“Needing to know. That’s what got us kicked out of the Garden Of Eden… Eve.”
Ballerina takes place in the rather colorful world of John Wick, and it almost appears to me that it’s being sold as a kind of John Wick 4/2 or perhaps more accurately John Wick 3 ½. With Keanu Reeves seeming to be going back and forth on a potential John Wick 5, there has been a lot of mining in that world while they decide. Of course, there will be a John Wick 5. There’s just too much money to be made, and the streaming series The Continental didn’t really work out as well as everybody hoped it would. The answer is obvious. No one wants to see the John Wick Universe. They want to see John Wick. So this second foray into spin-off territory was padded by making sure Keanu Reeves would show up. Understand: he’s not the main character, and this film takes place during John Wick 3 Parabellum and between that film and John Wick 4. So no one has to deal with the whole is he alive or dead question … yet. But will audiences settle for a John Wick Universe film with a little Keanu on the side? The answer is yes and no. So let’s talk about From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina.
The film starts with the obligatory flashback that sets the stage for these new and old characters to collide. We witness a young girl with a ballerina music box with a father just as a team of assassins takes out dad and his crew. They were obviously looking for his young daughter, Eve. We don’t know why they want her. Only that they do, and they’re prepared to leave massive carnage in their wake. She hides and gets away. She notices one of the dead assassins has an X branded on his wrist. You’re a savvy film fan, so you understand this is intended for us to notice and remember for later, because the next thing we know she’s training at a kind of assassin/ballerina program under the tutelage of the Director, played by Anjelica Huston. You might remember her from John Wick 3: Parabellum. She runs a group that John Wick visits during that film, and of course, he’s now going to encounter Eve, played by Ana de Armas now as the adult Eve. And here’s why I think this material doesn’t work without Keanu. The audience watching the film with me were somewhat subdued, but as soon as Keanu makes a cameo, the place went nuts. I feel bad for Ana de Armas, because she really doesn’t have a chance here. They didn’t come to see her, the titular character. They came for whatever few minutes they get to see John Wick once again. This is a no-win situation for the talented actress.
The film sets her on a course to track down the “tribe” that killed her father, which puts her on a collision course with the Director, the bad guys, and John Wick. Her vengeance journey breaks a tenuous peace between the tribes, but she couldn’t care two craps about any of that. Eve is the perfect female version of John Wick. She also has MacGyver skills and can kill with pretty much anything at all. I suggest you keep her away from the pencils. The big difference here is her moves come from the whole ballerina training instead of the more martial arts we’re used to seeing. There are plenty of the kinds of manic action scenes that you’ve come to expect from this universe, and there are plenty of the world’s Easter eggs to be found at almost every turn.
Of course, Ian McShane returns as Winston, and in an all-too-brief couple of moments we get the final performance of Lance Reddick as Charon. Reddick passed rather suddenly recently, and in his own all-too-brief 60 year visit on this planet he’s given us so many memorable characters from The Wire’s Cedric Daniels where I first encountered the brilliant thespian to Phillip Broyles in the science fiction series Fringe. He’s been a charming part of this universe since the first film. I’m going to miss him, and catching him one more time was actually more important to me than the Keanu Reeves’ return.
This film was directed by Len Wiseman, who I first encountered as the creator of the Underworld films with his at-one-point wife Kate Beckinsale. There is a lot of that style here with a ton of his use of cold color temperatures that lean heavily into the blue tones, particularly in low light. There has been some controversy over how much of his film remains, as there were apparently some creative differences, with Chad Stahelski reportedly reshooting much of the Prague footage of the film. I doubt it was reshot as much as I’ve heard, because Wiseman’s style is clearly at work here. The first parts of the film have an almost Suspiria feel as Eve trains at the unusual school with Huston really fitting the part of that film’s infamous headmistress. But don’t worry. This is going to feel very much like a John Wick film.
Another element of atmosphere comes to me strictly unintended. The first time I ever heard Swan Lake was as the theme to the 1931 Universal classic Dracula film with Bela Lugosi. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned it was really something else. But it doesn’t matter. When I hear Swan Lake, I have images of dusty old mansions with giant spider-webs and Lugosi greeting us all with his signature “Good Evening”. Have you ever seen a ballerina film that did not use Swan Lake? That’s what I’m talking about so in my case Wiseman or whoever got a few extra atmospheric bangs for their buck.
The film is fun, but nothing special. I think the film was released in a smart window here. It’ll get a chance to pull in a few bucks before it’s completely overtaken and relegated to home video and streaming release by the likes of Superman and The Fantastic Four. There’s plenty of action, and the film only bogs down a touch in the first act. It’s an amusement park ride and lots of fun, but I don’t expect this film to add much to the Wick Universe. Now the word is Reeves is unhappy, with plans already for Ballerina 2, and I think the result will be a slightly more fast-tracked John Wick 5. but I’ll say this for Eve. “She can dance.”
