In the past decade, there has probably never been a franchise that has done as much for practical stuntwork as the John Wick series. Since the first hit the screen almost 11 years ago, many have seen and began to recognize the hard work and beauty in well choreographed, fast paced practical stunts. These amazing professionals put their lives on the line and the result is always stellar entertainment. And this Friday, we’re getting more, as we return to the World of Wick with another worthy installment: Ballerina.
While the original Wick in 2014 wasn’t initially a huge box office success, fans would eventually come to discover how goddamn amazing the action in the movie was. So much so that while the first achieved cult status, three years later in 2017, the franchise would become a phenomenon, and a staple among Lionsgate’s franchises. That being said, with 2023’s John Wick Chapter 4, it felt like audiences were getting ready to say goodbye to John, The Continental, and the crazy world of assassins.
Enter Eve Maccaro — aka “The Ballerina!” The film successfully thrusts us back into the world of John Wick, easily taking you on a summer blockbuster thrill ride that fits perfectly into the franchise. It’s a blast from start to finish, and a welcome return to the insanity of assassins, blood pacts, cults, and dynamic stuntwork we’ve come to know from this series.
The film centers on the eponymous ballerina, Eve Maccaro (Ana De Armas). Like a superhero origin film, Eve is orphaned early as a child. Her father had tried to get her out of the assassin world, but as is the case with most characters like this, early tragedy would come to define the rest of her journey. From that point, Eve is brought in to the world of The Continental, becoming a member of the Ruska Roma, John Wick’s family (as we discovered in John Wick Chapter 3). Trained to be one of their “Kikimora,” assassins who protect, Eve gets pulled back into a journey of vengeance and blood when the cult behind her father’s death soon emerges.
The story of Ballerina is pretty by the numbers, but let’s be honest with ourselves, who really comes to a John Wick film for the story? The filmmakers are smart enough to understand that they need to keep it simple in order to highlight the action, showcasing the story through choreographed bursts of explosive stunts, rather than unnecessary exposition (something Ethan Hunt could honestly benefit from). The result, much like the John Wick films themselves, keeps things very fast paced, while still providing just enough to get us emotionally invested in the Eve’s quest.
What we have with Ballerina, however, more so than Wick, is something more of a superhero origin story spliced with a good ole fashioned Wick-revenge story. The first third of the film tracks Eve’s origins and motivations, while emphasizing that she doesn’t become a force of lethal nature overnight. It’s actually a refreshing change of pace for an origin story to show its lead hero as human by failing and falling over and over. The first real action set piece for Eve is actually also pretty slow, when compared to the rest of the film and other sequences in the Wick-verse. And this is intentional, which is smart. Eve should not be a character who automatically is the world’s deadliest woman overnight. As the stunt team behind this series could tell you, it takes years and months of training, practice, and stamina. So as sluggish as the first act could be for some, it’s absolutely necessary for establishing this character and setting up some level of believability (at least within this universe) to keep the stakes high enough.
After that first act however, the movie is pure gun-fu goodness! Eve goes rogue. She does what she needs to in order to get answers. Blows up a lot of stuff. Fires a lot of guns. And beats a lot of faces. It’s a relentless pace going from action beat to action beat, but never quite sacrificing the world building or the likability of Eve’s character, as well as the differences and similarities between someone like her and someone like John. While John was trained exclusively to kill, Eve was trained to kill *and* protect. And while a flimsy subplot about rescuing a little girl from the cult that killed her family might seem trite, it’s a nice and necessary change of pace to see a character in this universe that’s a designated protector first, and a killer second.
Part of why we like this character a lot, however, is De Armas. Like the legend, Keanu Reeves, De Armas has absolutely put in the work for the physical challenges and intensities of this role. From shooting and gun handling, to the intense martial arts and dance sequences, De Armas is putting every inch of her body on the line for this performance physically that Reeves did for his iconic role. This makes every kill, every shot, and every stab feel more intensely brutal, and keeps us reacting favorably in the audience. However, beyond just the physical aspects of the performance, De Armas, an Oscar Nominee, is quite good at selling what few emotional aspects of the character there are. Eve is defiant, tough, persistent, passionate, and compassionate. All of this comes across in De Armas’s deliveries and mannerisms. The performance in her eyes speaks volumes about Eve’s pain, even when very little is being said. Now I won’t pretend to say this is going to win Oscars for acting anytime soon. But it’s solid work from a terrific actress, allowing us to root for Eve, and the potential for seeing her again.
