Director: Len Wiseman
Starring: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves
Movie Length: 2 hours 5 minutes
With just one relatively quick exchange between a father and his daughter, Ballerina sets the tone for this film that stems from the John Wick universe. There’s an assassination and retrieval conceit that erupts within the first five minutes of the film. The daughter, a young girl who takes refuge in a predetermined hiding place for sieges such as these, witnesses her father getting kicked around. Of course he holds his own for a while but eventually succumbs to the number of infringing assassins.
However, this is the world of John Wick so dad overcomes the odds, blows up his property (along with the bad guys) and escapes to the exterior of his burning mini compound. Unfortunately, he’s been mortally wounded during the ordeal and can only apologize to his daughter before death takes him. It wouldn’t be a John Wick movie without cause for revenge, would it?
The young girl is introduced into the world of assassins with her adoption into the Ruska Roma organization. Coincidentally, the same cartel that reared the “Baba Yaga,” the nickname Wick has earned as the premiere killer in the violent world that is reflected in these films.
Through a series of training collages, we see our young girl shape herself into a vengeful badass as portrayed by Ana de Armas. Anticipating the audience’s suspension of disbelief, the filmmakers are sure to point out that while she’s slight of size and strength, she has fire and learns to compensate for her physical shortcomings by being creative and foregoing some of the traditional rules of combat.
As she tracks down her father’s killer, de Armas encounters many barriers that push her skills to the limit. And I guess this is where the film starts to unravel for me. While it’s best to not spend too much time thinking about plot when viewing action spectacles, I’m unable to completely disconnect from evaluating the elements of story.
Our heroine’s ties to the major villain are very two-dimensional and other than the fact that she’s lost her father, de Armas fails to deliver an equivalent to John Wick. She’s not quirky or particularly likeable and her overall motivation is paper thin.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t expect the wall-to-wall action that comes with a John Wick movie. There are plenty of great fight sequences, filled with impressive choreography and an inventive incorporation of physical props. Perhaps the best example of this is when a firehose takes on a flamethrower. I can’t think of another film that demonstrates such conflict with as much lethal creativity.
The question you may be asking yourself is whether John Wick appears in this movie. You will not get the answer from me; you’ll need to watch the movie for yourself. Ultimately, I do recommend Ballerina for the built in John Wick audience that Keanu Reeves has expertly crafted over the years. While it pales when compared to the main franchise, it’s still an admirable effort by all parties concerned.
Michael’s rating: 7.5/10
Ballerina is now in theaters.
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