John Wick Chapter 3 (spoiler free) review

Raise your hand if you have no clue what “Parabellum” means?

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 : PARABELLUM

CAST – KEANU REAVES, KEANU REAVES THROWING KNIVES, KEANU REAVES RIDING A HORSE, MAYBE BIT OF IAN MCSHANE AND LAURENCE FISHBURNE, KEANU REAVES KILLING A DUDE USING A BOOK AND OTHERS

DIRECTOR – CHAD STAHELSKI

If you narrate the story of 2014’s John Wick, it sounds honestly like a parody of any typical Hollywood action movie. So Theon Greyjoy is the son of a rich Russian mobster. He and his friends break into Keanu’s house just for kicks. They steal a car he loves and then just to add the rotten cherry to the shit-pile, they kill his innocent little dog…a dog which was a gift from his dying wife. Little do they know that Keanu’s is the ONE. I mean Keanu is always the ONE. But this time, he is the one guy who you do not want to mess with- A retired assassin who can kill you with a fooking pencil. Now he pissed and he will not stop at anything to give some payback.  

If that sounds ridiculous as hell… it is.  But in the best possible way. No the movie isn’t over-the-top and doesn’t parody itself. Keanu’s just got some vibe which really makes you feel for his loss. The movie has ridiculous concepts like this whole secret world of assassins with their own hotels where they can’t kill each other, own currency, terminology etc. But it still worked like a charm. The movie was made by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch- who have immense years of stunt experience in Hollywood.  In a world of CGI villains and save the world plotlines of super-hero or spy movies- they made a movie with natural looking but slick cool efficient action. John Wick was a breath of fresh air. It soon became a cult hit.

Followed by another success in John Wick Chapter 2 in 2017, which expanded upon the secret assassin world even more ridiculously by adding concepts like Blood debts, a secretive High Table which controls the entire network etc etc. But it still worked. The movie again continues the series by delving a slight bit into Keanu’s past and giving us another engaging story with great long take action scenes. The movie ends on a cliff-hanger with John Wick now being excommunicated and now being hunted by the entire assassin community for killing someone on neutral grounds.

John Wick chapter 3: Parabellum continues exactly minutes after the 2^nd one. Now Keanu must find a way to apologize to the mysterious High Table and stop running. But most importantly, he must also find it within himself a reason to live. His wife is dead, his revenge completed in the first one and his blood debt paid back in full in the 2^nd one. He is falling back into the murdering ways which he had given up long time ago. He literally has no reason to live. The best thing they do is unlike most other Hollywood action franchises they don’t just give him another love interest or damsel in distress to save. Even amidst more ridiculous concepts like Ninjas and a bond villain movie set in the climax, they still manage to keep John’s journey realistic. He is even questioned by many characters as to why wants so desperately to live that he is willing to go to the far corners of the earth to find the Elder- an Assassin who is above the High Table itself.

Even if you are not acquainted with the previous movies or with the John Wick mythos, don’t worry. Unlike Comic Book movies, where you have to have seen 20 movies that came before it to understand- here you don’t have to. They do organically explain what happened before and if you just go with the flow, you’ll get it. Because even if the story doesn’t interest, the action scenes will. God-damn, they really upped the game in this one. All of the scenes are beautifully crafted and by the end, you’ll be left with wondering which one was your favourite. Although they tried to do it in the The Dark Knight trilogy, this is the first movie to properly convey Ninja shadow techniques really well on-screen. You can literally see them appear from a dark corner of the screen and disappear…but you don’t know where. They need to get this same cinematographer on the next Batman movie.

Couple that with great performances particularly by Keanu whose real life Spiritual seeker vibe plays well into his character here. Halle Berry’s character though interesting just appears midway and disappears without much else to do with the climax. However, she has two war dogs with her and the action with her co-ordinating with them in a shootout is some really creative stuff. Ian Mcshane is regal as usual and Laurence Fishburne even in a small role delivers a proper arc. This arc may serve as the set up for the next movie. Oh also, Bronn from Game of Thrones is in the movie. I think after having Theon Greyjoy (really sorry can’t ever remember that actor’s name) in the first one, they had to have another GoT actor in this one.