The rest of the characters don’t necessarily fare as well, and that’s fine, given the focus does need to be on Eve. Norman Reedus and Gabriel Byrne, for instance, are given, perhaps, the meatiest roles in the film outside of Eve. Byrne does a really decent job chewing the scenery without being overtly over-the-top, allowing you to adequately despise him as the film’s villain The Chancellor. He’s got a calm demeanor about him that makes him just creepy enough, but also a man of conviction, and Byrne knows how to sell it.
However, the film squanders Reedus a bit taking him out of the game early, after a few poorly delivered lines and a sluggish shotgun action sequences. And this seems to be one of Ballerina‘s biggest sins: reducing the all-star ensemble to roles that don’t amount to much or are quickly dispatched of. In addition to Reedus, we see this too with Sharon Duncan-Brewster’s Nogi, and Oscar nominee, Catalina Sandino Moreno, who gets 1-2 really lovely scenes before the movie moves on.
This sin does, to a degree, extend to the familiar characters as well. Seeing Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, and the incredible Lance Reddick (who sadly passed not long after this filmed) step back into the shoes of The Director, Winston, and Chiron again feels wonderful. However, they don’t get too much to do outside of an occasional conversation with Eve, but what we get of them is great stuff.
Then of course, there’s the big bold badass elephant in the room, Mr. Anderson Reeves! I have to say, it’s always wonderful seeing John Wick returning, even if it’s not for very long. However, I think folks will be disappointed that he really only has a limited amount of screentime. While this makes sense given this film is happening concurrently with John Wick Chapter 3 and John Wick Chapter 4, what doesn’t make sense is how the film does play fast and loose with the consistency of this timeline. We firmly understand where in the timeline it is when John visits the Ruska Roma. However, when he confronts Eve at the end, we are absolutely left wondering when the hell he could have had 30 minutes and change to spare to get on a train and spar with Eve, while he was still Excommunicado AND out of the Ruska Roma.
If we’ve seen the events of Wick 3 and 4, we know he tears his ticket (the film even reminds you of this), visits Halle Berry, loses a finger, gets thrown off The Continental Roof, and has to go out of his way to kill Killa Harkan to get back into the Ruska Roma. So how, and why would The Director call him to do Eve in if he’s not part of the family anymore, and when could any of this have possibly taken place? The film’s answer is “who cares! It’s John Wick!” which admittedly is disappointing in a way. However I guess we just have to assume, hilariously, that before John went to see Halle Berry, he answered a favor for his former tribe leader.
In any case, the point of the movie is that it’s not John’s movie. And that’s fine. Because we generally don’t need John to get invested in Eve and to enjoy her ability to kick ass. The action in Ballerina is so beautifully brutal and well executed, you’ll forget about plotholes and just enjoy the adventure. You just have to love that with every installment, the filmmakers find a way to do something new, and here we have a whole multitude of innovative action scenes. One extensive scene shows Eve having fun with grenades.
Another terrific fight scene is done on a slick pond of ice, with a pair of ice skates! And of course, from the trailers, there’s several action sequences with flamethrowers, which is actually pretty freaking cool (as Eve would definitely agree with)! And at the end of the day that truly all is worth the price of a ticket, and all without having to spend copious amounts of time trying to unpack the straight-forward storyline, or needing to dangle out of airplanes (don’t get me wrong, I do live this, but Ballerina does more with less, and it’s better because of it).
We also have to highlight how awesome it is that this franchise has committed to POC leads. First with Reeves, and now with De Armas. There’s something very inherently Latino about the character and her family, from the moment we meet her father, David Castañeda’s Javier, to the moments she has with her sister. I wish we got to see a bit more of that family backstory and history, but perhaps they’re saving this for another film.
At the end of the day, Ballerina may not specifically be a 1:1 with the John Wick in terms of scope or necessarily quality. However, in a lot of ways that’s a good thing! Eve Maccaro needs to be a different character and the movie recognizes this, which in turn makes the movie different, which again, works as a strength for it. Does it reach the heights of John Wick 1-4? No, but Ballerina is still undoubtedly awesome! And when it cooks, it literally sets the screen on fire! The action’s brutal and relentless and De Armas is terrific. Overall I can’t wait to be seeing more of Eve soon! It may be imperfect, but overall, Ballerina is a fun, worthy installment to the world of Wick!
Overall Score (on an entertainment level): B
Overall Score (on a representation level): A-
