With an official title like From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, it seems like some kind of warning is being telegraphed. Spinning off one of the truly sui generis upstarts-turned-phenomena in recent action movie history just seems like a bad idea, a thing nobody asked for, without any of the original surprise, that — given the success of the franchise — can’t abide anything close to a mediocrity. And yet, a mediocrity would appear to be the best anyone expects from such a thing. Thankfully, somehow, the final result is actually a best case scenario of just good enough.
Taking place sometime during the events of John Wick: Chapters 3 and 4, we first meet our heroine Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) as she recalls the murder of her father at the hands of The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), who leads some sort of assassins’ cult and who intends to claim Eve for his own purposes. Now an adult, Eve has apparently traded one group of esoteric authoritarian weirdos who train kids to be professional killers for another, as she’s now a prominent member of the Ruska Roma, the ballet concern first introduced in the third Wick and lead by The Director (Angelica Huston). When an assignment puts her at odds with both groups, Eve strikes out on her own for revenge and to take control of her own path.
Now, a word of warning: if you find yourself bored by the relentless elaboration on the increasingly absurd and complicated lore of the John Wick movies, prepare yourself for a quiet nap during the first half hour or so of Ballerina. The idea that this world, in which literally everyone on screen at any time is probably a trained murderer, has become both the animating trope of the franchise and perhaps its most time-wastingly annoying crutch. If it’s the element you find most interesting about these movies, there’s always therapy. That said, if you’re happy with enduring it all as a mere pretense to some scorching action sequences, ultimately Ballerina provides the goods.
Also thankfully, de Armas is not merely imagined as a female John Wick. Although Keanu Reeves does make an extended and likely marketing-department-mandated cameo, Eve remains her own character with, crucially, her own fighting style. De Armas replaces Reeves’ almost monastic stoicism with a characteristic steeliness (when she’s not crying a bit anyway). It’s not a revelatory performance — she doesn’t possess Reeves’ total, irresistable magnetism — but it’s more than adequate to the demands of the story here at play. More important is her physical presence, which wants for absolutely nothing. Where previous installments have depended more on elaborate gunplay, the action in Ballerina goes all in on physical combat, with Eve getting tossed around by a variety of much more imposing opponents, and using any implement around to get the job done: knives, axes, plates, bottles, and, in the movie’s absolute joy buzzer moment, a flamethrower.
Director Len Wiseman has never been a terrific stylist, but he is a gifted mimic. His Underworld films demonstrated plenty of personality even if they never manifested something indelible, but you can see why something like that would get him the job here. But apparently, he can’t be credited with Ballerina’s largely excellent action. Chad Stahelski, the franchise’s creator and director of all four previous installments, has been widely rumored to have reshot most of the film and shaped most of its extant set pieces. Whatever the case, the results are a cut above, with probably 60% of the movie consisting of one action sequence after the other, as Eve infiltrates a town in which literally everyone, even the kids, is out to get her. That hyper-adrenalized stylistic and narrative shape is what allows the film to settle into its happy place. Given the success rate for these kinds of IP extenders, the fact that Ballerina is decent at all is a surprise. But that at its not-infrequent best it’s good enough to stand up to the rest of the series, well that’s a downright miracle.
DIRECTOR: Len Wiseman; CAST: Ana de Armas, Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Angelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne; DISTRIBUTOR: Lionsgate; IN THEATERS: June 6; RUNTIME: 2 hr. 5 min.
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