The first trailer for John Wick 3: Parabellum made it clear that this beloved cult franchise, with its stylish action scenes, freewheeling Asian cinema influences, gleeful vengeance questing, and shameless dog loving, wasn’t going to dial back any of those things anytime soon.
John Wick: Chapter 3’s new trailer is big, silly, and perfect
More guns! More chase scenes! More dogs!
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Now, the newest trailer for the film, due out in May, ramps up the stakes, the violence, the horse-and-motorcycle chases through city streets, the number of dogs, and, above all, the beautiful high gloss on those action sequences.
Honestly, we have no idea what the specifics of this storyline are beyond “John Wick has to fight everyone,” because that’s always what John Wick has to do. After all, the appeal of John Wick movies is never in the details.
Still, we can parse that following the events of the second film, John flees New York City and sets out on a journey to meet his reluctant ally Sofia (Halle Berry) and the mysterious Director (Anjelica Huston), who tells him that the high-powered network of underground crime lords known as the High Table has placed a firm target on his back.
In order to survive, he has to turn not only to Sofia but to his on-again, off-again nemesis/frenemy Winston (Deadwood’s Ian McShane), who understands that his role in this series is to make Keanu Reeves look as good as possible, and thus generously supplies him with a room full of guns.
Despite this benevolence, most of the action in the trailer gives us lots of hand-to-hand fighting, mainly with swords, knives, knife-tossing, at least one rifle-tossing, and several dog attacks. And let’s not forget the mighty horse-on-biker sequence. Why, yes, we would like to see this glittering jewel of a mess in IMAX. Maybe Keanu’s voice will sound even thicker and yet more morphine-garbled! Maybe the dogs will be even better doggos, the swords even more swordy, the martial arts even more artful!
Long may John Wick fight for his life while searching for revenge upon all who have wronged him; his pain tastes delicious.
John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum is in theaters on May 17.
