John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

I don’t like watching action movies and this movie reminded me why. I do have to admit that I didn’t watch the first two movies in the John Wick series, so it’s very likely that I was missing several important parts of the story. If you loved this movie and are offended by anything I say, just remember that I’m a little bit uncultured. I watched all of the fighting scenes with my eyes half-opened because every blow made me cringe. There was a part of the movie where somebody cuts off their own finger. I definitely didn’t love that. And a toenail being peeled off of a toe? Nope.

As for minority representation in the movie, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot going in but was pleasantly surprised at their addition of a non-binary character. It’s not emphasized or brought up at all in the movie, but the actor is non-binary, so they asked if The Adjudicator could also be non-binary and the director agreed. It’s nice to see that the character isn’t consumed by their gender identity, although it is hard to know whether or not this is canon unless you watch cast interviews online, especially because no one in the film refers to them using any pronouns at all. It would have been even better if we were able to see their they/them pronouns in action. Nonetheless, it’s obvious in the movie that The Adjudicator doesn’t conform to a gender binary. They are also a major character in the film, and the story would be greatly impacted if they were removed.

There are two major female characters in the movie and only one of them is named (Halle Berry as Sofia), while the other is simply The Director. They were so close. Some say that a title like this one is enough to pass as being a named character for the Bechdel test, but there are more than two male characters that are referred to using real names. Granted, there are also men in the film who simply have a title like The Doctor and the Tick Tock Man. Perhaps it is simply an artistic choice and not a sexist one. The two female characters never have a conversation with each other, though. When they say the film is about John Wick, they mean the film is about John Wick. I did like that Halle Berry’s character was portrayed as a strong female character. In fact, both female characters were. Sofia wasn’t afraid to fight and definitely didn’t depend on John Wick and The Director was shown to be a strong, scary leader.

Okay, okay, so looking back, the movie wasn’t actually that terrible. It’s one of the highest-grossing movies of this year, so it definitely has the appeal. I do need to address the way Keanu Reeves runs in the movie, though, what?? It wouldn’t be a huge deal, but he just runs so much. I’m sorry, Keanu, I loved you in Bill and Ted :)