Film Review - Ballerina

A well-cast Ama De Armas is out for violent revenge in this predictable but action-packed John Wick spin-off

Credit: Lionsgate

Since Ana De Armas’s character was the only bit of the wretchedly misjudged No Time to Die (2021) that I liked, it’s great to see her back in action movie mode in Ballerina. This time, she plays a revenge-seeking assassin in a “sidequal” to John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum (2019), set in that same ridiculous parallel universe where murderous criminals have their own Diagon Alley-style hotels and gun shops around the world, and the police never bother to investigate their crimes or show up when they’re shooting one another to smithereens. The hugely memorable finale of John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) is a particularly ludicrous case in point. Where are the police? Seriously.

Given the ferocity of the bone-crunching fight sequences, it is particularly laughable that barely a bruise is sustained by Armas’s character, Eve Macarro, as she cuts a bloody swathe through endless operatives of “the Cult”. This is the extra-evil (by John Wick standards) community of vicious nutjobs who murdered her father. How are they extra-evil? Because they live in Hallstatt and don’t care for outsiders. No, really. We don’t find out anything more about the Cult other than that they don’t let anyone leave, and the rest of the murderous psychopaths in the “Wickerverse” find them a bit much. Personally, I think it’s a shame this cult isn’t more fully developed, as they could have been quite interesting. Perhaps they worship pagan gods and conduct human sacrifices. The John Wicker Man, anyone? No? I’ll get my coat…

Leaving aside that screenwriter Shay Hatten couldn’t even be bothered to come up with a name for this cult, let’s focus on the positives. There are lots of crunchy-punchy, shooty-splattery, flamey-throwery fight scenes, sometimes utilising unusual props like ice skates. These are as effectively brutal as we’ve come to expect from this series, albeit not quite at the lunatic levels of the aforementioned John Wick: Chapter 4 finale. Various reports suggested a troubled production history and substantial reshoots, in which Chad Stahelski took over from director Len Wiseman, but that has since been contested. Either way, the action sings, even if the plot is a cobbled-together string of clichés.

The film delves into Eve’s origins, with her training as both ballerina and Kikimora under the tutelage of Ruska Roma Director (Anjelica Huston). This gives her a chance to be present when John Wick (Keanu Reeves) visits during the events of Parabellum, and for Eve and Wick to briefly interact. The film’s publicity makes a big deal out of Reeves’s small role, but personally, I was much more excited to see Gabriel Byrne, even if his role as the villainous Chancellor is paper-thin. Series regular Ian McShane is also present and correct, and so is the late Lance Reddick, with this being his final screen appearance (production started in late 2022).

All things considered, Ballerina may be narratively ramshackle, but the extremely violent action sequences do deliver a certain amount of goods for genre fans. Ana De Armas’s Eve is a nimble and spirited protagonist, and one doesn’t feel short-changed on bullets, bombs, and explosions despite the predictable nature of what unfolds.

(Originally published at Medium.)

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