8.12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars

“A man’s ambition should never exceed his worth.”

So said the aptly-named Harbinger in John Wick: Chapter 4. Unfortunately for Wick’s target, the Marquis de Gramont did not heed Harbinger’s advice. Of course, neither did Hollywood. That is how we ended up with From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, a mouthful of both a title and a film.

Ballerina, set during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, mostly follows the story of Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), the titular ballerina – and assassin to boot – as she goes on a revenge tour against the cult that stole her sister away and killed her father. Interspliced throughout the film in a series of painstakingly obvious reshoots is a John Wick subplot, a revival of the figure, but unfortunately not the form.

Flimsy as Wick plots notoriously are, the rewrites and stitched-in Wick scenes drag Ballerina from the dizzying heights of its predecessors towards the “wait, I actually have to care about the plot?” problem that so many later stage action franchises fall into. There’s a long lost sister to keep an eye out for, a different father-daughter relationship that we have to care about, and the aforementioned John Wick subplot, which revolves increasingly around Wick (Keanu Reeves) getting to places by certain times. And while each act is punctuated with increasingly explosive action sequences, much like its theatrical counterpart in Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, this feels like a movie written around set pieces, rather than one that flows naturally from one to the next. Unlike the Mission Impossible films, though, the Wick franchise has never had to burden itself with the complexities of plotting. Sure, there is a deep lore in the Wick world, and yes, there’s always some reason our beloved assassin must kill his way across said globe; however, the pace of each prior film has been set by the speed of the punches, not the stage of the plot. But, we must remember that this is Ballerina, not John Wick. This film is aspiring to more.

Wick though, when Eve finds herself brawling in a nightclub or, as in the third act, a beautiful town in the Alps, the action is electric enough to forgive the screenplay’s over complicated trappings. De Armas, despite some dramatic shortcomings, is spot on in her stunt choreography and comedic timing. She can throw a punch almost as well as she can land one (which is a feat in and of itself), and by the final act, I found it remarkably easy to believe that the movie camera was invented to show the world Ana de Armas wielding a flamethrower. In its violence – which is, of course, the currency of the Wick universe – Ballerina finds success. In that success, I found, if not the veneration I’ve felt for the previous installments, at least worthwhile satisfaction.

And while it’s in short order for Eve Macarro, forgiveness can be won easily from an audience bombarded with grenade belts and samurai swords. Who cares that the cult at the center of the film is literally named “The Cult” when Ana de Armas is smashing plates over someone’s head or Norman Reedus is tearing through hotel walls with a shotgun? (Although, it is difficult to forgive the criminal under-utilization of Reedus.) Ballerina may have aspired to be more than a spin-off of a series centered around a man seeking to avenge his murdered dog, but it didn’t need to – and it probably shouldn’t have, because the action is worthy enough.

And Eve may have been worthy of taking up Wick’s mantle herself, had Harbinger’s message been heeded.

Movie Review: "Ballerina" Can’t Best "John Wick", But Then Again, Who Can?