The action extravaganza From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, written by Shay Hatten and directed by Len Wiseman, is the perfect summer popcorn movie. The titular character is a child named Eve (Ana de Armas), whose father Javier (David Castañeda) was killed by a an organized crime family working under “the high table.” His betrayal of the family, specifically of his own father, The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), comes in the form of Javier caught trying to remove Eve from the world of organized crime, and he is killed, but she escapes.
As she is grieving her father’s death, a kindly stranger named Winston (Ian McShane) offers to take her somewhere she can learn ballet. The Ruska Roma is another organized crime family, and Eve agrees to audition for them. Having been accepted into the ballet/assassin training school by The Director of Ruska Roma (Anjelica Huston), Eve embarks on a life of classical dance and violence.
Ana de Armas channels fury and focus as Eve in a fiery shootout from From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.
“…Eve is accepted into the Ruska Roma to learn ballet and fighting…”
Eve spends years training, and as a young woman, she passes her final challenge and is given a task to offer paid protection to another young woman. As she is chewing through the many henchmen in an elaborate dance club fight, she notices one of the men has the same marking scar that she saw as a child when her father was attacked. When the Director warns her against pursuing revenge, she goes rogue and is once again assisted by Winston, who points her in the direction of Prague. Eve then shoots, cuts, bombs, flamethrowers, and punches her way toward vengeance in her quest to find The Chancellor. The Director tries to shut her down to keep peace between the families by sending the Baba Yaga, John Wick himself (Keanu Reeves) to stop her or kill her.
Ballerina exists in the world established in the preceding four John Wick films. Having so much intricate world-building already in place allows this film to skip exposition and focus on action, and it does so with bombastic glee. Len Wiseman’s directing marks the first time a John Wick film is not directed by Chad Stahelski, originator of the franchise. However, Stahelsky is a producer, along with Keanu Reeves, who also appears in the film as John Wick. The fact that the world of John Wick exists at all is incredible, as detailed in the engaging documentary Wick is Pain, which is a blow-by-blow diary of how hard it can be to get a movie made. Reeves and Stahelsky have achieved a landmark success with the Wick series and are now making good on handing the torch off to Ana de Armas as a new principal in the world “under the table.”
"…violence is elevated to a fine art, and it does play like a ballet..."
