John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 24, 2019

Well, let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat: there is no doubt going to be a John Wick: Chapter 4, at least as evidenced by the closing moments of this film where (minor spoiler alert, but only if you think it's a spoiler to reveal that the film's titular character and at least one other major character make it through the maelstrom to the end of the film) John (Keanu Reeves) and the so-called Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore (to purloin a quote from another famous film). And as odd as it may sound, there is in fact a kind of Network-esque madness running rampant through this so-called "third chapter" of the John Wick franchise (and is there any doubt that this is indeed a franchise by this point?). There's even a network of sorts running rampant through this film, namely The High Table, the super secret and super sinister organization that attempts to maintain order, if not always honor, among thieves. The fact that John Wick: Chapter 2 ended with John committing a major murderous faux pas means that much of this film is spent with John trying desperately to outrun the tentacles of an aggregation set on snuffing him out. Sound familiar?

John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum basically starts out at full bore gonzo and then repeatedly ups the ante with a succession of the kind of over top action scenes that have become one of this series’ calling cards. John is on the run, and seemingly everyone everywhere knows about it in a rain drenched, neon lit Manhattan that seems awfully like a vision ripped directly from Blade Runner. As is documented in a series of vignettes at the weirdly retro headquarters of The Table in New York, John is officially “excommunicado” and is “off limits” to any other Table acolytes. The fact that there’s also a 14 million dollar bounty on John’s head, which means that many of those aforementioned knowledgeable types about John’s travails are on the hunt for him, leads to several spectacular fight sequences.

There’s a wider fight that John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum is setting up, though, one hinted at by that high-falutin’ final word in this installment’s title, one which may sound familiar to those with a penchant for famous historical quotes like si vis pacem, para bellum, namely “if you seek peace, prepare for war.” Now the ironic thing is virtually no one in this enterprise is seeking peace, but several people, including John, the Bowery King, and Winston (Ian McShane), as well as this film’s sole attempt to let a female in on some of the action, a former cohort of John’s named Sofia (Halle Berry), are all preparing for war in their own ways — with The High Table. It takes a while to get there, but that is obviously going to be a major focus of whatever the next “chapter” in John Wick’s saga turns out to be.

As several of the cast and crew get into repeatedly in some of the supplements included on this release, there was a conscious attempt to give at least a little background on John in this film, and as such the story does offer some passing hints of a tidbit or two about his past, one of which which brings him back “home” to an imperious ballet instructor simply known as the Director (Anjelica Huston). This particular ballet school (which will no doubt remind some of Suspiria) also offers courses in martial arts, which is evidently where John learned at least some of his “particular set of skills”, but it’s also part of a community of what might have been called “gypsies” back in the day, and they have some extremely peculiar traditions, one of which provides one of this film’s more “wince- able”, squirm worthy moments.

The imperious nature of The High Table is actually personified in this installment in the form of one Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon), who starts making the rounds to the likes of Winston, the Bowery King and even the Director to let them know they’re all in “arrears” with regard to their required “fealty” to the organization. There’s also a completely bizarre plot development which finds John wandering through the desert in search of his spirit animal, or at least the so-called Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui), a rather youthful looking guy who offers to help John work out his “issues” with The High Table, though, again, after another wince-able moment that might have been just as at home, if not more so, in 47 Ronin. Speaking of ronin, the Adjudicator also recruits a sushi chef assassin (there must be a lot of those, don't you think?) named Zero (Mark Dacascos), who is out to prove he's Wick's equal and perhaps superior. You can probably guess how that one goes. It’s all relentlessly silly most of the time, interspersed with some absolutely graphic violence, but, much like the first two John Wick entries, there is such a nonstop array of action and such stylistic flair repeatedly on display that the kind of patently insane undertow of the film is never really a problem.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot with various Arri Alexa models (the film boasts the "captured with Alexa" logo in its closing credits roll) and finished at a 2K DI (according to the IMDb), John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum looks largely fantastic on Blu-ray, with one major contextual understanding: a lot of this film plays out in dark, often torrentially rainy, locations, and as such there is some passing and minor crush, along with occasional deficits in shadow detail. Otherwise, though, this is a stellar looking transfer, one with impressively deep blacks, and a really solid accounting of the film's purple, teal and blue infused palette. There are some really vivid looking sequences here, and some moments, as in the frankly weird desert scenes, pop with considerable energy and really excellent detail levels. Some of the interior scenes, notably some of the scenes in the Director's fortress, offer a beautifully lush palette (as in the Director's burgundy outfit), but not a ton of fine detail due to the overall darkness.

Note: For you packaging fans on the obsessive side (and you know who[m] you are), I have set this release's specs to say this has a slipcover, though as is usual with dual Liongate 4K UHD/Blu-ray releases, Lionsgate only sent the 4K version (which does have a slipcover). If it turns out the 1080p Blu-ray does not have a slipcover, either submit that spec change yourself, which I'll approve, or send me a private message and I can change it myself.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum features a stupendously energetic Dolby Atmos track that announces its "verticality" from the first moment, with a fantastically fun downward panning sound that immediately establishes the dimensionality of the sound design. The bustling, rainy urban environment provides a glut of opportunities for nice ambient environmental effects surrounding and occasionally passing over the listener, and the many bone crunching sound effects in the fight scenes are realistically spread throughout the sound stage. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly on this track, one that offers excellent fidelity and extremely wide dynamic range.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Parabellum: Legacy of The High Table (1080p; 10:57) is a decent EPK with interviews with the cast and crew and a discussion of this film's plot mechanics and hoped for aims.


• Excommunicado (1080p; 9:44) features many of the same interview subjects, ostensibly focusing on John's exile.


• Check Your Sights (1080p; 9:55) looks at some of the aspects of the action elements.


• Saddle Up Wick (1080p; 5:10) focuses on the film's goofily enjoyable horseback sequence.


• Bikes, Blades, Bridges, and Bits (1080p; 6:35) gets some kind of bonus points for using the Oxford comma in its title, but is otherwise a rather interesting piece getting into some of the set pieces in this film but also some of the history of filming the previous entries.


• Continental in the Desert (1080p; 10:15) looks at some of the exotic elements of the Moroccan setting of part of the film.


• Dog Fu (1080p; 8:04) is probably not the best piece for cat people.


• House of Transparency (1080p; 7:10) focuses on some aspects of the production design.


• Shot by Shot (1080p; 8:57) looks at the editing process.


• Theatrical Trailer 1 (1080p; 2:14)


• Theatrical Trailer 2 (1080p; 2:27)


• John Wick Hex Game Trailer (1080p; 1:05)


• Behind the Scenes of John Wick Hex (1080p; 6:54)

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum gives passing lip service to establishing, or at least hinting at, John's background, but it's really not all that necessary. There are probably going to be more questions than answers on the part of some fans after watching this enterprise in terms of what exactly The High Table is and what its methods hope to achieve, but this third chapter does an effective job of setting the (high?) table for a showdown in what I have to assume is an already in development fourth foray. Technical merits are first rate, and with an understanding that this is after all a "John Wick movie" (so you know what you're in for), John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum comes Recommended.