BALLERINA
***
Directed by Len Wiseman.
Starring Ana De Armas, Keanu Reeves, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne.
Action, US, 124 minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in cinemas in the UK on June 6th by Lionsgate
Given what happened at the end of JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 you would be forgiven for thinking that was that. We now live however in a world of “cinematic universes” where nothing ever ends and supporting characters get their own franchises, TV shows and/or animes. After the 70’s set mini-series prequel THE CONTINENTAL impressed very few and before Donnie Yen’s upcoming spin-off featuring his blind swordsman character Caine, an animated project about John’s fabled “impossible task” and the return of the great man himself in a supposed CHAPTER 5 we are treated to the sight of Ana de Armas taking centre stage with all manner of firearms and flamethrowers in BALLERINA. Or to give it its full title BALLERINA: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK just in case you were unaware that this was set in the world of John Wick despite the heavy presence of Keanu Reeves across the film's promotional materials.
After getting a glimpse of the Ruska Roma clan and their ballet school/assassin training school in Wick’s third chapter we fully delve into its workings through the eyes of Eve, who we first meet as a young child witnessing the murder of her father by a mysterious and deadly clan/cult of killers led by Gabriel Byrne’s Chancellor. Quickly recruited into the Ruska Roma after some guidance from the familiar face of Ian McShane’s Winston, we bear witness to Eve’s training over the years, including an encounter with a very familiar figure (clue: it’s John Wick), eventually leading her onto a quest for vengeance that takes on an extra dimension when she runs into Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus), an ex-member of the cult now on the run with his young daughter.
Originally filmed two years ago, BALLERINA has undergone extensive reshoots with rumours of Len Wiseman being replaced as director by Chad Stahelski, the main director of the Wick franchise. The early stages of the film show definite signs of its stop-start shooting schedule with plot threads petering out and fight scenes with the main stars fight and stunt double standing in on a series of long shots that obscure her face, a cardinal sin of action cinema that the main franchise prided itself on by avoiding unless absolutely necessary. The film settles into a more stable course when Eve comes face to face with her lifelong enemies in a remote snow bound town with a series of set pieces that often erupt suddenly out of nowhere in a rip roaring fashion that does not take itself seriously, despite leaning into a mythology which is now in danger of reaching near impenetrable levels.
Can a film have too much Keanu Reeves? In this case, yes. Obviously shoehorned in with the reshoots to beef up the connection between films, his presence rather undermines the work of de Armas, robbing her appealing character of her agency and in one instance, providing an easy way out that the scriptwriters and/or director could not be bothered with solving in more creative ways. It highlights a willingness to overexpose the franchise’s main cash cow and in the process turn him into some kind of omniscient guardian angel instead of the feared, legendary figure of the underworld that the franchise otherwise painted him as.
The film manages to entertain and sometimes thrill with its numerous setpieces, but its willingness to sideline its main character also seems to prove its less than necessary existence. Instead, the cynical nature that now threatens the whole saga with its eagerness to keep trotting out all too familiar faces instead of moving in a fresh new direction is becoming far too obvious, and just a tad desperate.
Iain MacLeod