Review: "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina"

The movie called Ballerina is now going by the official name of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. 

The filmmakers clearly want you to know that Ballerina is part of the popular and lucrative John Wick franchise.

That’s an important point since John Wick died at the end of the fourth and final John Wick installment, much to the dismay of die-hard fans.  Like James Bond, he was an indestructible hero.  But then again, even James Bond died at the end of the last Daniel Craig installment, No Time to Die (2021), at Craig’s insistence.

Fans of both franchises know that the show must and will go on.  There is way too much money at stake.  But what to do to keep the money machine running?

In the case of John Wick, you turn back time and introduce a spin-off story that takes place while Wick was still alive.  It’s the story of a young girl, caught up in a dark world, whose father is murdered by killers bearing a distinctive brand burned into their skin.  She is out for revenge.

Her journey is aided by a handful of the very same characters who co-starred in the John Wick movies (including Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston and the late Lance Reddick in his final performance).  They are fan favorite characters reintroduced and resurrected from the Wick franchise.  Ballerina is a movie for John Wick fans who know the complex John Wick backstory.  It is indeed its own world.

Keanu Reeves as John Wick in Ballerina. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

More specifically, it’s a dark world of powerful people and assassins trying to assassinate other assassins.  It’s a high-stakes game with characters like John Wick, who has a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head, making him the target of virtually everyone he encounters.  His life is a non-stop series of fights, stabbings and shoot-outs involving a small, never-ending army of killers.

Wick World plays by its own rules.  Those rules allow for non-stop, thrill-ride action on a global level.  The movies are a showcase of stunts and special effects.  They defy logic.  Wick was indestructible in three and a half movies, despite being shot, stabbed and thrown off the top of a 10-story building.  He lost a lot of blood along the way but managed to carry on despite the lack of food or rest.  That was all part of the fun.

The aforementioned young girl in Ballerina is Eve, played (as an adult) by Ana de Armas.  De Armas is no stranger to roles like this having appeared as a formidable secret agent in No Time to Die.   That role suggested she had chops to play an unstoppable killer in Ballerina.

Ana de Armas as Eve in Ballerina. Photo Credit: Larry D. Horricks/Lionsgate

The title is misleading.  Eve spends precious little time learning or performing ballet.  Instead, her training is in martial arts and all forms of specialized weapons and tactics—all the skills needed to track down and kill the people who murdered her dad.

In the spirit of the John Wick movies, Ballerina is light on plot and very heavy on action. It’s a female version of the John Wick formula, though her size and strength render her much more vulnerable than her male counterpart. It’s even mentioned in the script.

If anything, she’s resilient, taking a sound beating on numerous occasions, while managing to avoid any major, life-threatening injuries.  She’s the Energizer Bunny without the drum.

This kind of indestructibility is what made John Wick, well John Wick.  His character borders on cartoonish silliness.  It’s totally absurd, but fun to watch.

Likewise, Eve is the ultimate one-woman army who takes full advantage of every automatic weapon, hand grenade and flame thrower she can get her hands on.

The movie trailers give away the fact that John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) appears in the movie, though he looks a little worse for wear in a time frame allegedly set in the past.  Fans won’t care.

Ana de Armas joins a small group of other actresses who have appeared as tough-as-nails action heroes over the years:  Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita (1990), Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde (2017), and Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow (2018), just to name a few.

Reportedly, Ballerina was plagued by re-writes and re-shoots (never a good sign) but the final version serves up a lot of what we enjoyed in the four John Wick films—memorable action sequences, menacing characters and a chance to see John Wick again on the big screen doing all the things Keanu Reeves fans love to see him do.