#38: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK: BALLERINA

STARRING: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane and Keanu Reeves. Written by Shay Hatten, directed by Len Wiseman. Budget $90 million. Running time 125 minutes.

The fifth film in the John Wick universe. Apparently the events of this film take place between the 3rd and 4th Wick movies. As if that matters.

This time round we have Eve Macarro as our John Wick, so to speak. Played by Ana de Armas, who gloriously kicked butt in No Time to Die, Eve is an orphaned assassin and ballerina trained by the Ruska Roma dance school following the murder of her parents at the hands of a mysterious cult of killers called the Cult, lead by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Under the tutelage of The Director (Anjelica Huston), Eve is trained to be a total bad ass and naturally after one successful mission heads off on the revenge trail to avenge her dead parents. Aided by her benefactor, Winston (Ian McShane) Eve is soon finds herself in the Cult's uber-secret base of Hallstatt in Austria, where everyone is an assassin., even the coffee shop staff and the staff in Lidl. There in Hallstatt she fights her way through absolutely everyone towards her final confrontation with the Chancellor. Because the Cult and the Ruska Roma have an unspoken rule of leaving each other alone, The Director sends John Wick to kill Eve before she can have her revenge. 

Thanks to a never-ending series of chance encounters, Eve has absolutely no difficulty in tracking down the Cult's base of operations, each person she meets on her personal revenge voyage is able give her just enough information to get her merrily to Hallstatt. Even good ole John Wick seems to disregard his orders and rather than kill Eve allows her to beat the living shit out of while all the time telling her she has options. 

So, I loved the first John Wick film, it truly revolutionised the action film genre and re-invented and rejuvenated Keanu Reeve's career. It was a tight, insanely punchy, fantastically violent and satisfyingly brief movie and I fricking loved it! Watching John Wick lay waste to an army of henchmen in a series of superbly choreographed fight scenes and gun battles was a thrilling and most importantly never repetitive or boring. Sadly, the same can't be said of The Ballerina, early on in her training sequence tiny, nah impish Eve is told to use her disadvantages to her advantage and cheat to make a virtue of her size. After that one training mission she never again uses that wisdom. However, she doesn't really need to as everyone she fights conveniently allows her ample time to get her shots or fists in first and really don't seem that bothered by dying. Lucky for her.

What follows is a good looking, very well shot and edited action film, but sadly with a plot that follows the same plodding formula - pout, chat, fight, kill. Pout, chat, fight, kill - until her final showdown with Wick and then her final one with the Chancellor and then it's over. It's sadly very repetitive and frankly a little dull, her victory is never in doubt, her minimal wounds are laughable considering she's going up against a literal army's worth of highly trained killers, and the only damage she seems to suffer is a slight cut above her eyebrow. No concussions, no ruptured spleens, no shattered bones and not one single bullet wound or gaze, Christ even Wick suffered actual injuries, but not so our Eve. And that, dear reader is what robs this from being glorious, it has no skin in the game, and nothing to prove. It's the latest produce from a machine that's set to follow a winning formula, although missing one key ingredient, Keanu Reeve in the lead role. 

Acting wise, Ana works hard to be convincing, but at times she comes across as stroppy and almost petulant, she really throws herself into the action but it's not entirely convincing although the highlight is a superb flame-thrower fight. And it was a delight to see Gabriel Bryne back in a movie, I can't remember the last time I saw him, he has real menace, although I think he's horribly shortchanged in this one. Likewise Angelica Huston is splendid in her returning role as the Director of the Roma. And bringing up the rear, so to speak, Ian McShane who still seems to be revelling in his role as the manager of the Continental hotel.  

Hollywood has wholeheartedly embraced the idea of a female super agent on a revenge mission from La Femme Nikita to Long Kiss Goodnight, Atomic Blonde, Red Sparrow, Anna, Salt, Black Widow, Kill Bill, Hanna, Colombiana, Haywire, and Peppermint to name but 12, and at least two of those are also trained ballerinas, so this isn't exactly a new genre, but I just wish it had been a lot more inventive, if the makers of John Wick had wanted this to spawn a new franchise I think they might have miss-fired (geddit?). Looking at that list of films I have to say that apart from Anna, Red Sparrow (both ballerinas) and Colombiana that that list of films would make for a brilliant binge watch, particularly Haywire, which is frankly an absolute powerhouse of a movie. 

But this? Well, it's okay, but nothing original and nothing to worry John Wick about.

7/10