A spectacle of violence

Johnson Thomas

Stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski returns to direct this third edition of the hit man saga where the legendary assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is forced to fight his way out of New York when a $14 million contract on his life makes him the target of the world's top assassins.

Every step Wick takes in New York is perilous, and we see Wick fending off a flurry of assassins each one increasingly more capable than the other. Wick has to get out of the city and in order to seek safe passage he meets with a chilly prima donna (Anjelica Huston ), who grants him his wish after branding him with his talisman. 

Morrocco is no easy street either. Once there he seeks out Sophia (Halle Berry), whose daughter he had saved a decade ago, has another date with action and then sets off for the desert. This film marks Wick’s first real journey outside New York – But Wick comes back after winning his spurs and goes on a never ending rampage thereafter.

While Wick is kept busy fighting for his life, a mysterious "Adjudicator" (Asia Kate Dillon) representing the criminal cabal known as the High Table, visits his supporters and sets out punishment for their breaking the rules. Winston (Ian McShane), who runs the assassins' hotel called The Continental, and the king of the Bowery's bums (Laurence Fishburne) are given seven days to put their affairs while an incessant phalanx of assassins, including Zero (Mark Dacascos), a crew of Ninjas, a set of armed Europeans, a multicultural gang, including two bladesmen (Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian from the Raid series) religiously pursue and attack John Wick all along his route to Morocco and back.

While John Wick is not cinema at its best, it certainly is an action extravaganza designed to set off an adrenaline rush. The fight choreography is intricate, superbly designed and technically accomplished. But despite the two hour plus of masterfully executed mayhem, there’s no purchase for continued enchantment here. Reeves glazed look doesn’t help even though his athletic build and speedy movies do their bit. 

It’s really difficult to believe in an undefeatable, indefatigable superhero that has no superpowers (the kind we know of) and yet comes out of every life-threatening scrape to fight another war. 

The mystique may be well laid out but the mythology is not exactly convincing. This one is a well laid out killing field but the body count is so high that even the most eager fan of this franchise would find himself hard-pressed to believe.