Hm… are they using CGI in this chapter? They’ve doubled the budget again, so perhaps sending a helicopter up to shoot some footage was just too cheap now…

And the cinematography has changed quite a bit again.

Hey! How come he has a new shirt since the previous movie!? No blood stains on the collar!

This movie does not look as good as the second movie. Everything is just kinda washed out? It’s the same cinematographer, though.

The first movie had quite a bit of plot, and the second had, too — but this one is just, like, an extended action sequence? They could have added two hours to the second movie and that would have been these scenes.

But they’re good action scenes and all, so I’m not complaining. It’s just kinda odd is all.

OK, now we’re getting plot.

The more they develop the crime syndicate thing (modelled after the Vatican?) the sillier it gets.

All these movies have cute puppies.

Kitten!

This movie ups the humour in the action scenes, which is nice. But the scenes in between the action scenes just isn’t that compelling — several of them just kinda drag, and that hasn’t been the case in the first two films, really.

And things just don’t look as real as in the second film. I mean — this probably is a real shot? But it doesn’t look like it is, and it’s the same with a lot of the shots…

So from now on every shot of Keanu’s hand is going to be a special effects shot?

It’s weird that a huge increase in budget would lead to them using more CGI… I mean, it looks good, but…

It’s getting really video gamey now — the bad guys have levelled up and have magic armour that means that you have to shoot everybody a lot to make a difference.

OK, now they’re getting more effective guns, too.

And then we end with a … knife fight? That seems to go on forever? That’s anticlimactic.

Oh, OK, it’s not the end yet. Still 20 minutes to go?

*sigh*

This isn’t as good as the second movie. The second movie just looked really good, and didn’t have any boring bits. This feels like it’s treading water at times — it’s bit flabby. Not hugely, though. If they’d dropped, like, 15 minutes of the scenes where people are standing around talking about Rules and The Table, then it would have been a whole lot less boring.

John Wick 3: This Time It’s Personal. Chad Stahelski. 2019. ⚂

It’s a new Russian villain! The brother of the previous one.

This movie admirably dispenses with exposition in a couple of minutes, and then we’re in a car chase.

The cinematography on this one seems a lot better than the first one. The first one was relentlessly colour graded, making everything look rather blah, but here we seem to have actual colours. And while the action is still happening in dark environments, you can see what’s happening (instead of guessing, like in the first movie). Did this have a way higher budget than the first movie?

Yup — according to imdb, this was $40M, while the first was $20M. So they had more money for lighting.

Oh, OK. In this one we get the touchy feely stuff after a bit of action…

So who’s gonna kill the dog this time?

Oh, the villain this time isn’t Russian, but Italian? Or something?

Cool.

I assume this is a composite shot (because the elements just seem to fantastic), but it looks really good.

Heh heh. They’re going full Bond nonsense in this one?

It’s kinda shamelessly stupid, and I like that.

Rawk!

OK, this bit is like watching somebody play a video game, which isn’t great.

This really has spectacular use of location. It feels extremely… there… and it’s very pretty.

The first movie had some pretensions towards realism (however slight), but this is pure fantasy land, which is a lot more fun.

Brian Blessed!

But now it went from pleasantly absurd to silly. One gun? With seven bullets? But why?

This movie looks better than movies that cost five times as much. I guess it’s because they actually built these fun sets instead of just CGI-ing it in?

It’s really an enjoyable if nonsensical movie, but it’s too bad they couldn’t come up with an ending, and instead it just say that it’s going to continue in the next film. Isn’t he even going to be able to change his shirt before the next film?

Anyway, it’s one of those extremely rare sequels that are better than the original.

John Wick 2: The Wickening. Chad Stahelski. 2017. ⚄

I haven’t seen these John Wick movies, because I assumed that they were, well, pretty tedious, but I’ve recently seen several people with good taste state that they rather like these films, so I went ahead and bought the box set.

This better be good!

This is from 2014 — the apex (or possibly the zenith) of the Colour Grading Wars. Not a single pixel will make it to the screen with the actual colour it had when filming!

Aww.

OK, now the revenge is gonna start?

This is actually pretty well made. I mean, they are fridging the dog to give him a reason to start killing people (which is a better twist on this than usual — fridging a daughter or wife would be more traditional), but they’re also giving us a reason to care first. Which is unusual. That is, they managed to make the Keanu character both sympathetic and interesting in a very efficient (and non-clichéd) way.

But now I’m wondering whether he’s gonna get a new dog for each movie?

It’s too bad the fighting is happening in darkness, really… Not a very confident approach.

It’s Bergerac!

Finally! Ultraviolence!

The whole point of this movie is presumably to allow people to enjoy watching Keanu kill a whole bunch of Russians, so it’s a bit odd that it’s taken this long… but on the other hand, there’s 50 minutes to go, so perhaps the rest of the movie is just going to be Russapocalypse?

Very practical to have the sight light up your face.

I guess this is more of a fantasy movie than an action movie… The fantasy being that there’s a whole underworld of elegant hotels and clubs for elegant assassins etc.

I’m not quite sure how to throw the die on this one. Were the action sequences good? Yes. Was I bored? Yes. Was it interesting? Kinda.

John Wick. Chad Stahelski, David Leitch. 2014. ⚃