Adam Lark
My initial thoughts roll exactly as they have on my Facebook page, concise and actually needed prior to viewing this film. I normally just tip my toe in the waters of a film to really sense how I feel about something and this film has created an exception. An exception to explain this movie with more depth and a report upon watching this as, well fuck, I became “that guy” to use this term, an EXPERIENCE. It was my mia culpa to not watch the first two John Wick chapters in theaters. I had my luxury at home but have since missed the theatrical nature of this beautifully chaotic story come to pass on the big screen. So, in an effort of effigy to my former self not taking this series seriously since the initial John Wick film, I am here to just do two things: be lazy and post an initial though upon John Wick: Chapter 3 and to repent my initial missed opportunity as to how films like this are to be seen. Sure, we can enjoy those Netflix yarns or “catch it on Redbox,” but my answer to that will be one of a forlorn way of thinking: CATCH SHIT LIKE THIS WHILE YOU CAN! Seriously. Okay, now to my first promise, my initial Facebook review from the initial viewing:
“Simply
stated? The recipe is a doozy: 80,000 CC’s of wanton destruction, fascinating
cinematography, incredible fight choreography, intense sound design, and
interwoven callbacks make for one of the best action movies of the last 20
years. Top 10, easily. My only gripes would be that even though the fight
scenes were nothing short of sensational, some fights drone on a bit too long-
but hey! We were buffed up to expect that since the first two entries, so we
will live while the assassin fodder does not.
Tons of fun, lots of movie violence taken to the next level with an overdose of
your suspension of disbelief. You almost need a nap for John Wick’s sake after
the adrenal fatigue and superhuman levels of taking out the trash with guns,
axes, knives, horses (yeah), a book (yep), and some motorcycles (hell
yeah).
If you were ever a fan of action movies that push
the threshold of violence that showcase insane dances of death, this is not to
be missed. Check it out and holy shit, the gunshot counter is off the chain.” –
Adam Lark on Facebook.
Boy, was I so good back there! However, I am missing certain pieces to this experience as a whole. Long ago, I was a young man who loved Terminator 2: Judgement Day as my favorite action movie of all time. It still is. However, looking back into the 2010’s, we missed shock and awe in the movie violence department as to the shock and awe to in the favor of the main characters. I liked that shit. We all did in the 90’s. Since then, the majority has been horror movies that show depravity upon idiots that we cannot wait to die. Whatever. Action movies do the most to just prove that the good guy always wins with cartoonish results. This fad has since been… boring. Take it from me, I have only watched the first Fast & Furious film and never looked back. So many movies have been so meh in the action genre to show us how WELL the action has been pulled off. I, as mentioned earlier, have made a grave mistake of not watching John Wick since the series’ inception back in 2014 to get that groove back of loving the protagonist of not only being forthright, but kickass in the best ways possible.
I deeply will defend John Wick: Chapter 3 as the greatest time at the movies watching relentless violence without disposing of any pleasantries to give us the goods and the antagonists get their slim chances of being remembered in the shadow of the neo-noir hero known as John Wick, The Baba Yaga. That name? Always confused me. I work with an Armenian woman who corrects me on what the Baba Yaga was yet will instill my disbelief into who John Wick is. “The Killer of the Boogey man” Cool as fuck indeed.
The lore is what it is: follow it as you do. Nothing makes it add up like the action and influence the characters portray in real time, so make a trip to Wikipedia.org or watch the first two films to catch up in real-time. This film stands on its own as one of the greatest action films of the last 20 years. FUCKING EASILY! I loved every frame of it. Every shot of the cinematography was never brain-addled. It shockingly made sense. More of a visual story than one of the path of our hero is my only admission of guilt, and some of the fight scenes do go on for a bit more than we want. As said before in the Facebook jam, we will live whilst the goons do not. I simply dig this film in the way that it deserves to be: an unbridled ride into the best action we have seen in decades without any sour reciprocity of “the good guy needs to just win?” John Wick: Chapter 3 throws that book into your throat, smashes it and breaks your neck to finally understand that neo-noir violence does not need to condemn a hero for his violent deeds, condone a blessed hero for his will do live, nor be on the side of the sanctity of a form of justice to become an entertaining film to rile us up for the right reasons.
John Wick… is John Wick. And we love all of the carnage that is, can be, will be, and secure the truth that neo-noir justice is a flavor of a genre as addictive as all other – perhaps efven more with such great execution. Pun intended.
9/10
“Guns… Lots of guns.”
