This review of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum pretty much echoes my own feelings, especially this bit:
“But as masterfully executed as the action is, watching two-plus hours of mayhem without any palpable dramatic stakes, or nuance, or any emotion at all save bloodlust offers undeniably diminishing returns.”
Despite going into them with low expectations, I really liked the first movie, and especially the second, because as over-the-top as they were, there were pretty simple stories to follow, and Wick himself was sympathetic.
I found it much harder to understand the logic of Chapter 3, or to care much about the characters. There were a lot of good ideas, yet none of them seemed to add up to much. The action scenes were amazing, but without stakes, they started to feel gratuitous. Boring, even.
I’ll still be there if there’s a Chapter 4. If so, let’s hope the filmmakers can recapture the formula that made Chapter 2 so good: stakes + a clear goal + great action = a cracking good time.