The story also delves into John Wick’s past a bit and that was good to see. The mistake most action franchises make when they have a hit series on hand is either repeat the same concept again and again (Fast and Furious, Taken) or try and elevate the same scenario but in a different location. (If you liked Die Hard in a building, now we have Die Hard in an Airport. Ok the 3^rd and 4^th ones were great though) Am not saying John Wick saga is all planned Chapter wise, but they are not completely clueless about where to take the character either. They know that the plot is more or less wrapping for the cool, stunts and Keanu’s charm but they are trying to deliver the best possible wrapping. Digging deeper into the character and his motivations instead of just placing him in the same scenario in another location is a genuinely good move. The movie deals with actions and consequences and redemption. It also isn’t like deep Jean Luc Goddard level character drama but still works if you are watching this movie for more than just the action.

Only problem with the movie, is that near the climax it gets a slight bit longer than needed. There is a villain, a rival Ninja assassin who if I have seen him before in the franchise I can’t remember him, who is built up to be the John’s arch nemesis. They have an elongated climactic action sequence in a room made of glass which pays homage to the legendary scene from Enter the Dragon. The sequence is great but I don’t know why I should suddenly care about a character I knew nothing about before or am told nothing about. He just shows up and suddenly gives the typical Hollywood villain –‘we are not so different you and I’ speech to John Wick. Maybe it’s poking fun at the trope but that kinda irked me. Also, John Wick are not known for the realism but John Wick 1 at least had John’s cop friend show up when he heard noises in John’s home. Here people straight away slice other people’s necks at a crowded railway station and the people don’t notice at all. I mean its not just covert spy movie klling, bodies fucking fall and no one cares. The Continental Hotel is transformed into a battle zone and there are no consequences.. no cops, SWAT anything. This was maybe stretching the imagination a slight bit too much.

However, other than those gripes, John Wick 3 is great ride. In spite of being 3 movies into an action franchise they have managed to keep it fresh and I think I like this slight bit more than the 2^nd one. If you are done with epic intergalactic battles and superhero stuff for a while and want to take a break… watch this movie where an un-killable assassin must go through hordes of enemies with a variety of weapons and martial arts skills, the enemies keep getting more difficult to kill and the movie has some ridiculous rules of its own, its own challenges and missions to complete before you level up to… wait a fucking minute- John Wick 3 is the best video game movie adaptation! (Just not based on an actual game).

John Wick Chapter 3 is Superrific!

PS –

•  Mad Dog from the Indonesian action gem – The Raid movies shows up in a prominent action scene. He even speaks in Bahasa Indonesia and John responds.
• When I read the title, I always thought Parabellum much like Pendulum or Parabola was some kind of Geometrical motion or shape. Turns out is a part of the Latin phrase –“Si vis pacem, para bellum” – “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Also, Parabellum is the name of a kind of gun cartridge.

Avengers : Endgame movie review

“Is it done?”

“Yes”

“What did it cost?”

“11 years, 19 movies a few of which were unnecessary, 5 T V shows, a shit load of merchandise, hordes of social media influencers and critics either bought or brainwashed, stealing the competitions ideas (Civil war wasn’t planned till DC announced BvS. Also the plot of JL 2 was eerily similar to Infinity war) and ruining the genre to a point that generic mediocrity is the sole acceptable standard. But hey, you do get to finally hear Captain America say ‘Avengers Assemble’. “

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

CAST- THE ENTIRE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

DIRECTOR – THE RUSSO BROS.

The greatest achievement of the Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe is to finally bring super-heroes to the main stream. Call it easily digestible story-telling or Disney’s marketing clout or some truly amazing performances over the years by actors like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansan etc. But the MCU did what any market player wanting to build a strong monopoly does- saturate the market with its own product, often at the cost of quality and also crush the competition with somewhat questionable means. All said and done, they are currently the only standing shared universe with a financial and popular success rate unparalleled in cinematic history.

Endgame is more than a movie. It is a cultural event with Theatres selling houseful shows at 3:30 a.m. for the first 5 days. Even If I personally started getting disillusioned by the MCU after Iron Man 3, I am still a comic book and pop culture fan. I was still gonna be there at 7:00 in the morning wearing my Captain America T shirt. So, like most comic book movies I had to watch this twice. Once to satisfy my inner nerd. The second time to look at a movie from a storytelling perspective. So I have tried my level best to keep all the hype aside and look at this as just a movie.

But that isn’t it, is it? A movie is more than a set of images with dialogue. Especially Comic book movies these days. Especially Marvel movies. The screaming, the chuckling at the quips in the middle of a life threatening battle, waiting for the Post-credit scenes and checking out the memes later on social media is now a part of our social cycle. Also, how do you review a movie that’s the last part of a saga? It’s not unlike Harry Potter and the deathly hollows part 2 but with a much bigger fandom and an even bigger build up. Walking into this movie without at least a fair idea of its predecessors would be like walking into the season finale of a popular TV show without watching any previous episodes. But people do it. For fear of being left out of such a pop-culture tidal wave. For such people, I have some friendly advice- either do your homework and come watch this or just don’t. Nobody wants to hear you ask your friend in the theatre every 10 minutes –‘Who’s that? Who’s this?’ Frankly it doesn’t matter. No matter what hardcore MCU fans (many of whom have never even touched a comic book) will have you believe. You are not missing out on a cinematic masterpiece that can stand on its own.

