Ballerina is the latest in the John Wick saga and the first to act as a spinoff outside of the main franchise on film; and it arrives as a bit of a dud. Famous franchise-killer Len Wiseman is bizarrely given another shot at resurrecting a career that includes famously bad movies like the Total Recall remake or Live Free or Die Hard. If you wanted to kill a franchise hiring a guy like Len Wiseman should be your go to move and it’s what Ballerina has done. To its credit – it’s largely serviceable but lacks the fun and the sheer action-skill craftmanship of the original Wick movies, there was something about the action in the first four and its hyperkinetic craftmanship that’s missing here.
Taking place during the events of Chapter 3, Eve Macarro is Ana de Armas’ protagonist who finds herself enlisted into the shadowy ballerina-style assassins and protectors who exist in a world of law and order where actions have consequences – or rules, and consequences – are very much stock in trade. Eve has escaped from an evil cultlike organisation with the help of a younger Winston – handler of the Continental Hotel in New York – after her father is killed. The cult thrives off chaos and disorder and exist as the opposite to the organised assassin world that is Wick’s unique asset. It’s blunt and the whole script feels like it arrives with subtlety of being hit in the head with a sledgehammer – to the point where a garden of Eden reference is mentioned when referring to Eve by name – but Wick has never been a subtle franchise. It’s an action-heavy one.
The film’s biggest weakness is the fact that it needs to be part of the Wick franchise, when it could’ve easily stood alone. It did not need to take place during the events of the middle of a franchise; it did not need John Wick to show up during the protagonist’ final showdown against the cultlike figures and get involved for her. This is Eve’s story – not Wick’s so – why is Wick so front and centre? An Eve-Wick showdown felt like the only way that might have been acceptable; but Wick instead getting to save Eve multiple times almost robs her agency. It’s like having Iron Man show up and save the day in the finale of say, Captain Marvel or Black Widow.
As an action thriller Ballerina works and there are some neat fights especially in the final mountain location which uses a snow village as the backdrop. The fire/water fight is cheesy but cool, and the concept of a cultlike village where all its members are trained assasins leads to a constant guessing game of whether or not this guy is going to attack Eve; even though you know deep down he probably is. It’s intense, brutal – and notably at its best in the final act, with the big problem of John Wick front and centre. Wick is the movie’s biggest weakness – he robs Eve of her agency and focus from the main narrative – everyone is expecting the bogeyman to be the bogeyman – and he does; which gives Eve less to do. This would be a harder and more interesting battle for Eve if she was on her own. Instead – it feels like a deus ex machina.
The frantic and brutal anger of Eve feels less refined than Wick’s experience and the flamethrower ballet is incredibly entertaining. Keaton gets a cameo too – it’s all good across the board. Norman Reedus gets to play a role that isn’t Daryl for once – but it’s hard to see him not locked into that haircut and not think that he shouldn’t be fighting zombies. By the time the film ups a gear it feels like The Final Reckoning – too little; too late. Much of Ballerina is dead on arrival.