PLOT: Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), an assassin who’s part of the notorious Ruska Roma, seeks vengeance on the network of killers who murdered her parents.
REVIEW: Ballerina is one of the more satisfying franchise spin-offs in recent memory. In this era of IP, every studio is desperate to max out the potential sequels and spinoffs their key franchises can handle, and Lionsgate has a whole slew planned around the John Wick franchise. Yet, what makes Ballerina different is that this doesn’t feel like much of a derivative of the franchise, given that Keanu Reeves was coaxed back to reprise his role. While his contribution to the film is mainly limited to the last act, his involvement is far more than a cameo, with him having a legitimate supporting role, giving the movie a welcome sense of legitimacy.
The movie takes place between the third and fourth John Wick movies. We see the scene in Parabellum, where Wick comes to the Ruska Roma’s director (Angelica Huston) for help from the perspective of de Armas’s Eve Macarro. Many classic John Wick characters show up, including Ian McShane’s Winston and the late Lance Reddick as Charon.
However, Ballerina also doesn’t spend its entire 126-minute running time winking at the audience with all the John Wick-universe nods. Given the appeal of de Armas, it’s not hard to invest in Eve’s quest, with the movie having an intriguing hook. The organization Eve is trying to track down occupies an entire town, with much of the second half finding her trapped in a mountain village that’s populated entirely by killers, leaving her no safe haven. This gives the movie a propulsive pace, especially in the second half, that never lets up, as the baddies close in on our heroine.
It helps that Armas has given the part her all, with her relishing the chance to lead her own action film. Given Eve’s small stature, her combat style is entirely different from Wick’s, with her fighting exceedingly dirty. When she takes on a hulking opponent, we’re never expected to suspend our disbelief and watch her trade blows the way someone like Keanu Reeves does. Instead, she’s feral and opportunistic, attacking vulnerable spots and improvising weapons. The 87eleven action gang make the action convincing, and Armas’s intensity and charisma will no doubt help this catch on a lot more than other female-fronted action movies might have in the past.
The film is also equal-opportunity with the action. Reeves gets in on the action, as do costars David Castañeda (who starts the movie off with a tremendous fight as Eve’s doomed father) and Norman Reedus, as a heroic killer seeking shelter at The Continental. Daniel Bernhardt, who seems to be the one guy every modern action hero has to fight in order to be considered legit, also shows up to fight de Armas. This guy has fought everyone from Keanu (twice), to Bob Odenkirk (in Nobody) to Bill Hader (Barry). Gabriel Byrne also has fun as the big bad, who’s kind of the de facto mayor of this town of killers, while Catalina Sandino Moreno also makes an impression as one of Eve’s main antagonists.
Director Len Wiseman (Underworld) makes a solid departure in how the action is staged, with it being very different from anything he’s done before. There’s no wirework and final CGI. Giving the movie continuity to the John Wick franchise, the cinematography has a similar sheen, while Tyler Bates returns to work on the score. My only caveat is that the final fight is a touch anticlimactic, but overall, this is a solid addition to the John Wick universe that I really dug.
