Ana de Armas in ‘Ballerina.’
Larry D. Horricks/Lionsgate
So many people stumbled blindly into that first John Wick film, again in 2014 — how have been we ever so younger and harmless?! — and settled in for what appeared like a easy B-movie starring one half of the Level Break bromance duo/Invoice and Ted group. From the second that Keanu Reeves slapped a gold coin down on the Continental Resort’s check-in counter, nevertheless, audiences slowly realized that this kinetic revenge thriller was happening in a novel ecosphere of its personal. This was only one nook of a far bigger sandbox, full of bespoke hospitality companies, crime-syndicate clans, mysterious cabals, weapons sommeliers and networks of switchboard operators decked out in rockabilly couture. Nobody was essentially asking for one more cinematic universe. However the extra you poked across the franchise’s nooks and crannies, pored by means of its numerous customs and protocols, the deeper the sequence acquired its hooks into you.
You don’t world-build to this diploma with no greater world-conquering plan in your again pocket, particularly once you’ve taken your king off the chessboard after 4 video games. (Temporarily, however nonetheless.) Spin-offs and aspect missions have been inevitable, as was the truth that, bereft of Reeves’ deadpan charisma, these tasks’ returns is likely to be diminishing; The Continental, a Peacock restricted sequence dedicated to the early years of the hotelier who caters to hit males, isn’t as unhealthy as you’ve heard and isn’t precisely what you’d time period “good.” Additional digging into the lore that’s now a key a part of the sequence, Ballerina each hopes to formally set up a brand new antihero to take up the reigns and double down on the mythology. At its greatest, this story of a younger feminine murderer looking for vengeance and wreaking havoc is another probability to see expertly choreographed mayhem. At its worst, it performs like a Wick-ipedia sub-entry ambitiously pumped as much as main-event standing. Let’s simply say the stability tilts towards the latter greater than you’d like.
So, keep in mind that briefly glimpsed ballet academy in John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum? That is the place Eve will study the high quality artwork of killing. Having watched her father killed by a felony referred to as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), the lady is discovered by Winston (Ian McShane), supervisor of the Continental. He brings her to the Tarkovsky Theater, dwelling of New York’s Ruska Roma and the place the Director (Anjelica Huston) trains each prima ballerinas {and professional} assassins, not essentially in that order. Reduce to 12 years later, when the now-grown Eve (Ana de Armas), continues to be making an attempt grasp her pirouettes. When it comes to hand-to-hand fight and gun fu, nevertheless, she’s an ace pupil. Eve should previous two exams earlier than she will be able to grow to be kikimora, a legendary mythic creature who protects the harmless and guts open the responsible. One entails a former ballerina gone rogue. The opposite entails retaining a magnate’s daughter from being kidnapped. Each are handed. Welcome to the membership!
A number of years and one large Ruska Roma again tattoo later, Eve is dropping our bodies on the common. The Director’s religion in her has paid off — she is good at this entire murder-for-hire factor. After being attacked by a mysterious gent post-hit one night time, nevertheless, Eve clocks an X scar on his hand. No, it’s not a straight-edge image or a body-mutilating ode to Elon Musk. This mark alerts that her would-be executioner is a part of a cult. The identical cult, the truth is, that killed Eve’s father. A detour to Prague, the place she meets up with a fellow killer (Norman Reedus) trying to flee the Chancellor’s stranglehold, leads her to a quaint hamlet within the snowy Bavarian hills and, unsurprisingly, ghosts from her previous. The powers that be, who don’t need Eve’s presence there to upset a decades-long truce between clans, have employed somebody to exterminate her. Guess what acquainted face steps off the practice to search out her?
Provided that Keanu Reeves’ presence in Ballerina is a giant a part of the trailers, it’s not precisely a spoiler to say that, after a intelligent first-act cameo, Mr. Baba Yaga himself finally ends up being a considerable a part of the third act. (The occasions depicted on this spin-off happen someplace in the course of the third, but earlier than the fourth John Wick films, for these of you taking part in alongside at dwelling.) The temptation is to suppose that the actual powers that be, i.e. the oldsters in board rooms making an attempt to carry on to a profitable movie sequence by any means crucial, assigned him the gig for each continuity and reassurance functions. At one level, Wick tells Eve she will be able to depart any time she needs. Why haven’t you left, she asks him. “I’m engaged on it,” the elder statesman replies, and also you half-wonder if it’s the character or the actor who’s talking at that second. (To be honest, that line was seemingly recorded earlier than Reeves signed on for John Wick 5; the presence of the late, nice Lance Reddick, who handed away in 2023, in a single key scene attests to how lengthy this film has been in numerous states of existence.)
Within the meantime: See Eve run. See Eve shoot, stab and kick. Kick, Eve, Kick! These films lie or die by their motion sequences, and to its credit score, this franchise enlargement pack has just a few good ones up its sleeve. The now-requisite go to to an elite firearms dealer turns into an explosive free-for-all; this can be the introduction of a brand new combating type referred to as “grenade fu.” Even higher is Eve’s cease at a touristy hoffbrau, by which everybody from the patrons to the kitchen employees are out for blood. This sequence is so ingeniously choreographed and proceeds with such precision timing which you could forgive it for feeling like another video-game stage to get by means of. Others skate by on sheer creativeness, such because the one by which a flamethrower meets its elemental reverse, and you end up staring on the action-movie equal of the immovable object versus the irresistible power. Additionally, by way of in-jokes: hold an eye fixed out for a fleeting glimpse of Anne Parillaud, who chances are you’ll keep in mind because the lead in 1990’s La Femme Nikita — a basic that this film clearly owes an enormous debt to.
For essentially the most half, nevertheless, Ballerina feels much less like an extension of the Wickiverse than merely one other dogged try to copy its successful method. It’s much less “from the world of John Wick,” because the clumsy subtitle earlier than the title strives to remind you, and extra like a film that’s John Wick-flavored. Ana de Armas has already confirmed her onscreen ass-kicking bona fides — her temporary look as a daffy however lethal operative in No Time to Die was the spotlight of that Bond swan track — however the film merely provides her a whole lot of the identical rinse-repeat emotional beats in between respectively receiving and shelling out beatings. Director Len Wiseman is an outdated hand at franchise filmmaking, having made the primary two Underworld movies and Stay Free or Die Arduous (2007), which doesn’t cease all the things from one way or the other feeling a tad chintzy. The Wick films have been stellar examples of how make lowbrow B-movie style thrills really feel like high-rush artwork. This simply looks like an honest effort from the B group.
From Rolling Stone US.