Being a spin-off from the original John Wick series and highlighting events from the timeframe between Part 3 and 4, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina uses some of the building blocks but not enough of them to carry a stand-alone feature. It features some amazing fight sequences but there is little to buttress the film’s impact story-wise.
Starting with part 2 they expanded the Wick Universe by creating a concept called the High Table with its arcane rules and extreme sense of justice. This has gone some way to supplying a backbone to the story arc and they have leaned into this in every film since. With Ballerina it barely generates a mention and it’s a sad absence because this work is very light on dynamics and story.
Ana de Armas is fine as the main character Eve and her ability in the fight scenes is engaging and exhilarating. But we learn so little about her life or her motivations. Those moments of exposition are sadly missing and would have given the audience a breather to help build anticipation for the next fight scene and provide a path to the person under the persona.
The fight scenes do stand out as Eve’s technique of using any and all available items as weapons is quite a departure from Wick’s modus operandi. No one can argue the motivation behind Wick’s explosion of violence but Eve’s is not as clearly defined. Setting almost every fight scene in dark surroundings also blunts the impact. Taken in the context of the Wick Universe, it’s a worthwhile view but as a solo work not so much.
Rob Hudson
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