Seriously massive shout out to cinematographer Dan Laustsen. No jumpy cut-aways, only months – YEARS – of sweat-and-grit soaked training put to use. Parabellum’s adversarial combat strikes with bone-crushing force, but remains symphonically elegant like a ballet with axe fights captured through steady cinematography. Reeves, being a trained kung fu student (Jiu Jitsu, Wushu, Boxing and Krav Maga), can keep pace with the quicker, more agile styles of Indonesia’s Pencak Silat for example. Stateside action so frequently relies upon haymaker punches and body-throwing as muscly weightlifter molds wield brute force over agility (hidden by dizzying camera “tricks”). If you can’t beat ‘em into a juicy pulp, why not join ‘em? International megastars Mark Dacascos ( Brotherhood Of The Wolf), Yayan Ruhian ( The Raid), Tiger Hu Chen ( Man Of Thai Chi) and Cecep Arif Rahman ( The Raid 2) lend their competitive fire and fluid martial arts choreography to Wick’s kill-a-minute world. I’ve long argued that Stahelski’s John Wick entries are the only American action films graceful and punishing enough to compete with next-level foreign action trends – Indonesia, China – but Parabellum goes one step further to prove itself.
Think video game architectures and button-mashing combination specials, leaning into divine melee mastery served on a silver platter to action fans. Parabellum doesn’t hide narrative shortcomings in cyclicality, inconsequence and coincidences that work to keep Wick alive while reaching the next fight stage. One must accept that John Wick movies are filling in for 80s-era action headliners where plot doesn’t matter because Sly or Arnold bash henchmen senseless. Kolstad’s four-person screenwriting collective takes John Wick from New York City’s horse-and-carriage stables to Casablanca’s orangiest desert dunes, if only to exploit more exotic backdrops for Keanu’s master marksman to splatter brains against. Can someone with Wick’s assassination skills survive against waves of contract killers hungry for his bounty? Especially while still recovering from his John Wick: Chapter 2 injuries? “Baba Yaga” earned his deathly nickname for a reason, but with the untouchable High Table’s “Adjudicator” (Asia Kate Dillon) ensuring disciplinary consequences correct behavior, Wick’s going to need more than a few holstered pistols to mount his defense. All card-holding rights revoked, blacklisted by Continental employees, and $14 million placed on his head. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) finds himself “Excommunicado” on the streets of New York City after killing Santino D’Antonio on Continental grounds.
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