim her seat at the "High Table", a council of 12 high-level crime lords. Although reluctant to complete the task, John is forced to accept D'Antonio's request since the latter had helped him with a task that allowed him to retire as an assassin and marry his late wife. However, Gianna committed suicide before John could kill her and D'Antonio put a contract on the former under the guise of "avenging his sister's death". Determined to get revenge for this betrayal, John pursued D'Antonio to the Continental Hotel, a refuge for the underworld's assassins where no "business" is allowed, and kills the Italian gangster. Because he had broken the hotel's "no killing" rule, John is declared "excommunicado" by his handlers at the High Table and placed under a $14 million bounty.

In this third film, John struggles to evade nearly every assassin, while he tries to retrieve a crucifix necklace and a "marker" medallion from a secret cache in a book at the New York City Public Library. He needs both items to present to the Director, a woman from his past, and use as a "ticket" for safe passage to Casablanca, Morocco. With the help of an old friend and fellow assassin named Sofia, John hopes to fend off other assassins long enough to reach the Elder of the "High Table" and find a way to call off the bounty. However, John eventually learns that he will have to pay a few steep prices to achieve his goal.

I wish I could say that I loved "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM". Hell, I wish I could say that I loved all of the John Wick movies. But I did not. I merely liked them. What kept me from loving these three films? The level of action featured in them. "JOHN WICK 3" opened with the main protagonist leaving the Continental Hotel and making his way to the main New York Public Library in order to retrieve two objects that would help him leave the country. I do not know how long this sequence lasted, but it almost seemed like forever. Wick seemed to encounter one assassin after the other, city block after city block. Even when he reached the library, he had to fight off another assassin. Then he was forced to defend himself against more assassins as he struggled to reach the Director, a Russian-born who had raised him. There was such an overwhelming slew of action in this film that I was to appreciate the more dramatic moments with great relief. When I had asked one of my relatives on how she felt about the movie, her response was . . . "action porn". She liked the movie, but like me, found the amount of action in it rather overwhelming.

I honestly cannot think of anything else that turned me off about "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM". Ironically, as much as I found the onslaught of action a bit off putting, there were a handful of scenes that I genuinely enjoyed, thanks to Chad Stahelski's direction. There were three sequences that stood out for me. One involved Wick's unexpected encounter with a rather large assassin inside the New York Library. His final fight against a New York City assassin named Zero and the latter's men at the New York Continental Hotel almost struck me as surreal. But if I had to select my favorite action sequence, it has to be his battle against a group of assassins in Casablanca, with the aide of his old friend, Sofia. Watching Keanu Reeves and Halle Barry fight side by side against a slew of killers proved to be more than satisfying for me. And exciting.

I also suspect that this deluge of action had allowed the film's five screenwriters to create a more streamlined narrative. Five screenwriters? This movie required five screenwriters? Anyway, one of the aspects of the John Wick films that I found refreshing is that the narratives for the three films were not repetitive. "JOHN WICK 3" marked the first time that the hero is forced to face the consequences of his actions. There is a reason why once or twice, a self-reflective Wick had to admit that he had brought his current crisis upon himself. More importantly, he also realized that his decision to become a professional assassin and criminal in the first place had brought him to this point in his life. In age in which the questionable decisions and actions of many protagonists in movies and television are either swept under the table or whitewashed, John Wick's self-reflection struck me as a breath of fresh air.

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" featured some solid performances from its supporting cast. The likes of Lance Reddick, Anjelica Huston, Jerome Flynn, Randall Duk Kim and Yayan Ruhian did not exactly blow my mind, but I found their performances impressive. Saïd Taghmaoui gave a brief, yet impressive performance as the Elder, leader of the High Table; whom John Wick struggles to reach to overturn the contract against him. Asia Kate Dillon was memorable as the Adjudicator, a member of the High Table who castigated both Winston and the Bowery King for helping Wick in the previous film. However, I thought her character seemed like a remake of the character she portrays on Showtime's "BILLIONS". Ian McShane was elegant and charismatic as ever as Winston, the manager of the Continental Hotel, who found himself in trouble for giving Wick a head start on the contract in the second film. Laurence Fishburne was equally charismatic as the New York crime lord known as the Bowery King. But unlike McShane, I also found his performance rather theatrical in an entertaining way. Halle Berry radiated charismatic, style and gravitas as an old friend of Wick named Sofia, who helps him reach the Elder. I really enjoyed both her dramatic and action scenes with the leading man. Speaking of the latter, Keanu Reeves was perfect, as usual as the ex-assassin John Wick. I think I enjoyed his performance in this film a bit more, due to the pathos he infused in scenes that featured Wick's self reflections about his profession and past.

