Ballerina, or, as it is marketed in order to fill the seats, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, is the latest in the “John Wick universe” (can it really be an expanded universe if John Wick is in every movie?) and takes place between John Wick 3 and 4. A decent enough action film, though if the John Wick team was hoping to move past Keanu Reeves to tell other, somewhat related stories, I’m not sure they’ve succeeded.
Ana de Armas stars as Eve Macarro, who as a young girl watches her father killed by intruders, and then is raised in a Russian school where girls are taught ballet as a front, but also how to be assassins and bodyguards and whatever-have-you. All grown up, Eve is given her first job to protect someone, and in the course of that job, fights off someone sporting the same tattoo/mark as the men who killed her dad all those years ago. Turns out they are in some weird mob-like cult, an offshoot of Eve’s ballerina school, which believes that all things happen due to fate. They are led by a shadowy figure known as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Eve wants her revenge for killing her father, so she goes to the cult’s headquarters in a little picturesque town in Austria, where everyone from the police to the baker to the homemaker is a member of the cult and ready to kill with one word from the Chancellor. Eve must avoid or kill them all if she’s going to get to the boss, but thankfully she gets a little help from John Wick before the end.
The movie is fine, and that’s it’s problem: it’s just fine. For one, I’m sure de Armas is a fine actress, but she has a bit too much of the “doe eyed innocent” look to be able to pull off the role of a stone cold killer. Just not very believable. If they want to expand the universe, they should bring in some characters already introduced by people behind the camera in some other (much better) films: Atomic Blonde (from original John Wick co-director David Leitch and starring Charlize Theron) and Nobody (writer of 3 John Wick films Derek Kolstad, starring Bob Odenkirk). Now that’s a team-up I’d be down for! ★★★
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