Ballerina

If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself deep in reflection after seeing Ballerina, trying to figure out why this has so little of the dramatic resonance imbued in the four John Wick movies from which this spins off. The personnel is largely the same, with Wick: Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 scribe Shay Hatten taking lone screenplay credit and a number of cast members returning including Keanu Reeves himself as Wick. The universe is the same. There’s the Continental Hotel with its rules of warfare, the weapons shop with its loaded secret rooms, telephone operators and bounty alert SMS. Heck, even this new story does not dramatically depart from Lionsgate’s increasingly blockbuster saga.

But for some reason, Ballerina does not recreate the weight or captivating nature of the unusually compelling action franchise. Part of it may be overkill. Over the past decade, those four Wick movies served up a plethora of spellbinding fights and stunts. Those drew to a natural and fitting conclusion in 2023’s finale, whose nearly half-billion dollar worldwide gross was easily the series’ best.

Now, two years later and one since it was supposed to release, Ballerina tries to fill in a blank that we never knew existed. The blank is Eve Macarro, played by Ana de Armas in a fitting high-profile lead role about a decade in the making.

After getting started in her native Cuba and Spain, then putting in supporting turns in American films like War Dogs, Blade Runner 2049, and Knives Out, de Armas has been a streaming service fixture the past few years. She earned an Academy Award nomination for her Marilyn Monroe portrayal in Netflix’s poorly-reviewed Blonde (2022) and then tested the lengths of audience goodwill in mindless big-budget “content” like The Gray Man (also for Netflix) and Ghosted for Apple TV+. Most of us would concede that de Armas possesses talent and beauty that warrants such lucrative lead roles. But the duds keep piling up, making it harder to champion as a burgeoning star from a generation lacking those.

De Armas is not the problem in Ballerina. She does what she can with the role of a woman who loses her loving father in childhood, endures ballet training from the Ruska Roma, and then as an adult defies orders, going rogue to avenge her father’s murderer. Ballerina does not do much to flesh out its heroine or anyone else. Characters are sketched lightly and the ones who make the biggest impression are those who we already know from the Wick series, including Anjelica Huston as the Ruska Roma’s deadpan ballet director, the late Lance Reddick as the New York Continental’s dutiful concierge, and Ian McShane as the hotel’s owner and the franchise’s father figure. New characters, played by the likes of Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reedus, and Noughties Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, barely warrant mentions as they simply provide boxes to be checked off in the cookie cutter narrative.

Eve quickly becomes the indestructable killing machine we know John Wick to be. It’s not as plausible. It’s certainly not as fresh or iconic. And yet, director Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard, Underworld) tries to bring the energy and lethal ingenuity for which the franchise is known and celebrated.

A big part of the Wick quartet’s appeal lies in Chad Stahelski’s direction. Stahelski made his directing debut on the first Wick after twenty years of doing stunts. The filmmaker’s background inevitably led to an emphasis on imaginative action sequences that only grew more ambitious and complicated in each installment. Wiseman and company try to uphold the tradition and win over Stahelski, who’s credited as producer here. The action is ridiculously over the top and extremely violent. Regardless of its success with young teens and up, this will never be a PG-13 series. But you’ll need more than graphic carnage to make me whoop, holler, or let out an approving Beavis and Butthead “cool.” Despite some impressively staged action sequences, full of flamethrowers and other explosives, Ballerina never finds a reason to exist or a voice or charm of its own.

The heroine is flat and lacking in humanity. For some reason, Reeves delivers his every line, which are largely limited to a mid-movie cameo and an extended presence in the climax, like he’s just recovered the ability to speak. I hope he’s okay. If you’re not won over by the action, you won’t be won over by the movie. Even if you appreciate the high-octane antics, you might find the movie hollow and one-note for crossing the two-hour mark.

While Ballerina seems intended to launch a full-blown spin-off franchise, so was Hobbs & Shaw and that still hasn’t happened. After gradually and organically winning over the public with the rewarding original IP of Wick, Lionsgate has suddenly shown uncertainty at the controls. The three-part Peacock prequel series “The Continental” did not make it to a second season. And now, a fifth Wick movie has been announced with Reeves and Stahelski, news that makes little sense to anyone who saw Chapter 4.

Every movie studio today recognizes the far-reaching value of franchises. But developing and expanding such franchises in the right way is not always an easy task. The underwhelming Ballerina is a testament to that.