I watched the second one again last night for comparison (watched the first a few weeks ago), and I think I have to agree that the second one had a better story than the third from a film standpoint. The third though has much better fights and a lot more action, and seems like it focuses more on being a martial arts ass beating fest. The story isn’t bad, I found myself engaged the entire film, but I don’t think it was as good a story as the second and possibly the first (haven’t decided). However, as said, it is a better action flick than the previous two installments. Seemed like it had a bit more humor as well, such as with Zero uncomfortably sitting right next to him on the couch, and the chain of kids that passed in between them in the train station when they were about to fight.
I’d actually rank it second in the series thus far. First one is the weakest for me so far simply because I think it was a bit slower than 2 and 3. That’s not to say that I think it’s bad at all. First one is still a good film, I’d just rank it as being the weakest if I had to.
They left this one on a cliffhanger as well, so I hope a JW4 is in the works.
As a side note, after watching the second last night, a couple of inconsistencies I noticed is that when Winston told him that his excommunicado would go in effect in one hour, Winston’s watch showed it was 4 pm, meaning it would have started at 5, not 6 like as was said in JW3. Also, the Kimber that Bowery King gave him in JW2 had black grips, not the wood grips like when the Adjudicator held it up to show Bowery King in JW3.