However you are missing out on an experience of people really enjoying themselves. Kids being kids, adults being kids. People in general having a great time. It’s like a carnival with food and screaming and laughing. Just like a carnival has no particular artistic value than enjoyment, I feel the MCU is the same. Oh come at me, all those people treating this as though nobody ever thought of making a 3 hour movie before this or that its some oscar worthy movie just because the Russo Bros. managed to not make it a complete mess are kidding themselves.

Firstly credit where credits due. I really admire the Russo bros. for what they did in Winter Soldier. After Iron Man 1, Marvel finally made a movie where it feels that the consequences matter. Their mediocre visual and action skills were pardonable for that one particular quality. Bringing gravitas to a franchise which many didn’t take itself seriously. They did it again with Civil War. Which for the most part managed to have some sense of grit to it, until the airport battle at least when heroes fighting each other to death joke with each other. But Infinity war was where they got their groove just right. I mean IW had its fair share of tension puncturing trademark Disney humor but by God that climax was amazing. In my review of Infinity war I had quoted Ra’s Al Ghul from Batman Begins – “You have finally learned to do what’s necessary”. That’s how you make a great saga. An Empire strikes back, where Luke loses his hand and Han Solo is frozen in Carbonite. A fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf is dead and the fellowship is disbanded. The fact that it took MCU their 2^nd last movie in a saga to get there is the sad part of it. But better late than never. There is a reason that IW worked so well, because it had what MCU has always lacked before. A menacing Villain in the form of Thanos. A villain who carried with him the impending doom of Destiny. But the bigger achievement of IW was that it wasn’t a mess. I never thought putting so many characters together in one movie would work out. Some would overshadow the others (I mean Hulk got completely overshadowed) and it could just become a great idea in theory and not in practice. But the Russos made it work and work really really well. Endgame is a much better movie because of Infinity War.

Because on its own, it has its share of issues. That’s again not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. It was as I said a fun experience, but personally just like the previous highest grossing movie Avatar (whose record Endgame might easily break) it has little replay value. And that’s also fine, not all movies need to have that. However, what this does is that it makes certain parts of the movie boring, especially on second viewing. The movie tries its best to make the consequences matter. But except for two characters –Hawkeye and Tony- it really doesn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t wanna make that comparison (fuck it I really wanted to) but real world drama like this is best left to DC. War, Alien Invasion, Vigilantes, crime, poverty, Traumatic past- you name it and DC (having the collective DNA of Nolan and Snyder) have been able to deal with it better. That’s why the dramatic parts in a good DC movie are the crux, the spectacle is just a bonus. Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy had some of the most unimaginative action scenes and particularly Batman’s hand to hand combat skills were weirdly shot. But still, it’s the scenes of dialogue between characters that are the most fascinating.

Hawkeye loses his family and turns into Ronin- a shadowy ruthless assassin who murders criminals who survived Thanos’ snap deeming them unworthy of life. Tony and Nebula are in space with only 2 days of Oxygen left, when they are rescued by Captain Marvel (whose only job in the movie is literally showing up at the last moment and win things without any struggle. Just like her movie.) When Tony returns he is so weak and already crippled by the PTSD he has been carrying since the first Avengers (though it sometimes disappears in Guest appearances in Spiderman: Homecoming) that he blames Cap for not being there when they needed him the most. In a short but effective scene by RDJ, he conveys the exact stakes and tone that was needed for this movie throughout. However other than that, the movie doesn’t do enough to show how the snap changed the universe or our earth least. How are people, how are the govts. And societies dealing with 50% of the population just disappearing. Cap does mention a few things like seeing Whales in the Hudson river or reduced pollution but its all talk and no show. Things just chug along until the movie kills its original villain – (Yes Thor decapitates a defeated, broken, limping Thanos. Somehow Superman stopping Zod by snapping his neck coz he had no choice doesn’t seem that bad does it?) and takes a 5 year jump. Now by sheer co-incidence a rat activates a quantum machine where Antman was trapped during the snap (as shown in the post credit scene of the blandest movie possible – Antman and the Wasp). He comes back and..well read this- http://ambireviews.blogspot.com/2018/08/ps-possible-spoilers-avengers-infinity.html?m=1 My fan theory as to what would happen in Endgame was proven right.

