By John Corrado
Set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, Ballerina (full title From the World of John Wick: Ballerina) is the first spinoff film in the action franchise.
The film is directed by Len Wiseman, taking over the mantle from original series director Chad Stahelski, who is now credited as a producer, and it very much feels like a spinoff to the main event. This is not to say that Ballerina is bad. In fact, it’s pretty good, especially by the end. But we also lose something without Keanu Reeves front and centre as the titular Wick.
Ana de Armas instead stars in Ballerina as Eve Macarro, a ballet dancer and assassin who was taken from her father (David Castañeda) as a young girl to train with the Ruska Roma. De Armas, who of course played a modern Bond girl in No Time to Die, is a solid action heroine who is enjoyable to watch in the role; she can handle the fight scenes, believably punching, kicking and shooting her way through this world.
The plot finds Eve avenging the death of her father, after the reemergence of the shadowy group that took her from him. And that’s basically it. Despite being set within the increasingly mythologized Wick universe, Ballerina plays with a largely bare-bones revenge plot. Along the way, series regulars Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, and the late Lance Reddick (in his final screen appearance) reprise their roles, and help tie a lot of this back to the larger franchise.
After a somewhat rough, exposition-heavy first act, the film does eventually settle into being an all-out action movie, with set-pieces that credibly feel like part of this universe. Even if they don’t fully reach the levels of those in the John Wick movies – they aren’t quite as smooth, with a few more cuts – the action sequences are well done. And it’s no wonder they are the best parts of the movie; many of them were reportedly added in reshoots, which were overseen by Stahelski himself. But it also shows that certain parts of the movie were reshot, especially in the somewhat messier buildup.
How much you enjoy Ballerina might depend on if you view the appeal of the John Wick movies more as the world and mythology, or the appeal of watching Keanu Reeves doing cool you-know-what. Without Reeves at the centre of it, it can be harder to keep Ballerina from feeling like more of a generic action movie, especially in the somewhat padded first half of the 125 minute film. Reeves does appear here, in a role that begins as a cameo and then morphs into something larger, perhaps as a way to sell the movie.
Following the operatic highs of John Wick: Chapter 4, which had thematic depth and emotional weight to it, and is arguably one of the greatest action films ever made, Ballerina can feel like a bit of a step down. But on its own terms, this is an enjoyable action thriller that notably gets better as it goes along, building to a strong last act. If it’s done on a somewhat noticeably lower budget, a lot of this still looks cool, such as the memorable image of a flamethrower against a spraying firehose. The last act delivers enough thrills that it should send action-hungry audiences out on enough of a high to be satisfied by the experience overall.
Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)
The Joy of Movies 