Where I Watched It: not On peacock

English Audio Description Available?: Yes

If you follow my every move, you already heard what i had to say about having watched john Wick on Peacock, and also Chapter 2. Neither had audio description, but both left the service at the beginning of May. I last saw them on FreeVee. The problem is, I’m still trying to finish this cycle, and be ready for Chapter 4, but I’ve also never seen Parabellum.

it was easier for me to sit through the first two films without audio description to allow myself the opportunity to discuss exactly how absurd the franchise is without audio description. knowing how unwatchable this series is if you can’t appreciate the barrage of action sequences, I found a different way to watch Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 picks up exactly where Chapter 2 left off. Perhaps maybe a minute or two after. But, john has just killed someone on hallowed ground, and he is now ex-communicado, which means you are dead to the world. It’s the Wick equivalent of not having a social media presence. Or a cell phone. Or both. That level of isolation. how do you function? You call in favors.

That’s how we get Halle Berry, who once again joins a franchise in a badass role that deserves her own spinoff and won’t get one. After failing to launch a jinx franchise, or Storm, Berry is the personification of missed opportunities. In a world where we must make live action versions of anything that was ever animated, Berry has quite a treasure trove of characters worthy of self exploration. but, instead, we’ll remake Moana.

Another new standout was Asia Kate Dillon, who i didn’t even realize was in the film until my post-film IMDB. I noticed the audio description was going out of their way to use gender neutral pronouns for a character, which i thought was interesting since this character hadn’t been introduced with such pronouns before. It makes me think about this non-binary world, and when you see a character that isn’t defined, how does the narrator know that the character isn’t non-binary?

It’s not like in other movies we don’t run into nameless characters who get easily thrown into he/she based on how they look, or potentially based on what the narrator knows about the film in general. but for characters that remain undefined, like The protagonist in Tenant, what about that performance made it he/him by default, but made this they/them?

Of course, we are assuming now that every role that Asia takes from now on will be non-binary, but that may not always be true. The actor responsible for the fan favorite Taylor Mason on Billions, did start their career early on with a role on Orange Is The New Black, as a female character. And if you’re thinking this is an argument against they/them, it’s actually not. I genuinely want to know why other characters are immediately given he/she but Dillon’s character was given they/them. Shouldn’t we be trying to stay as neutral as possible until that information is given? I’m currently five episodes into a netflix show where a character still has no name, but has a gender and is described often by her looks. The narration is going out of its way to not use the character name until it is given in the show, so shouldn’t that extend to other things as well?

I know you expected me to come in here and talk about the well described action sequences, and of course, that’s what this movie is. The Wick universe is as predictable as the Fast franchise at this point, trying to up itself not through plot, but stunt work. It’s kind of the opposite of what’s happening with the mission Impossible franchise, which makes sure that the script evolves along with whatever nonsense Tom Cruise is about to put himself through.

So, Parabellum has the highest body count, and the best action set pieces. it also continues to explore and lay out the groundwork for this world, which increasingly makes less sense. It would seem, as Jason Mantazoukas’s random cameo suggests, that everyone is a trained assassin, or works for the high table. There are no normal people in this world. I guess that’s what made John’s wife so special. Finding that one person is a needle in a haystack. When Wick’s contract is launched, suddenly the sneakiest hitman becomes a Kardashian, and everyone is paparazzi. He’s as recognizable as Gaga, and everyone he runs into seemingly is a threat. It is a bit much.

but we don’t choose these films for the plot, we choose them for the action, and this tops the first two. It may have left me with some hard questions about audio description, but it also left me wanting more.

Final Grade: B+