There are two sides to one coin in the first-ever spinoff of the John Wick franchise, Ballerina. On one side is an absurdly flimsy and cliché plot wrapped in ridiculously cumbersome world-building. On the other are some of the most fun and inventive action set-pieces you could see on the big screen this year.
I’m new to the John Wick franchise; I have not seen a single one of the four movies starring Wick himself. Being introduced to that world-building in this movie came off as particularly laughable; maybe it works better in the mainline films.
We open the movie with the most cliché possible look at Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) as a little girl with her father on the beach. “You look just like your sister,” he says. “I can’t even remember what she looks like,” replies little Eve. Could you bet on whether Eve’s sister mysteriously shows up later in the film? I’ll leave that one to you.
Then, some assassins come for her father, and he goes badass mode on them while she hides, but of course, ultimately, he does get caught and killed. The men who do this have an X etched into their arms at the wrist.
Later, a mysterious man approaches Eve and tells her he can bring her to her father’s family. Fast forward 15 years, and now our adult Eve is seen training with the Rookie-roombas—that’s not their name, but I’m not googling the real spelling, it’s close enough. This proceeds like pretty much any Red Sparrow, Black Widow lady assassin program ever, including a high focus on ballet for some reason. Apparently, the best way to learn to fight is vigorous ballet training, but also fighting training.
Eventually, graciously, we get past this tutorial stage, and Eve is set on her first assignment to protect a ward from danger, and we get a cool fight scene there. But soon she discovers a man with the same X etched on his wrist and goes looking for answers, leading her toward a plot to get revenge on the tribe or cult or whoever killed her father.
Oh, and at some point before she ventures out into the larger world, she crosses paths with John Wick at the assassin house, and he shares some wisdom with her about getting out while she can. Very cliché stuff.
The rest of the movie is basically watching de Armas kill hordes of people in a very entertaining fashion, and it is the innovative fight sequences and kills that make this movie watchable. And what is great about that is once we get out of that slog at the beginning, it basically becomes nonstop action with only brief pauses for bullshit story points and terribly executed twists, etc. Then it’s back to the action, including a fight between two assassins with flamethrowers! Hoozah!
Seriously, if you can get through the first 30 minutes of this film, it’s a ton of fun. Don’t take the plot seriously, it’s completely useless. Just enjoy the barest bones of a woman taking out hundreds of dudes on her path to get revenge for the death of her father. That’s all you need.
