John Wick 3 (4½ Stars)

The third part of the John Wick film series – it's definitely not a trilogy – begins immediately after the cliffhanger at the end of the second film. John Wick has been excommunicated from the unnamed organisation that he works for. A $14 million bounty has been put on his head. Now he's on the run, trying to get out of New York before he's killed. He can't rely on his friends, so he approaches former acquaintances who owe him favours. These "favours" are held in markers that contain the blood of the debtor.

John makes his way to Casablanca, where the manager of the local Continental Hotel is indebted to him for saving her daughter. That's also a blood marker. He wants her help finding the man who is above the High Table.

That's as far as I can go without giving away spoilers.

The John Wick films have been excellently written and directed, and the third part is no exception. In each film new aspects of the parallel world are unveiled on the fly. There's no pause to explain, but we're given all the information we need to understand what's happening. The battle scenes are even more extreme than in "Kill Bill". In Quentin Tarantino's film there's at least a vestige of credibility to the one-against-a-hundred fight scenes. In the John Wick films the fights are pushed to the limits, so that it's difficult to accept that one man can win against so many. John is like a ballet dancer leaping through the fight scenes with a gun in his hand. It's surreal, and it's brilliant.

One small criticism is that a lot of the scenes are underlit. These scenes take place at night, but they should still be bright enough to be seen clearly. I'll have to watch these scenes carefully when I own the film on Blu ray.