Now in a large story like this, a few co-incidences are but expected. Especially when a movie starts dealing with Time travel…it’s even more expected. Nothing is going to perfectly fit together. But the amount of questions and glaring pot holes the movie doesn’t address even till the climax is astounding. As I said, once you remove your hype googles you might see the holes in the holy (Ya bitches. That’s a BvS reference in MCU’s swansong.) Yet the best and I say the really amazing parts of the movie begin when they finally start going into another timeline to retrieve the Infinity stones from different locations so that they can get all the people who had disappeared in the snap back.

This is then Marvel at its corniest best. The jokes are back. The quips are back. The spectacle is back. From then until the climax, where Thanos from another timeline is suddenly our villain now (Don’t ask) it’s just pure payback on your Marvel movie investments. There is just pure fan service after that with some iconic and well shot scenes. And one of the best third act battles in comic book history. However, I have come to the conclusion that the Russo Bros. are not great at handling super-powered characters. Captain America and Iron man are one thing but I really hate the unjust treatment given to two of the mightiest avengers – Hulk and Thor. Thor the Norse God of Thunder and protector of Earth is turned into a joke (no surprises there) but he doesn’t even do anything useful in the movie. Thor could technically be completely removed and it won’t make a difference to the story. If you saw Hulk get his ass beat in IW and wanted him to give Thanos or the Titans some payback then prepare for some incredible disappointment. Captain Marvel shows up at the end and then again is uselessly thrown away. Dr. Strange is just set aside and not allowed to exhibit his full magical potential but hey he did predict this scenario and allow it to happen.

Thanos is somehow able to handle all these attacks even without one of the Infinity stones (plot armour is the strongest stone) and finally….finally someone has to step in to stop him. Put on the Infinity stones themselves and risk taking the huge energy surge on their body to eliminate Thanos…. Of course it had to be Iron Man. Oops…spoiler alert I guess. I mean if you were paying attention from Infinity War it had to be him. RDJ again delivers a fantastic performs as you can see the life leave his eyes silently. Having left a safer world for his child to live in.

The movie still spends some more time giving proper ending for almost all the characters- except Hulk coz I think the Russos really hate him. It has a very confusing end for Captain America- Satisfying but logically confusing. And that I think is the essence of the movie. Satisfying… so much epic satisfaction in the final battle but logically (and by that I mean pre-established logic by the previous MCU movies) confusing movie. There are weird tonal shifts and sometimes I feel if given free reign the Russos might have wanted a more serious movie. The movie avoids making bold risky choices when it’s the only  super-hero movie guaranteed to make those and still win financial and critical acclaim, for simpler satisfying ones.

But it’s understandable…that’s the MCU way. They wouldn’t have wanted the end of an era to take any risks.  The slight risks taken by Guardians of the Galaxy 1 or Iron man 1 or Winter Soldier or Black Panther or Infinity war are avoided here. But the best part is—it’s done. It’s finally done. I mean not exactly- MCU is coming up with Spiderman Far from Home in 2 months and other movies already announced…but the original Avengers cycle which started in 2009 is done. We can get back to finally watching other movies for a while. Comic Book movies can finally get to experimenting again without worrying to match up to Marvel’s standards. I am not saying we’ll be seeing another BvS or Watchmen or TDK but still things are gonna be hopefully different. We have Joker coming in October and who knows if Warner Bros. will finally wake up after Endgame hype has died down to Release the Snyder cut of Justice League.

 All my criticism for Marvel apart- Endgame was an epic conclusion but didn’t really need to be 3 hours long. It didn’t have the substance to carry that length. It is an adequately enjoyable movie and obviously the hardcore fans will enjoy it a whole fucking lot. As an independent movie or even if combined with Infinity War, it doesn’t have the same intensity or pace. It is like an exciting new cocktail which feels and looks very innovative but doesn’t age well like the whiskey it’s based on.

Since Endgame is such a difficult movie to rate, I am coming up with a new rating for it.

Endgame is Fun but not gonna age well.

P.S,:- Endgame is

1) A long 3 hour movie

2) Has a lot of violence and death and serious scenes

3) Heroes have lost and are questioning themselves

4) The movie has a bloated middle act

5) It has a scene where one hero stops the other from fighting him by merely saying a beloved’s name.

6) The directors have had to frequently explain the movie.

So the movie is almost everything DCEU movies, particularly BvS was criticized for and yet this one appreciated.