Once upon a time, in between the third and fourth movies in the John Wick universe, a young ballerina/assassin (sure, why not) gets a clue about the people responsible for the death of her father — and maybe the rest of her family, too. So, naturally, she defies the director of her tribe (Anjelica Huston) to track down some answers, causing a lot of mayhem along the way. For one thing, Eve (Ana de Armas) really likes hand grenades. She especially likes sticking them in people’s mouths.
The hand grenades are just one of the many, many weapons Eve wields over the course of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, the official (somewhat unwieldy) title of the latest effort to expand the John Wick Cinematic Universe, preceded not just by the four Keanu Reeves-starring action movies but the 2023 Peacock series The Continental. As a vehicle to add more lore and nuance to the JWCU — while also delivering numerous fun action sequences — Ballerina functions well. Unfortunately, it fails to give its star a real character to play, or a substantial plotline to follow.
Ana de Armas, prior to now, has played second banana in a number of action movies, including The Gray Man and a fantastic sequence in No Time to Die, but now gets her chance at real action hero stardom. Unfortunately, the character of Eve lacks any real definition beyond a killer instinct and a vague sense of humor, and in the latter case she never gets much of a chance to flaunt it.
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There’s something legitimately interesting about watching a newly introduced character reveal her inexperience in the midst of the action — reminiscent of watching Daniel Craig’s Bond fumble his way through the first half of Casino Royale. Yet having big prequel energy doesn’t really work for a movie that’s not actually a prequel, and combined with her cookie-cutter lady assassin background, Eve ends up feeling like a cypher.
The movie does attempt to fix this by introducing a young girl for Eve to protect/rescue — a classic way to make a tough assassin type more relatable to an audience. However, said girl and her whole deal ends up being much more of an afterthought (a likely casualty of reshoots). Ultimately, de Armas has yet to reach a point in her career where her presence alone can make up for any deficiencies in a script’s characterization.
She’s good in a fight, though, which is this movie’s saving grace — no wonder Eve can’t connect with anyone, most of the people she meets keep getting murdered (often by her). Director Len Wiseman received an assist from John Wick co-creator Chad Stahelski on the fights and stunts, which feature constantly flowing choreography and some wonderfully inventive moments, like Eve’s improvised stabbygun — a gun with a chef’s knife duct-taped to the stock. Another standout sequence involves Eve working her way through the aftermath of a massive shootout — only to find that she’s still got some clean-up to do.
Ballerina (Lionsgate)
One theme introduced in dialogue but is reflected in the actual action of the movie is the idea of “fight like a girl” — which Eve’s primary mentor Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) defines as fighting dirty as hell, changing the game if your opponent is bigger and stronger than you. That attitude not only inspires the title for the closing credits theme, as performed by Evanescence of course, but informs a lot of the best moments, while differentiating the violence here from the more polished “gun-fu” style used by Mr. Wick in his movies.
Comparing Ballerina to the first John Wick is illuminating on a number of levels, as the original 2014 movie draws the viewer slowly into this world of assassins and arcane rituals. For the first 20 minutes or so, all we know about the titular dude is that he’s a very recent widower who just got a very cute dog. Only after a brutal home invasion do we understand just how big a mistake has been made.
Reeves isn’t an actor often celebrated as a great crafter of character, yet the sheer force of his movie star persona, combined with the instant sympathy generated by John’s circumstances, creates a connection between character and audience that only grows in intensity as John is wronged, and sets out on his quest for vengeance. Vengeance the audience is actively rooting for, because man was that dog cute. (The floppy ears!)
Ballerina fails in this regard — even with the pre-established quirkiness of the John Wick mythology working in its favor — because Eve’s backstory proves relatively trite, and the character is given nothing to connect with before or after she sets off on her quest: Dead father killed in an extended prologue that he clearly was never going to survive can hardly compare to murdered puppy.
Speaking of Reeves, his presence in Ballerina doesn’t end up offering much on a mythology level, or adding any insight into how the character will be resurrected for John Wick: Chapter 5. Still, he’s a welcome presence in his limited capacity, and he’s got a good platonic chemistry with de Armas, should the JWCU see fit to reunite them in the future. Hopefully by that point everyone involved will have a stronger understanding of who Eve is as a character. Aside from the part where she fights like a girl.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina explodes into theaters on Friday, June 6th. Check out the trailer below.
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