In a nutshell, I would never regard "JOHN WICK: CHAPER 3 - PARABELLUM" as among the best action movies I have seen. Like the other movies in the JOHN WICK franchise, I thought it was over saturated with too many action sequences. But . . . the movie did feature a solid and well-written narrative that picked up from where the second movie in the franchise left off. More importantly, I was impressed that for once, the main protagonist was paying the consequences of his past actions. In the end, I thought director Chad Stahelski had delivered a solid and entertaining film with a talented cast led by Keanu Reeves.

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" (2019) Photo Gallery

 

Below are images from "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM", the third entry in the JOHN WICK film franchise.  Directed by Chad Stahelski, the movie stars Keanu Reeves:

"JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM" (2019) Photo Gallery

"ANT-MAN & THE WASP" (2018) Review

"ANT-MAN & THE WASP" (2018) Review

Two months after the theatrical release of the explosive "THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR", the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) released "ANT-MAN & THE WASP", the sequel to the 2015 movie, "ANT-MAN". Peyton Reed, who had directed the previous film, returned to helm the latest one. 

Set two years following the events of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR", "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" found Scott Lang aka Ant-Man nearing the end of two years of house arrest for his participation in the battle at Leipzig Airport in Germany and his violation of the Sokovia Accords. Unbeknownst to Scott, his use of the Ant-Man suit and arrest led the U.S. government to view Dr. Hank Pym's Ant-Man particles technology and the Ant-Man suit as a violation of the Sokovia Accords. Both Hank and his daughter, Hope van Dyne, ended up becoming wanted fugitives from the law.

In the film's opening, Hank and Hope briefly manage to open a tunnel to the Quantum Realm, where they believe his wife, Dr. Janet van Dyne, might still be trapped after shrinking to sub-atomic levels during a mission as the Wasp in 1987. Two (or three) days before the end of his house arrest, Scott has a dream about him taking on Janet's body, when he was briefly inside the Quantum Realm two years earlier. He leaves a telephone message to Hank about the dream and a few hours later, finds himself kidnapped by Hope. Despite their anger at Scott for his actions with Captain America two years earlier, Hope and Hank need his help to stabilize Hank's quantum tunnel and pinpoint Janet's location, so they can retrieve her. However, there are a few problems that the trio have to overcome: 1) Evading Special FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, who has been assigned to monitor Scott; 2) prevent both arms dealer Sonny Birch and a quantumly unstable masked woman from Hank's past named Ava Starr aka "Ghost" from stealing Hank's shrunken lab that contains the quantum tunnel.

In the wake of movies like "BLACK PANTHER" and "THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR", "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" seemed like a light, adventure frolic in compare. Like its 2015 predecessor, the movie is a story about a family. Yes, I can anticipate the next comment. "BLACK PANTHER" was also a family saga. But unlike that film, "ANT-MAN & THE WASP"is a lighter fare that centered around the Pym-van Dyne family and the rescue of one particular member - Dr. Janet van Dyne aka the Wasp. Or the first Wasp. For once, Scott's relationship with his daughter Cassie Lang does not play a major role in the film's narrative. But his business relationship and friendship with his fellow ex-convicts - Luis, Dave and Kurt - did. Luis, along with Dave, Kurt and Scott had created a home security firm called X-Con Security Consultants. However, Scott's efforts to help Hank and Hope threatened the friends' plans to recruit new clients and financing for their new firm. After many mishaps, kidnappings and brushes with the law, Scott managed to recruit his friends to help the Pym-van Dyne family rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm and deal with the threat of the Ghost and especially, Sonny Burch. And Hank's past conflict with former colleague Elihas Starr led to him dealing with the latter's angry and desperate daughter, Ava Starr aka Ghost.

Just like the 2015 movie, "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" brimmed with a great deal of light and witty humor. Some of the humor struck me as a bit too light - especially Hope's use of the large-sized ant to fool the F.B.I. into believing that Scott had not broken his house arrest. But a good deal of the humor struck me as spot-on. This included a sequence in which Scott, while wearing Hank's unfinished Ant-Man suit, breaking into Cassie's school locker to retrieve the old one; Scott's witty interactions with the F.B.I. agent monitoring him, Agent Jimmy Woo; and the crazy car chase through San Francisco's streets in which Team Pym struggled to prevent both Sonny Burch's men and Ava from getting their hands on Hank's mobile lab. But if I had to select the funniest - and what I believe to be the second-best - scene in the movie, it would have to be the one in which Sonny Burch and his men attempt to extract information from Luis using drugs, while Dave and Kurt looked on. That had to be the funniest scene in the movie and one of the funniest in the entire MCU franchise.

