Saw it today after missing some chances to catch it in theaters.
It was good, as expected. The action was great, the addition of having the final bad guys being heavily armored added some extra work for John and the Conceriege. I did enjoy seeing the team up aspect with that and also with Halle. The Raid actor fight at the end was great and my guy Mark Dacascos was an interesting character. Was clearly about that life, but was also a fan of John's and what they do as a whole. The franchise's ability to believably build this world and the people in it is really all the difference. They're fully leaning in to the world building with this one and that's the clear next step. In a way, it's the only way they can go... they can't just keep having John seeking revenge for a dog and a car, so this is the next logical step.
This one felt a bit too long... I lost interest a bit in the Halle escape fight, despite it being done excellently and the addition of the dogs. It felt a bit long, the glass breaking fight also felt a little ehh, but those are the biggest criticisms. Dragged a bit in those spots and they can't toe the line too much with the world building and having it actually mean something. The ninja assassin was a nice addition, I liked the Adjudticator and she was played well, but if you do that too much you're going to start wearing thin... like with the Man above the Table. I get he's supposed to be mysterious and an unknown, but at some point if we have nothing but unknown or mystery characters, they won't have any weight or impact.
That's me thinking a bit too critically to a franchise that should never have been this good. The first one was a surprise... they came back strong for the second.. and the third movie in ANY franchise being good is playing with house money. So for them to have three great movies and give fresh life to the action genre as well as being a creative and interesting universe organically? Truly impressive stuff.
