During the 2019 movie John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, we watched as John (Keanu Reeves; The Matrix Franchise) went to the Ruska Roma leader, The Director (Anjelica Huston; Prizzi's Honor), and asked for safe passage to the Middle East. While in the theater - the home of the Ruska Roma - he witnessed ballet dancers being ordered over and over again to turn on their pointe shoes until their toes bled. One of the dancers, who noticed Mr. Wick, was Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas; Knives Out), who, while also trained in Ballet, was being trained to be an assassin, like Mr. Wick.
When Eve was a young girl, her mother and sister were killed, and she and her father fled and went into hiding. One day, however, the "tribe", led by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne; Cool World), found them and killed Eve's father. She was then taken in by the Ruska Roma and trained as a ballerina and a killer. One day, while working a job, Eve kills a man who has the same scar on his wrist as the men who killed her father. When she asks the Director about the scar, she is ordered not to pursue it, but does so anyway. Sometime later, in a snowy little village in Northern Europe, Eve learns the dark truth about the "tribe" and her own hidden past.
From The World of John Wick: Ballerina brings another aspect to the franchise and introduces a whole new group of characters for audiences to savor. As we learn more about the Ruska Roma, we also become intrigued by the extremely deadly and incredibly elusive tribe that seems to collectively have no soul, as they show no mercy and destroy their enemies swiftly and ruthlessly. Of course, this leaves us with even more unanswered questions than we had before.
De Armas is no stranger to action sequences, having been cast in the James Bond film No Time to Die and as a spy in Ghosted on Apple TV. While her action skills are very good, her American Accent isn't, and half the time her Cuban accent can be heard just under the surface, which is distracting. She does, however, simmer with a slow-boiling anger that can be sensed by the audience at all times. De Armas is joined by Reeves, Byrnes, Huston, and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), who all play their roles well.
Director Len Wiseman (Total Recall) works well within the confines set by a John Wick movie. He balances the action with the storyline as well as he can with a script that is a little thin on plot. Unlike some of the other Wick movies, the action doesn't drag on too long, and what can be explained of the story is, though more details and back story would have been nice. We could have learned even more about the Ruska Roma and the Tribe than we do, which leaves the audience wanting more plot points.
However, one part of the story doesn't particularly make sense, and it is a giant hole in the continuity of the John Wick "verse". If Ballerina takes place between Parabellum and John Wick Chapter 4, how does John go from being in the desert and cutting off his finger to then being in Europe to fight Eve with a full set of digits? Unlike starfish, humans don't grow back severed appendages.
While there are obviously some flaws with Ballerina, overall, it is a solid addition to the World of the John Wick franchise, and fans of the former will most likely like Ballerina as well. It will be interesting if they move forward with this character as a standalone or if they relegate her to a side assassin in future John Wick movies.
Grade: B
