Cast:
Ana de Armas (Eve Macarro; Victoria Comte as young Eve), Anjelica Huston (the Director), Gabriel Byrne (the Chancellor), Lance Reddick (Charon), Norman Reedus (Daniel Pine), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Lena), Ian McShane (Winston Scott), Keanu Reeves (John Wick), and Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Nogi) Directed by Len Wiseman (#320 - Live Free or Die Hard, #1916 - Underworld)
Review:
Even with the marketing calling it "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina", I was at least semi-interested in seeing what was under the hood of trying to a spinoff of a series that I assumed was staying quiet (this is me pretending that the idea of making a fifth John Wick movie when the fourth's ending already exists). I didn't even realize they utilized the "branding" for a prequel TV show two years ago, incidentally. Apparently, the genesis of Ballerina came around because of seeing a trailer. Shay Hatten wrote a spec script that was inspired by seeing the trailer for John Wick: Chapter 2 [2017] that was acquired by Lionsgate. The script was a sendup of action movies and even had a counter to keep track of the lead character's kills as they went into conflict with secret society assassins in Switzerland and a retirement home. Sure, it was re-tooled extensively, but you might remember that Hatten was brought in to do some writing for the third and fourth John Wick movies. Evidently, the time from development led to several people being credited for "Additional Literary Material: (not on-screen)" in Rebecca Angelo, Lauren Schuker Blum, Emerald Fennell, Michael Finch and Len Wiseman. There were apparently reshoots of the film done in early 2024 by producer Chad Stahelski that was either months of stuff or just a few weeks of additional photography (one sequence cited was the extending opening that apparently wasn't initially filmed due to budget limitations) that was overseen by Stahelski and Wiseman. You might remember that Wiseman was the director for two of the first Underworld movies but had not directed a movie since Total Recall in 2012.
Honestly, I liked the movie fine, but many of my statements about the movie will make it seem like it is a bad thing to be a mediocre spinoff movie. If there was a tinge of amusement to be had at the growing absurdity that comes with one man against the whole band of killers to go alongside a good deal of stakes and danger in those aforementioned movies, you might find a part of that still present here. There is at least enough here for de Armas in shall we say, "killer instinct" to make things stay watchable without turning into a fest of staleness or to laugh at it. The flamethrower sequences in particular work best for the movie for shall we say, "slap-bang enjoyment", one is particularly enjoyable in the nitty-gritty feeling one gets in seeing just what that type of weapon can do and the methods that arise in trying to combat it. Besides, with a movie trying to play with resilience in "fight like a girl" but taking it seriously, as long as one is believing the material enough to not call it slop, it will coast enough for at least the idea of checking it out for 125 minutes. Armas plays it fast and loose in lethal grace that does manage to balance the tightrope of kicking ass without merely resembling a video game character in terms of the action sequences, anyway. Sure, the character probably has the gleam of being pushed and pulled by a few too many writers. Sure, the cult stuff is probably a bit too vague, but it is serviceable in the same sense that it feels like an old pair of shoes, and I suppose that works for Byrne to approach things with some creep factor. Huston accompanies the proceedings mostly to go around with a small bit of charm, which goes fine when it feels like most of the scenes take place in a chair. Obligation or otherwise, it is nice to see McShane and Reeves around for a bit in those vital doses of familiarity. Reedus might be worth talking about if he didn't have a significant amount of time between scenes to actually cite, but so it goes. It isn't too complicated a movie to either buy into or discard, and I found it works just enough to buy into, although I don't exactly expect too many more spinoff attempts*. In the end, it probably is a bit sloppier than the original script envisioned in executing mayhem, but it is relatively satisfying enough for me to at least say the journey was worth it to get there.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
*It amused me to get a trailer for Nobody 2, the sequel to the movie written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad during this.