"ANT-MAN & THE WASP" also featured some pretty good action sequences. First and foremost was the San Francisco car chase mentioned in the previous paragraph. I thought director Peyton Reed did an excellent job in switching back and forth between the scenes that featured either Ant-Man or the Wasp and Luis during the sequence. Both Ant-Man and the Wasp's fight scenes with the Ghost struct me as entertaining and a little mind-blowing. At the same time, Reed and the film's special effects team did an excellent job in conveying how the Pym particles tech used by Ant-Man, the Wasp and Luis affected the chase sequence. This chase culminated in an excellent visual moment in which an enlarged Ant-Man rose through San Francisco Bay in order to get his hands on Hank's lab, which had been snatched by Sonny Burch. Truly a memorable moment. But my favorite sequence featured the Wasp's first-rate brawl with Sonny Burch's men inside a San Francisco restaurant, as she attempted to retrieve the money she and Hank had gathered to pay for a piece of equipment that Burch had refused to give her.

However, for a movie strong on comedy, it provided a good deal of emotional drama and pathos in the film. After all, at its heart, "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" is a family-dominated film. Just as I had earlier pointed out. The movie opened on an emotional note as audiences watched Hank and Janet say good-bye to a young Hope before embarking on that mission that would leave Janet lost in the Quantum Realm for the next three decades. Between Janet's communication to her family via Scott's body, the revelation of Ava's family tragedy and her current physical state and more importantly, Janet's actual reunion with Hank and Hope; the movie brimmed with some deep and very satisfying emotions. The one sequence that left me in tears proved to be the Pym-Van Dyne family reunion. Audiences did not learn, until the film's first post-credit scene that the events of "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" had occurred before and during the events of "THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR". And ironically, that last moment in which moviegoers discovered how Thanos' snap affected the character in this movie struck me as more tragic and effective than the ending of "INFINITY WAR". 

As much as I enjoyed "ANT-MAN & THE WASP", I cannot deny that it had flaws. For me, the film's main flaws stemmed from "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR" and the Sokovia Accords. I have never liked the Sokovia Accords story arc. Not only did I find it questionable written, but not fully explored by the MCU after the 2016 movie - with the exception of early Season Four of "AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D." and "ANT-MAN & THE WASP". My main problem with the Sokovia Accords is that the MCU writers do not seem to know the difference between an accord and a law. And since neither Scott, Hank or Hope had signed the document, I saw no reason why they should be affected. 

But apparently, after being rescued from the government's Raft by Steve Rogers aka Captain America; along with Clint Burton aka Hawkeye made a deal with the Federal courts and settled for two years of house arrest for violating the Accords. While being incarcerated inside the Raft, Scott had unintentionally revealed Hank's name, which led both Tony Stark aka Iron Man and Thaddeus Ross to recall that Hank Pym had created the Ant-Man suit. But when Scott made the deal, both Hank and Hope became wanted fugitives because Hank had not registered the Ant-Man suit. I have a lot of problems with this scenario. 

One, due to the bombing in Vienna, Austria; the Accords had not yet been ratified when Scott and Clint were first arrested. Two, Hank had first created the Ant-Man suit back in the 1980s and had been unaware of Scott's use of the suit in Berlin. After being freed by Steve, Scott had shrunken the suit and mailed it to his daughter Cassie, while declaring that it had been destroyed. If the suit was officially considered destroyed, why was Scott arrested anyway without the crucial evidence any prosecutor would need to convict him? Why were Hank and Hope declared as fugitives for failing to register a suit that officially no longer existed? Why did Hope become a wanted fugitive? The Feds remained unaware of the Wasp suit and her use of it. And she had played no role in the creation of the Ant-Man suit. Also, the writers did not need the Sokovia Accords as a reason for Scott to face conviction and house arrest. He had violated his parole when he left the country to help Steve, Sam Wilson aka the Falcon and the others. One day, I will write an article on why I regard the Sokovia Accords arc as the biggest pile of shit ever created by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But I will add that the story arc made the narrative for "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" occasionally frustrating for me.

