Ballerina
After the massive success of the 2014 action film sensation, John Wick, the prospect of turning it into a franchise would’ve been too juicy for Lionsgate to ignore, especially with it easily being their most profitable and fertile option now that Hunger Games had somewhat left the building. While this unsurprisingly led to three direct sequels to the Keanu Reeves-led original film, several spin-offs were also set to be released in the near future, with the first being a similarly positioned action flick starring Ana de Armas titled Ballerina. While fans were excited to see a brand-new story in this slowly expanding universe, there was also a fair share of hesitancy as it was going to be the first John Wick property not driven by the iconic assassin, so it had to prove it could survive without assistance, and thankfully, it looks like Ballerina managed to stick the landing.
After losing her father to a group of cultist who appeared to be searching for her, a young girl named Eve (played by Victoria Comte) is taken in by The Director (played again by Anjelica Huston), the leader of an organization of ballerina assassins known as the Ruska Roma, and while she struggles at first, her determination to succeed eventually forms her into a fighter just as fearsome as any other training alongside her. Now fully matured (and now played by Ana de Armas), Eve takes down an assailant on one of her assignments that shares an arm branding with the people that killed her father all those years ago, and even though she is told to leave it alone by The Director, Eve decides to go rogue and learn the truth. Upon discovering that these marked folk are part of an anarchistic death cult of assassins that her father was previously a part of, history repeats itself right in front of Eve’s eyes as she watches another deserter named Daniel (played by Norman Reedus) get critically wounded by the assassins and his daughter, Ella (played by Ava McCarthy) taken back to their community of killers, giving Eve even more of a reason to track them down and kill the leader and mastermind behind all this mayhem, the Chancellor (played by Gabriel Byrne). Now with nothing left to lose and with John Wick (played again by Keanu Reeves) on her trail after the Director put a hit on her to prevent a potential war between factions, Eve will pull out all the stops and brutalize as many henchmen as she needs to in order to get her long sought-after revenge.
Ballerina may not have a very original premise or contain much in terms of shocking plot twists or three-dimensional characters, but much like the film that started this universe, it manages to work in spite of this and pulls out a thrilling, well-acted, romp of a feature that proves its merits through competent direction, brutal fight sequences, sparkly visuals, and enough engagement to last its entire running time.
Even if this was going to be the first John Wick film not directed by one of its original creators, there was still plenty of old blood attached, including returning screenwriter, Shay Hatten, producers, Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, composers Tyler Bates and Joe J. Richard, production company 87Eleven Entertainment, and actors like Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, the late Lance Reddick (with this being his final acting appearance before his death) and Keanu Reeves (who also acted as a producer), so it wasn’t like it was left out to dry. What didn’t feel very convincing was the seeming lack of faith plainly felt through the advertising, with trailers that looked pretty tepid for such a bombastic franchise and the forceful pushing of many of the returning characters regardless of screen time coming across as having no confidence in the new stuff they created.
What’s ironic is that upon viewing the film, this uncertainty seems quite ridiculous as the film is more than good enough to comfortably sustain itself with its newly conceived characters and plot, however simplistic they may be. Much like how the first film managed to be so enthralling and sparky despite housing a basic (even silly) premise, this movie harbors the very cliched narrative of ‘’protagonist tries to track down evil villain to take vengeance on them for killing a loved one’’ and somehow still make engaging and effective even though it doesn’t really do anything that different. This more than likely comes down to the wonderful cast who add a lot of subtle depth and personality to even background characters, the action scenes which always feel larger-than-life yet still feel gritty and harsh, the world which still has so many interesting aspects to explore that it never gets tiring to be in, and the script, which while easy to predict, is tightly woven within the film’s two hour running time.
While director Len Wiseman, might seem like a risky choice due to his minimal filmography being a bit mixed, his work on the Underworld franchise may’ve shown how he could flourish in this universe, as at least the first film, while critically panned, received some praise for its fleshed out mythology, striking visual and costume style, and stoic yet still engaging characters (which this universe thrives on) so it might’ve been a decent match. However, all of this is overlooking the behind-the-scenes shake up that occurred late in the filming process, as Chad Stahelski (director of all four previous John Wick films) did take over as an uncredited director for reshoots to improve some of the action scenes, and additional writers were brought on to touch up the script, including Michael Finch, Rebecca Angelo, Lauren Schuker Blum, and Emerald Fennell, emphasizing that while the movie has a lot of good qualities, it isn’t a perfectly constructed piece of art, and that becomes very apparent during the climax.
