After four movies, Lionsgate is finally expanding the world of John Wick, at least on the big screen. Much like a comic book series, the new film Ballerina starring Ana de Armas is about a new character in the John Wick Universe, as first seen in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Ballerina takes place between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, and we meet Eve Macarro (de Armas), a young woman who has a tragic origin that leads her to the Ruska Roma Crime Syndicate, learning to be an assassin ballerina under Anjelica Huston’s direction. Eve remembers who wronged her and put her on this path, so once she gets a chance to go after the ones who did it, she ends up causing an assassin war while trying to survive on both sides and also needing to protect a child who reminds her of herself.
The film features a notable cameo by Keanu Reeves as John Wick, which feels like Wolverine popping up in a random Marvel Comics miniseries to boost sales. It’s not a small blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, either. More than you might think, the character is present in the story and part of the plot.
This is my second favorite John Wick universe film, being second only to Chapter 3. It took me a while to get into this franchise, as I thought the setup in the first film was good, but it didn’t impress me more than any other action film from around the world.
Another thing going for this is de Armas, who, ever since her scene-stealing part in the last Daniel Craig Bond film, No Time To Die, has built up a hunger from some to see her in a whole action movie with her as the star. What carries you through this movie is her very emotive, yet controlled, face. While the story is somewhat simple and can be understood without much explanation, Armas’s ability to convey Eve’s thought processes and drive to achieve her goal will be enough to draw in most audience members. Her action scenes are also well done. Eve is skilled, but not the super killer Wick is, so you really get to see her get beaten up and barely get out of some situations.
Ballerina uses a small amount of humor between violent battles that Eve probably should’ve died in. The film is built around action fight scenes and chases to get from place to place, which, at times, felt more like watching a video game playthrough on YouTube or Twitch, like the parts of the story where Eve almost gets yelled at by Huston or the always-there-when-you-need-him Winston Scott (Ian McShane) to give you a nice bit of exposition so that Eve can get to her next goal. The film doesn’t provide Huston much to do as we don’t learn much more in this than we did in John Wick – Chapter 3. Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays Nogi, Eve’s main trainer and The Director’s right-hand; much like many things in this universe, they have a great actor who looks cool, and you want to know more about them, but you don’t always get the chance.
Norman Reedus appears in this film as Daniel Pine. It’s a surprise that I think he’s there because of his likability and maybe the Boondock Saints, but mostly, his character is just Darrell Dixon (from The Walking Dead) in attitude and action style. He kind of takes you out of the story a bit, but he’s not there for that long.
Additionally, it was great, but also sad to see Lance Reddick as Charon again.
Gabriel Byrne, who plays the Chancellor, the big bad of the film and the person Eve needs to take out because he created this version of her. While he has a good bad guy kind of aura, he ends up being pretty boring with all his many henchpeople being so much more interesting things for Eve to fight and fight she does well. It’s those parts where I feel the filmmakers put most of their efforts. There are some real standouts in the third act, where Eve fights a whole town. The trailer spoils some of this, but the flamethrower scenes are visually stunning to watch. While she’s cruel in it, their decision to shoot it in an homage to Ikari Warriors (at least to me) is just as cool or even cooler than the Hotline Miami homage in John Wick 4.
For fans of John Wick himself, he’s actually overpowered in this film compared to his own. All these foes are scary for Eve, but not for him. Reeves is just as cool as he has been in the other films. Now, I know that for some critics I’ve seen this with, it wasn’t as good as the John Wick movies, but I think that depends on one’s taste or how much they enjoy all of the John Wick movies. I think if you want to see a good action movie, this is a great choice of what’s out there. I don’t know where the franchise is going, but Ballerina does give me hope that the spinoffs can be just as good without needing to focus on Reeves’ permanently sad puppy dog of a badass.