"ANT-MAN & THE WASP" suffered from one more flaw. The movie's villains did not strike me as particularly strong. As individual characters, both Sonny Burch and Ava Starr were interesting. They did not strike me as strong adversaries for this movie. Sonny was basically a slick capitalist who wanted to use Hank's technology to bolster his bank account. And his story arc was comedic at best. Although Ava provided plenty of strum and drang in the plot - including her threat to kidnap Cassie Lang and use her to convince Scott to hand over Hank's portable lab. But Ava's goal was fueled by anger at Hank for what happened to her father, and a desperate desire to use his quantum technology. By the end of the film, it took Janet to help stabilize her condition. Although I found both characters interesting, neither was another Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket, who had proven to be a more interesting and dangerous character to me. 

I certainly had no problems with the film's performances. Abby Ryder Fortson, Judy Greer and Bobby Cannavale gave solid performances as Scott's daughter Cassie Lang, his ex-wife Maggie Paxton and the latter's second husband, police officer Jim Paxton. Randall Park gave a funny and sly performance as F.B.I. Special Agent Jimmy Woo (who was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent), who happened to be Scott's parole officer. Laurence Fishburne proved to be both humorous and enduring as Dr. Bill Foster, Hank's former partner who became Ava's guardian following the deaths of her parents. Both Tip "T.I." Harris and David Dastmalchian were hilarious as Scott's friends and co-owners of the X-Con Security firm, Dave and Kurt. Once again, Michael Peña proved to be a comedic dream as Scott's closest friend, Luis, who proved to be the brainchild of X-Con Security. Harris, Dastmalchian and especially Peña were breathtakingly funny in one scene in which Luis found himself being interrogated by Sonny Burch after being injected with truth serum. That has to be, without a doubt, the funniest scene in any MCU movie I have ever watched.

Michelle Pfieffer was only seen in the film's pre-credit and post-credit scenes, along with at least fifteen minutes of the main narrative. And yet, being the first-rate actress that she is, managed to provide a very poignant performance as the missing Dr. Janet van Dyne aka the former Wasp. Due to the comedic elements of his character, Sonny Burch did not strike me as a particularly memorable villain. But I cannot deny that I found the character very entertaining, thanks to Walton Goggins' smooth and insidious performance that seemed to be punctuated with a good deal of sharp comedy. I have only seen Hannah John-Kamen in at least two other films - "TOMB RAIDER" and "READY PLAYER ONE". While I found her appearance in the latest Lara Croft film rather brief and unmemorable, I was very impressed by her intense performance as one of the villains in "READY PLAYER ONE". In "ANT-MAN & THE WASP", John-Kamen skillfully added a lace of desperation to her intense performance as Ava Starr who frantically tries to get her hands on Hank's quantum lab in order to save her life. 

After viewing "ANT-MAN & THE WASP", I think I was more impressed with Michael Douglas' portrayal of Dr. Hank Pym aka the former Ant-Man than I was in the 2015 film. This movie revealed just how emotionally volatile and annoying Hank Pym could be. Douglas did a superb job in exploring Hank's not-so-pleasant personality and at the same time, managed to make him still likable. Evangeline Lilly's portrayal of the film's leading lady Hope van Dyne aka the Wasp struck me as more relaxed in this film than in it was back in 2015. That is understandable, considering that Hope seemed to be in a better place emotionally in her relationship with her father and as the new Wasp. I also happily noticed that Lilly managed to give a more witty, relaxed and elegant performance. I also found her rather funny, thanks to scenes that featured her scenes with Scott at Cassie's school and Luis' drug-enhanced flashbacks during his interrogation by Burch. Paul Rudd was equally funny as the movie's leading man, Scott Lang aka Ant-Man. Rudd brought his usual charm and comic timing to the fore throughout the movie. But he also proved what a truly first-rate actor he can be - especially in one scene in which Janet's spirit took control of his body. He did an excellent job in recapturing Pfieffer's mannerisms and diction without being heavy-handed or obvious.

Overall, I enjoyed "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" very much. My only problems with the film was that it could have used a stronger villain and screenwriters used the Sokovia Accords as part of its narrative, when it was unnecessary. However, "ANT-MAN & THE WASP" featured some great direction by Peyton Reed, excellent performances by a cast led by Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, a first-rate family comedy-drama and a very memorable and poignant post-credit scene.

"ANT-MAN AND THE WASP" (2018) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "ANT-MAN AND THE WASP", the 2018 sequel to the 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie, "ANT-MAN". Directed by Peyton Reed, the movie stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man and Hope Van Dyne aka the Wasp: 



"ANT-MAN AND THE WASP" (2018) Photo Gallery