John Wick chapter 3

For me it's getting more difficult to appreciate the gloriously simple joys of this series when it's becoming increasingly obvious that it's, well, a series.

Let there be no question: the action here is pretty magnificent - balletic and brutal. The first half hour or so may be the series at its absolute best: a series of hard-hitting, creative fight scenes. There's no chance for either the characters or audience to catch their breath, and the bone-crunching (and snapping) sound fairly roars out of the cinema speakers. It's some of the best action outside of The Raid (naturally, one of its stars pops up in a semi-major role). While repetition inevitably sets in during its lengthy final act, there are still successful efforts to keep things interesting - whether that's the gloriously Seijun Suzuki style sets, or the moments of comedy breaking up the ever mounting bodycount.

But I gotta be honest: I miss the no-nonsense simplicity of John Wick 1. The series is increasingly infatuated with its assassin lore, but to me what was once welcome colour is just now convoluted and messy. One big showpiece setpiece aside, a lot of the film's middle section is wheel-spinning and tediously plot-heavy, and there's so many double crosses and pacts here that it becomes unwelcome noise in a series that was born as elegantly back-to-basics action fodder (albeit with some clever world building to spice things up). And we're firmly into the territory of a 'franchise' now - the .

That Parabellum emerges as still pick of the litter when it comes to Hollywood action is testament to both Stahelski's go-for-broke direction and just the generally weak state of the genre outside of these vibrant, hyper-violent adventures with an angry superhuman. But honestly the deeper we dive into the Wick-verse, the more I wish this was still the story of a man who was just really ****ing mad about his dog getting killed.