Movie Scene: John Chick

Set between events of ‘John Wick 3: Parabellum’ and ‘John Wick 4’ comes this week’s film ‘Ballerina’ also set in the murky underworld of contract killers, secret cabals and High Tables.

Originally set for release this time last year, ‘Ballerina’ underwent a torrid journey to the big screen, with reports of extensive reshoots and original director Len Wiseman being side-lined in favour of ‘Wick’ stalwart Chad Stahelski. After all that, it’s finally here so the question remains… is it any good?

From the film’s opening beats, it’s clear that we’re back in the ‘Wickverse’ as a rip-roaring opening sequence sees an assault on a lone assassin in a huge house who proceeds to beat the living snot out of the baddies in order to protect his daughter Eva. After seeing dear old dad’s demise at the hands of Gabriel Byrne’s mysterious Commander, Eva is picked up by Winston (a returning Ian McShane) and is placed in the care of the Ruska Roma, headed by an also-returning-from-Parabellum, Anjelica Huston. Eva (now Ana De Armas) grows up to become a novice assassin and, while on a job, encounters the group who murdered her father, going rogue in order to get justice.

Many, myself included, have probably asked, ‘did we really need this spinoff?’ Female-led revenge films have been done before (Salt, La Femme Nikita, Ava to name but a few), so are we really going to see anything new? The answer here is no but what ‘Ballerina’ does have going for it is the universe it inhabits.

Acting as an origin story for Eva, we see her go through the rigorous training regime in both fighting and ballerina skills under the tutelage of Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) and an all-too-brief glimpse into opening missions, serving up brutal action set-pieces we’ve come to expect from the franchise while also showing Eva’s vulnerability as a novice killer. It’s pleasing that Wiseman has built things up slowly, allowing the audience to be reacquainted with the inner workings of the world although plot threads involving Norman Reedus and Catalina Sandino Moreno are severely short-changed. Once Eva rediscovers the tribe who killed her father, ‘Ballerina’ says ‘plot be damned’ and switches up a gear to non-stop action, globe-trotting through New York, Prague and the chocolate box Austrian village of Hallstatt, where Eva leaves a literal trail of destruction.

Early on, Nogi informs Eva that she must use everything she can to gain an advantage against the enemy and it’s a lesson she takes to heart. Ice skates, guns, bombs, katana swords, flamethrowers and hoses are just some of the weapons Eva deploys in despatching enemies in a series of brutal, wonderfully-choreographed and kinetic encounters and De Armas is terrific, displaying a steely, determined presence. When Eva finally gets her showdown with the Chancellor, it’s almost disappointing when he’s taken care of using a gun.

We can’t talk about ‘Ballerina’ without mentioning a returning John Wick. Keanu Reeves’s short appearance doesn’t add up to much but, along with Charon and Winston, the appearance is a nice tie-in with the wider franchise.

The ending suggests a sequel which presumably depends on box office, but even if this is the Ballerina’s solo performance, it’s a hell of a dance!