Ballerina is the fifth and newest film in the John Wick franchise. Photo: Lionsgate.
The John Wick franchise is arguably the best original action franchise of the last decade.
No other action hero in recent times has reached the popularity of Keanu Reeves in a black suit and tie, avenging the death of his beagle.
Now, after four mainline films, the title character has his first spin-off with Ballerina.
Ballerina stars Ana de Armas as Eve, a contract killer indoctrinated by the Ruska Roma, a cult-like group of assassins who harboured John Wick during the events of John Wick 3: Parabellum.
Fostered by the group following the death of her father, Eve spends the next 12 years becoming a lethal weapon aimed directly at the people who wronged her.
Admittedly, I wasn’t super keen on seeing this film.
The trailers weren’t great, John Wick wasn’t the lead character, and I believe there is nothing worse than a half-baked action flick.
Fortunately, I had a really dull weekend and a few hours to kill, allowing me to catch up on a few movies I’ve missed at the cinema. This week’s choice was Ballerina. The reason I say fortunately is because this was, for lack of a better word, awesome!
The film was action personified. The set pieces were fantastic, the choreography top-notch and the story pleasantly well-written.
Unlike John Wick, who coined the term Gun-Fu, Eve has a very different but just as unique style of fighting. It’s still very stylised, but it’s not just a carbon copy of her male counterpart.
Her motivations are justified, and the performance given by De Armas is reserved enough that, despite its graphic novel-like aesthetic, it still feels grounded.
The quality of this movie is not something you’d expect from the spin-off of a franchise that is already five movies in.
My favourite sequence involves Eve utilising a box of grenades while trying to repel a cult from overwhelming a gunsmith in Prague. That sounds ridiculous, and it is, but because of the world the film is centred around, you buy the situation the characters find themselves in.
The use of John Wick himself was fantastic as well.
Spoilers ahead for John Wick: Chapter 4 – you have been warned.
John Wick died in the previous film. He hasn’t been brought back. He isn’t a ghost. He doesn’t have a clone. He’s dead.
But the film does a very clever thing. It sets the film alongside the events of John Wick 3 and 4, similar to the way The Bourne Legacy does with The Bourne Ultimatum and Supremacy.
Mr Wick is contracted to hunt down Eve, and at no point throughout does it imply that Eve has even a chance of overcoming him.
This is clever because it keeps the legend of John Wick in this universe alive while also demonstrating the prowess of Eve. So when they do come to blows, it leaves the audience thinking ‘how the hell is she going to get out of this one?’.
The final 20 minutes of the film are also very satisfying, leaving the film open-ended enough for the filmmakers to return to this character if they want while also serving as a self-fulfilling narrative if they choose not to.
Ultimately and surprisingly, this film is a lot of fun. Once Ballerina hit top gear, it was a non-stop thrill, well deserving of its place in the John Wick franchise.
Ballerina is currently showing in cinemas across the country.
