The new John Wick movie came out but it’s not starring Keanu Reeves as John Wick. He’s there but he’s more of a supporting character. It’s still a tale of revenge but instead of it being about a cute puppy and cool car, it’s the more generic “my name is Eve Macarro you killed my father prepare to die” variety. I think as a John Wick movie it stands up to the rest of them but just like the fourth one, I found myself a little fatigued by the end of it. There’s just so much violence.
You might be saying, that’s the point, it’s a John Wick film, that’s kind of the point. But the first John Wick film had very clean violence. They’ve become more brutal as they’ve gone on and I think it’s all for the worst.
I was admittedly coming into this film with a rather negative outlook. I didn’t enjoy the fourth John Wick film, mostly because it had the problems of being way too long and there was a twenty minute sequence where people just won’t let John Wick walk up some stairs to get to the end of the film. It was slow and boring. It didn’t have any of the style that the other parts did.
The plot of Ballerina is that Ana de Armas’ character, Eve, is trying to avenge her father’s murder at the hands of group of killers. She joins a criminal organization pretending to be a ballerina she’s trained to become a killer-protector. She runs into a former member of this group whose trying to protect his daughter and when he’s incapacitated and his daughter taken, Eve sets out to find the girl and get revenge.
Ballerina didn’t really surprise me except in a few points, though it did improve my feelings towards the series on a whole. Firstly, I think Ana de Armas carries this film throughout and works as an action star. They don’t sexualize her character that much, she’s wearing a dress with a long slit in her first mission but after that she’s completely covered. They make a point that she’s smaller and weaker than most of the male opponents she’s going to have to face. They adapt her fighting style to that and she manages quite well.
It also does something fun with a lot of tried and true concepts in action films. She’s leaving a mission and we get a long shot of her car pulling away. Suddenly, her car is T-boned and pushed backwards and the camera pans down to show the gunfight. It’s an amazing shot.
Secondly, we’re so used to gun shop scenes where someone is showing off the hardware that the character is going to use throughout the rest of the film. This is usually a safe space but suddenly, Eve and the gun shop owner are attacked. I thought that was a good undermining of stereotypes and trope. The fight is one of the more brutal ones considering it’s mostly made up of grenade kills.
Then comes the flamethrower, which I was not a fan of. Watching people flail around burning is not fun. There’s a reason that these weapons are considered war crimes by the Geneva convention. There’s a point where her opponent who also has a flamethrower, his leg catches on fire and he uses his flaming leg to kick at her. It’s so goofy but kind of fun. Then we get a fire hose vs flamethrower fight and there’s no other way I can put this but it’s a Dragonball Z beam struggle.
The thing is, I think that this movie missed a big chance to have her father’s killer be John Wick. I think it would fit into the concept of the world that John Wick has to suffer for the things that he’s done. The two could come to terms with the lives they both live. I understand why they did it this way, is because they need to have Eve have an enemy that they can build a franchise around.
It also shows that Eve is not that good of a person. She doesn’t particularly care about the girl instead focusing on her own mission. I think that that’s a fun characterization for her as an assassination and adds a new depth to her character’s worldview.
Overall, I think it was a pretty good film that deserves a watch. Maybe do a double feature with Sinners.
Franklin Cota, an author and podcaster 