“Ballerina” is the fifth film in the John Wick series, but the first without Keanu Reeves’ John Wick in the lead role. A John Wick movie without John Wick at the lead might sound as difficult to pull off as a “Mission Impossible” movie without Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, or perhaps more fittingly a “Matrix” movie without Reeves’ Neo. And indeed, “Ballerina”— which follows the adventures of assassin Eve Macarro, played by Ana de Armas, who kills her way through a movie — is entertaining but never actually finds its footing.
The John Wick films followed a retired assassin who finds his way back into the criminal underworld after he seeks revenge for the murder of his dog. Over the course of the four films, he travels the world with a bounty on his head, always remaining a stoic, stone-cold killer.
“Ballerina” maintains some of the best aspects of the franchise — a mostly silent, ruthless protagonist, the endless killing, and the seemingly endless lore — but fails to set itself apart as a film with its own identity. Instead, it never feels like anything more than a spinoff.
For the most part, “Ballerina” is a solid continuation to the franchise, but the absence of Chad Stahelski, who directed the four mainline John Wick films, is noticeable. Len Wiseman’s direction gets the job done, but lacks the gravitas that made every scene in the John Wick films so impactful.
“Ballerina” is set during the events of “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” when John Wick is declared ‘excommunicado’ after violating a sacred rule in the world of assassins, and is on the run with a $14 million bounty on his head. Wick himself makes a few appearances in the film, but the focus is never taken away from Eve, at least not intentionally. John Wick’s presence, for those who have seen the original films, makes viewers wish they were just watching a John Wick movie instead.
The film starts with Eve as a child, when members of a cult — known simply as the Cult — ambush her home and kill her father, an assassin of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate. Eve is then taken in by the Ruska Roma and trained along with dozens of other adolescents. She twirls in pointe shoes until her feet vigorously bleed — not just to be a ballerina, but to be a limber and agile killer — and trains in martial arts and armed combat to become a Kikimora, a bodyguard-assassin of the Ruska Roma that takes its name from a spirit of traditional Slavic myth.
Eventually, she leaves to find the Cult that killed her father, a mission that leads her to the mountains of Central Europe and notably, an encounter with the “Baba Yaga,” John Wick. In her search for revenge, Eve uses anything and everything as a weapon of murder, from rifles and grenades to ice skates and ceramic plates. The last hour or so is nonstop killing, and it strikes the right balance of being gruesome enough to be entertaining, but not too much to make an audience squirm. Still, all the killing feels fruitless, and the attempts at emotional revelations on the way fall flat.
“Ballerina” is light on the plot and very, very heavy on the action. That might very well be what some audiences want out of a John Wick spinoff, but the Wick films set themselves apart from the crowd of action blockbusters by inventing a universe ripe with character and history.
“Ballerina” takes that rich mythology that those films created and runs with it, but does not add much of its own. The Continental Hotel that is central to the franchise is still here, and familiar faces like Ian McShane’s Winston, the Continental’s manager, and the late Lance Reddick’s Charon, the hotel’s concierge, help ground “Ballerina” in the world of John Wick.
The movie does not give viewers anything about the Cult that Eve spends the entire movie hunting, aside from the fact that they reside in an Austrian mountain village and all have X-shaped scars on their arms. “Ballerina” would have been better off if it had more substance in this regard, adding more details to the tapestry of the John Wick universe along the way.
Yet for what it’s worth, “Ballerina” keeps up the John Wick films’ legacy of having some of the best choreographed, most intense action in movies. Stahelski’s fight scenes were so good in part because they were so fast paced, without being hard to follow. Inventive camerawork was used to keep the momentum of the action, without relying on the editing style of excessive camera cuts that plague so many modern action films.
Wiseman’s direction is not quite as original — he completely copies some of Stahelski’s more creative shots, like the bird’s eye view shootout from “John Wick: Chapter 4.” He does just enough to keep the scenes moving, but nothing stands out as being particularly fresh.
“Ballerina” is a good action movie, but it does not come close to the excellence of the other films in the series. The movie’s best moments come when fight scenes evoke classic John Wick. If viewers are looking for “John Wick: Chapter 5” in “Ballerina,” they will be disappointed, and if viewers come to “Ballerina” knowing nothing about John Wick, they will be confused. “Ballerina” lives in a weird middle ground — too much of a John Wick film for the casual viewer, and not enough of a John Wick film for the devoted fan.
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