The John Wick series is the best action franchise of all time. Bar none. Better than Mad Max, better than the Fast Fambly, and yes, better than Mission: Impossible (although that one is close). I said it and I mean it. When it comes to groundbreaking action with emotional stakes, centered around a character that you care about, absolutely no one does it better than a John Wick. No one. And before you throw The Raid on the table, I will preemptively rebut your valid assertion by saying this: The Raid did it twice, and perfectly so. John Wick did it four times. And not only were all four entries absolute face-melters, but the fourth and final(?) entry is THE BEST ACTION MOVIE EVER MADE.
I said it and I mean it.
But here’s the thing: Keanu Reeves is going to be 61 this year, and the type of physical fitness that playing John Wick requires is simply unattainable unless, as Tom Cruise demonstrated, one clears their entire body of space alien ghosts or some shit. Heck, I’m forty and I’m currently nursing an injured knee from kicking a bag just one time a few days ago. I can barely walk. Although to be fair, I fully welcome alien ghosts into my body because that’s fuckin’ cool.
Anywho, since the one and only John Wick is nearing retirement age, it’s only fitting in our current media climate that we shuffle through spinoffs until one of them hits, and then drive it into the ground until everyone hates the property and THEN move on to something new, GOD BLESS AMERICA.
As such, the John Wick franchise’s second attempt at a spinoff (the first being the failed series The Continental) comes in the form of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (that’s the real title), in which Eve (Ana de Armas) uses gun-fu to get revenge on those who did her wrong. In this case it’s a cabal of cult members who, way back when she was just a littlun, killed her father. Before she could be kidnapped by said cult, she was drafted into the John Wick Program™️ (that’s what I’m calling it and you can’t stop me), where orphans and other disconnected youths get trained to be John Wick. You probably remember Anjelica Huston’s character from the series proper. She was the high-ranking member of the family (not to be confused with Dom Toretto’s #Fambly) who helps John Wick escape the country in part three. She runs a ballet school … a ballet school where they also train John Wicks! It’s at this school that Eve is trained to be a John Wick.
Like the Wick series proper, there’s an attempt at world expansion here, but unlike in all the Johns Wick, it’s not really all that inspired. The cult which killed Eve’s father, led by Gabriel Byrne (as himself?), has an uneasy truce with the ballet/karate school family, and Eve’s decision to forsake her contract and seek revenge has everyone all karated up and ready to fight.
But when they do fight, which is often, it rocks. While not as dynamic or impressive as one would hope, given the franchise adjacency, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is still head and shoulders above the many films which have tried to ape Wick’s style for the past decade or so. The fisticuffs are clean and imaginative, and the usage of weaponry is beyond brutal. A few kills would feel right at home in a horror flick (you wouldn’t believe what Eve does with a box of grenades). The lax story makes the overall tone of the action somewhat weightless, but on a moment-to-moment basis it kicks an ungodly amount of ass. The final set piece (it’s when the flamethrowers from the trailer get busted out) is exceptional.
Yet for all the action wizardry on display, the bar has been set so high that it can’t help but feel underwhelming. The John Wick movies are constantly innovating, and against all odds the world-building and character material is just as memorable as the carnage. None of that is true for ::inhales deeply:: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. It’s empty spectacle, and the spectacle is second rate (relative to the source material, of course). This silver medal feeling is made extremely clear when John Wick enters the movie for a short while (this film occurs between chapters 3 & 4 of Wick) and the film immediately gets better on all fronts: the action looks sharper and more dynamic, the filmmaking tightens up and feels less like a watered down version of what we all came to see. Even Eve seems to become more compelling.
It’s weird.
That said, I was admittedly nervous that Wick himself would be overused, but his inclusion feels way less gimmicky than it could have. It’s juuuuuust right.
With one’s expectations in check, there’s a ton of fun to be had with From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. I’d watch another one, but I’d hope that it would have a better script with a better story to fuel the action. Ana de Armas is a tremendous performer, and she does some terrific action work as Eve, but it would’ve been nice for the script to rise to her level in terms of character. There’s not a lot for her to work with outside of the action. It’s a missed opportunity.
Not a missed opportunity, however, is the high count of fully-on-fire stunt performers, which remains the greatest special effect a film can offer.
Directed by Len Wiseman
Written by Shay Hatten
Starring Ana de Armas, Lance Reddick (RIP), Ian McShane, Catalina Sandino Moreno
Rated R, 125 minutes