While the first two acts are well engineered and keep the plot flowing quite smoothly, the third act is where spots in the script start to prop up; story threads that should feel relevant don’t have as much impact as they should, John Wick’s involvement feels very forced in and doesn’t contribute much outside of fan service, and while the conclusion is still satisfactory, it could’ve been even more effective if these tiny details were stitched together a little better.
Since Keanu Reeves got a career revival thanks to the original film, it only makes sense that other stars would want to have their own chance to shine in a similar fashion, and Ana da Armas felt like someone who would do well in this specific spotlight. While her roles in action films were few and far between (and one of them was Ghosted so that’s not the greatest display), her brief but memorable appearance in the latest James Bond film, No Time to Die, proved that she could provide the stunt work while also bringing a lot of character to even a minor part, making her a prime fit for this universe and it really worked out beautifully.
Even though Eve has a very standard backstory and doesn’t have a very distinct personality, Ana da Armas’ very physical and visceral performance does a great job making her a passionate, vulnerable and engaging leading character who you want to see get her revenge. The way she handles herself in the action is very hands-on and fluid, yet still gloriously brutal, her interactions with the other characters are always gripping thanks to her composed but still emotive delivery, and her very upfront, to-the-point, and quick-to-grasp identity makes her (like John Wick before her) a nice stable heroine to follow in this world of extravagant goodies and baddies.
The rest of the cast aren’t as interesting but mostly still work in the film’s favor. It’s nice to see Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick again, and brief parts from people like Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Abraham Popoola and Rila Fukushima add more colorful life to this world, but sadly a lot of the more prominent side characters strangely don’t feel as thought out. While it’s nice to see someone like Norman Reedus in the John Wick space, his character feels very underdeveloped, which can also be said for his daughter, Ella, as while both act as a nice parallels to the main character’s origins, they don’t get enough screen time to fully form a bond and therefore, feel like afterthoughts once the plot passes them by. Keanu Reeves was obviously going to be featured since the creatives seem terrified of making a project without at least acknowledging him (this movie was even marketed with the mouthful of a title of ‘’From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’’, which is pretty ridiculous), and his scenes do feel like unnecessary training wheels that this movie doesn’t require, but they are at least short and allow Reeves to do what he’s best at, so it could’ve been worse. The villain is also pretty poor, continuing a trend this series struggles with where all the antagonists are nothing more than bad people who need a just comeuppance and don’t have a lot of character to make them stand out, it’s a little disappointing.
One of the most enticing aspects of John Wick is the world itself, as the mystic, sleekness and personality that comes from every nook and cranny of this glitzy environment managed to be so effective in the original series that it distracted audiences from how the story got weaker and weaker with each passing sequel. It’s a hyper exaggerated reality that feels like something out of a good dramatic graphic novel (with the stylish visuals, grizzled characters and flashy angles to boot) but still contains a gruesome nature that helps keep the audience at least somewhat grounded in what’s going on. As to be expected, the action is very impressive and really gets some brutal hits and kills that are going to leave a mark, but the ingenuity around some of the weapons and methods of execution add that extra dose of comedic coolness to really balances out the visceral impact of some of these combat sequences.
The production design by Phillip Ivery is just as vibrant and flashy as ever, the camera work by Romain Lacourbas knows when to be stationary and knows when to be mobile in order to get the best shots of the action, the editing by Jason Ballantine and Nicholas Lundgren just barely straddles the point of cutting too quick on certain fight scenes, but otherwise is nicely paced, and the musical score by Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard retains the disco energy that made the action punchy and energetic, but the subtle inclusion of ballerina music brings an elegant, deadly edge to the backing score that nicely fits with this premise.
Ballerina does land a clean pirouette, puts on one heck of a show in the process, and even if she stumbles a tiny bit during the finale and is dancing to a very familiar tune, it doesn’t take away from the talent that went into the performance. Even if it doesn’t match the surprisingly amazing John Wick, it more than succeeds any of the sequels as it actually takes time to develop a story and flesh out its characters rather than sidestep them in order to showcase more elaborate fight scenes. Ballerina is an engaging film with great performances, a likeable main character, and very exciting action sequences, giving a lot more credence to any future spin offs that may thankfully do more than just coast of the success of the one that birthed them. A new shot that hit its mark, Ballerina is a ballet worth witnessing.