I think this is the worst of the Wick films so far. de Armas doesn’t bring anything interesting to the role, although she’s obviously capable of the physicality if requires. Attempts to contract the scale of the story collide with the contractual need to expand the world. The story itself is just a hamfisted bore, which doesn’t help matters.
The flame thrower stunts are all fantastic, but much of the choreography left me wondering why they didn’t just shoot Armas in the back during on the 800 opportunities they had to do so. Stuntmen are knocked down and take a very long time to get back up, but also seem totally fine, making me wonder why they all give Armas so much physical space. I never thought about any of this in the Wick films because they were never so lazy; those stuntmen were just gone. Wick seemed much more capable at his job.
By the time Wick shows up on screen — minor spoiler, I guess — the film makes it clear he’s much better at this job than Ana. But also, it sort of defeats the purpose. Wick is given literal plot armour with his previously-a-joke suit shield. And Reeves’s extremely ridiculous acting gives the series a bit of the charm it needs to be more than a by-the-numbers action movie of the week.
All that to say, it is a movie that can’t shed the heritage of its past, and refuses to try. It asks nothing of its audience and possibly goes so far as to disrespect them. Kind of a waste of talent and time for almost everybody involved.