YMMV / John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Winston's actions in the last scene. Did he actually intend to kill John at the end or was he merely pretending to play along to satisfy the Adjudicator to save himself from the High Table's wrath and get his Continental business back? If he really wanted John dead, Winston could've easily shot at John's unprotected head instead of shooting multiple times at John's bulletproof suit, suggesting he was trying to arrange the incident in such a way that John could still make his way out if he didn't die from the fall. He also didn't bother to double check if John was really dead until the Adjudicator informed him later, despite knowing that John is Made of Iron and he had survived much, much worse than this. He also doesn't seem particularly surprised or concerned that John's body isn't found. Not to mention that his conflict with the High Table comes from him giving John a chance instead of just killing him in the first place.
  • Would Zero really not have stopped at the sight of kids like John did? Was he letting them pass and holding back so John would be focused on fighting him without the concern of bothering civilians? Was he only just trying to freak out/impress John with how ruthless he could be?
• Awesome Art: This poster by Bill Ellis◊ casts John as the Angel of Death in a faux-religious tableau where the beams of light emanating from his halo are the blades of medieval weapons. It's insanely detailed and dripping with atmosphere.
• Awesome Music: From the first trailer there's a remix/cover of "The Impossible Dream" by Andy Williams. The already cinematically bombastic arrangement, paired with the lyrics told from the perspective of Don Quixote, end up complimenting John's seemingly endless quest for revenge and freedom, culminating in the lyrics "to be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause" as John plows through goons with dogged determination.
• Contested Sequel: While critical reviews have been strong, regular moviegoers have been split on whether it measures up to the first two or not. Many love it for upping the stakes once again and the new worldbuilding elements, while detractors dislike it for its pacing, making everything John was trying to accomplish be for naught and having the ending be yet another cliffhanger to be resolved in another film, with many several starting to feel Arc Fatigue from John being little to no closer to getting out of the mess he's in than he was before.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sofia's two pet Belgian Malinois. They're adorable, loyal, great fighters and the concept of armored dogs taking down dangerous gunmen just works so well in the John Wick universe.
  • The two Shinobi, Zero's apprentices. Their actors are The Raid alumni, and their fight with John is considered among the best in this film, which already had a high bar.
• Even Better Sequel: Early critical reviews have stated that the film manages to be even better than its predecessors, improving on important areas such as the action sequences.
  Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus: John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum reloads for another hard-hitting round of the brilliantly choreographed, over-the-top action that fans of the franchise demand.
• Fanfic Fuel: An inhumanly capable killer? Alamut references? A cut off ring finger? Betcha already figuring out that John Wick/Assassin's Creed crossover fic.
• Genius Bonus:
  • John's Book Safe is hidden inside a copy of Alexander Afanasyev's Russian Fairy Tales, behind the illustration for "Vasilisa the Beautiful"... one of many stories featuring Baba Yaga.
  • And another: The Bowery King talks about his pigeons being the same as the Internet on some level. Believe it or not, a proposal for Internet Protocol implementation exists that uses carrier pigeons instead of wires or radio waves. It was tested and proven workable, although loading the smallest web page takes days.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: John declaring "No, I don't think I will" with regard to killing Winston on the High Table's behalf became more amusing when Parabellum became the first film to top the charts after Avengers: Endgame, which memorably (and memetically) used the exact same line.
• Iron Woobie: John Wick again.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Shinobi are the Co-Dragons to the ruthless assassin Zero, matching and even exceeding their master in sheer tenacity and honor. Helping Zero to tactically wipe out enemies of the Continental and slaying enemy assassins before they can touch John Wick, the two find their finest moments when they challenge John Wick to a direct fight. Ambushing Wick and getting him into a position where they can kill him twice over, the Shinobi instead elect to spare his life both times for the honor and thrill of fighting Wick, and their sense of fair play leads to John Wick returning the favor and sparing their lives out of mutual respect.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The aforementioned puppy exchange between John and the Director was expanded upon:
    "It wasn't just a puppy... it was John Wick's puppy."
  • Ninja Re Bang Bang ^explanation Even if it was for a single scene as diegetic background music, fans are absolutely baffled by the mere inclusion of this song in an otherwise gritty, neo-noir action thriller.
    • John Weeb ^explanation In spite of John being nowhere near the scene where the song played, fans joke that John is a big fan of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and this is the song playing through his head as he slaughters his enemies.
  • John Wick is a Jojo ^Explanation Following the reveal of John's actual birth name as Jardani Jovanovic, Jojo fans noticed that if the first name of his current alias and the last name of his original identity are put together, they create "John Jovanovic". Jokes about him being the new protagonist of Part 9 inevitably emerged, as well as fanart of him alongside a Stand of his very own (often one resembling a dog). Considering that both series have villains that literally Kick the Dog, the similarities got even more hilarious, and it doesn't help that Keanu Reeves himself likes anime and took a photograph next to Hatsune Miku.
• Narm Charm:
  • The amount of bladed weapons thrown during the armory fight is nothing short of absurd, but considering it takes place in an armory and every fighter is a Combat Pragmatist, anything else would be strange. Even more amusingly since none of the knives that are thrown are actual throwing knives a lot of them just end up bouncing harmlessly off their target. Even several of John's end up just bopping someone in the head or chest.
  • Once again, the assassins have a fight in a metro which everyone is indifferent to. And this time they are very publicly stabbing people in the middle of a crowd, the bodies falling to the floor with none of the bystanders caring. In a way it really cements how crazy this world is.
  • There are many moments during fight scenes that feature a brief Beat, as though the characters are taking a second to recognize how absurd everything has gotten. This is perhaps best seen when John is thrown through a glass case...then another...then another...then another!
  • Even with all the unlikely weapons that John has used throughout the series, it's still pretty absurd when his murder weapon is a horse, twice. But it's so awesome that it's hard to care.
  • The scene where Wick disassembles several revolvers to fire a specific bullet has been mocked as possibly the most inefficient way possible to access a weapon, yet gets a pass due to being a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
  • By all accounts, John's fight against the two shinobi should be goofy. Between all three men obviously pulling their punches and the height difference between Wick and the shinobi (prompting comparisons to a father play-fighting his children or a schoolyard bully picking on younger kids in YouTube uploadings), the narm potential is there. However, the impressive choreography and the fact that it's Keanu Reeves showing his martial arts chops against the two Big Bad of the two Raid films pushes it into Cool Versus Awesome territory instead.
• Special Effect Failure: John's "missing" finger can still be seen a couple of times after it's supposed to have been chopped off.
• Squick:
  • In the armoury fight, John slowly forces a knife into the eye of one of his attackers. There is no Gory Discretion Shot, except in Australia where it was cropped slightly, most likely to ensure it received a lower mature rating from the censors, as opposed to an adults only rating.
  • The camera is lovingly close as we watch one of the Director's girls casually tear off a toenail.
• Unintentional Period Piece: In the opening as John is in Time Square figuring out where to go before his hour's up, an ad for Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation—released in summer 2018—is shown on the screen.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many viewers mistake the Adjudicator for being a female character when in reality they are a non-binary character, just like their actor.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The motorcycle battle seamlessly shifts from sections shot on location to those shot in front of a green screen. The CGI elements are also so good that it's almost impossible to tell that the more dangerous stunts weren't actually performed by humans.

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