Dance of Death

John Wick spin off, Ballerina, swaps out Keanu Reaves (mostly) for Ana de Armas but almost everything else remains pretty similar. We still have the intricately choreographed fighting in a dark gloss colour palette, minimal plot propped up by ridiculous lore and the same waffling dialogue. Series die hards rejoice, but for someone who zoned out somewhere during Chapter 3 and was distinctly unimpressed with John Wick 4, these films are becoming something of a chore.

Eve Macarro (de Armas) is orphaned at a young age when assassins break into her home in an attempt to abduct her and her father (also an assassin) dies fighting them off. She is then raised by the "Ruska Roma" (more assassins, roughly 40% of the worlds population are assassins in the world of John Wick), who train her in the arts of both ballet and murder. After somebody from the faction that killed her dad attempts to off her, she embarks on a revenge quest, despite being explicitly forbidden from doing so by Roma queen bee Angelica Huston. Turns out her targets are an ancient cult that even the other assassin groups are scared of, but that doesn't stop them becoming bullet, knife, grenade, fire and fist fodder as Eve kills her way to justice.

Ballerina is at great pains to root itself firmly in the world of John Wick. There is plenty of time spent in the assassin friendly Continental hotels, Ian McShane's Winstone appears and talks in his usual pseudo-philosophical babble and there is a final appearance from the late, great Lance Reddick. Keanu himself appears in a not unsubstantial role, although its fairly obvious that his scenes were shot and added after the fact, presumably in an attempt to add some box office, and don't really add anything to Eve's journey. At two hours and change, the last thing the movie needed was superfluous scenes. 125 minutes isn't exactly a marathon runtime but with so little plot, action fatigue sets in long before the credits role. The pacing isn't great and it feels like what it is, a film that has gone through multiple reshoots over several years. It doesn't help that the villains are uniformly uninspiring, with Gabriel Byrne phoning it in as the cult's head honcho and none of his minions proving memorable.

The film does have an ace up its sleeve in leading lady De Armas. She has screen presence to burn and builds on the action chops she has already shown in the likes of "No Time To Die" and "Ghosted". She brings a different flavour to the fights, they are more about survival than finesse, as she is thrown this way and that. There is also an attempt to craft some unique set pieces, with close quarter hand grenade fights and a flamethrower dual. It just isn't enough to cut through the white noise of constant action and with Len Wiseman's direction being serviceable rather than inspiring, its hard to stay engaged.

For people who love the lore of the expanded Wickverse this will be a welcome addition, but with the bone crunching style of the earlier films becoming a distant memory, its becoming tougher and tougher to sit through the sheer po-facedness of it all.

5 grand jetes out of 10

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