Ballerina, in which Ana de Armas spends two hours enthusiastically handing out and receiving beatdowns, is hitting theaters with a jumbo official title: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Given its reportedly chaotic production of delays, reshoots and budget overruns, you can hardly blame Lionsgate for slapping the John Wick name on it to both conceal its much-talked about issues and bolster its modest intentions. And since this is technically the fifth entry in the franchise, why not? Nothing says “trust us” like a Keanu Reeves-themed endorsement.
Yet surprisingly and against low expectations, Ballerina arrives as a fun B-movie action flick that gives the game de Armas plenty of room for over-the-top ass kicking. What more do you want? Stepping in for regular series helmer Chad Stahelski, director Len Wiseman’s (Underworld, Live Free of Die Hard) goal is simple: to pulverize both villains and audience with a barrage of slick imagery, thumping music, rapid editing and scorched earth combat. Mission accomplished—not quite the same as the movie being accomplished, sure, but let’s be honest: it had one job, and it got it done.
While it may annoy die-hard John Wick fans to admit, the films—more cult favorites than crowd-pleasing blockbusters—have never quite reached A-list action movie status. For all their style and occasional scale, they can’t reach James Bond or even Mission: Impossible heights. The stakes aren’t high enough, the villains are lesser than and the gravitas just isn’t there.
And perhaps most crucially, in Keanu Reeves they lack a star who can convincingly deliver a solid line reading—though, sure, it’s still fun to watch the ever agile star mow down a hundred foes on, say, the iconic steps of Paris’ Sacré-Cœur. Yet this time, with Cuban star de Armas, Ballerina’s admittedly minimal drama almost works. Every time the film threatens to flag (usually between action scenes), the talents of the recent Blonde Oscar nominee remind us that she’s nothing if not fully invested in the silliness. And that’s not nothing.
Given the global market dictates of these films, the stories are always simplistic pablum, and revenge is always a dish best served on repeat. Ballerina’s particular brand of mass retribution is destined from its opening sequence, which depicts a young Eve Macarro (Victoria Comte) witnessing the murder of her beloved father, Javier (David Castañeda)—an assassin and member of the New York Ruska Roma crime family, hiding out from the mysterious “Cult.” Her mother was once part of this group, now led by the sinister Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), who orders Javier’s execution. This sequence, as Javier takes out his would-be executioners but succumbs to a bomb wound, delivers some good, no-frills combat.
Flash forward 12 years and Eve, now played by de Armas, has been raised and trained as both an impeccable ballerina (numerous Swan Lake musical cues) and elite killer for the Ruska Roma, under the tutelage of a vampy, campy Anjelica Huston as the organization’s not-quite-maternal director.
Despite John Wick’s warnings to steer clear of the shadowy life, Eve dives into her first assignment: protecting a party-girl heiress (Sooyoung Choi) from a dozen or so would-be kidnappers in a wildly fun set-piece, staged in a nightclub seemingly carved from ice. Her only ammo? Rubber bullets. Spoiler: they work surprisingly well on a henchman’s groin.
Eventually, Eve spots a foe with a tattoo on his wrist matching that of her father’s killers—an ominous clue that leads straight back to the Cult, now holed up in the mountain lake town of Hallstatt, Austria. It’s here, in the film’s second hour, that Ballerina really kicks into gear. Ignoring direct orders from the Ruska Roma to stand down, Eve charges forward, determined to wipe out anyone in her way as she sets her sights on the Chancellor.
Much of this is a good time, and the chilly Alps village, entirely populated by Cult members, is snow globe cinematic, as are its various environs, where Eve launches a furious grenade offensive that takes down the sect’s many operatives. These successive showdowns are both viscerally enjoyable and frequently very funny (my favorite was a near-slapstick medley of broken plates and a pair of ice skates used as boxing gloves).
It doesn’t stop there—Eve is also armed with a trusty Glock, the sharpest kitchen utensils and most memorably, a flamethrower, which fuels the film’s climax with a wild pyrotechnics that necessitate John Wick’s return. Sent by the director to either rein Eve in or take her out, Wick arrives just as bloodied Eve unleashes full firepower.
The flamethrower—practical effects, not CGI—blasting unrelenting hellfire across the screen from all angles and directions, reportedly left more than a few stuntmen singed. It’s a scorched spectacle, torching nearly every Hallstatt henchman and propelling Eve toward a final confrontation with a mysterious Cult operative (a solid Catalina Sandino Moreno, from Maria Full of Grace) and back to the Chancellor himself, John Wick silently hoping he won’t have to finish the job.
Sound fun? It is. And what most viewers will take away from Ballerina is that its star capably acquits the movie—she’s compelling enough that it’s easy to forget we’re watching another chapter in an increasingly uneven franchise. On the action front, the film has a tall order to follow, especially after the last installment’s go-for-broke (and hollow) Parisian spectacle. The film is strung together by a series of sequences that succeed on their own terms, even if the overarching narrative offers no more than standard-issue vengeance. Still, Ballerina gets the job done. While your mileage may vary, de Armas undeniably gives it everything she’s got, and Wiseman directs with just enough drive. Keep your expectations in check and you’ll walk away entertained.
3 stars
