Never forget: the only person to ever defeat Keanu Reeves by the end of the movie was Ana de Armas. As a reward, Keanu agrees to turn over the John Wick world to her. De Armas proves she has the chops to lead Ballerina. As well as the punches, slashes, shots, and explosions.
When we first meet Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), she’s a scared, vengeful girl, having seen her father Javier (David Castañeda), try to leave the Chancellor’s (Gabriel Byrne) Cult…but that’s never an easy proposition. Continental owner Winston Scott (Ian McShane) takes pity on the poor girl, sending her to the Director (Anjelica Houston) and the Ruska Roma. There, Eve hones that anger into ruthless drive and precision, ready to become the next Baba Yaga (Keanu Reeves) if given the chance. This career though was always going to put her in contact with Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus) or other members of the Cult, testing Eve’s feelings to see if revenge is still a part of her.
Chad Stahelski didn’t direct Ballerina, but he apparently took his producing job very seriously. The movie feels exactly like a Wick film, capturing that weird mixture of elegant and viscerally brutal. The weapons to deliver that message in this one are grenades, ice skates, and a third act one I’ll save for the fun. The grenade one felt right out of playing video games, like Len Wiseman the director saw “Nades only” on a Call of Duty map or something and thought “challenge accepted.” I never thought I’d see that many bodies explode so up close, or go flying through random very painful walls. Yes its brutal, but while bodies are being exploded or violently murdered, we’re in a cool ass ice club, or a beautiful German lakeside town during a sundrenched snowfall somehow. Wiseman and Stahelski proved here they can take the Wick special sauce, throw a little Eve Macarro energy into it, and the formula still works wonderfully if that’s your thing.
Ana de Armas is as big reason for Ballerina’s success as the director/producer are. She really committed to the action, performing most of the crazy stuff she has to do here herself, I’m guessing until a producer had to step in and say no. There’s a fierce, force de Armas carries Eve with: you can’t take your eyes off her as she digs deeper and deeper into the Cult and their shenanigans. Supporting de Armas are Wick vets like Keanu, Anjelica Houston, and Ian McShane, happily giving this film what it needs to succeed. Gabriel Byrne is requisitely chilling as a Cult leader. But the stunt team are the real stars here, going through every wall, taking every punch, letting out gallons of blood, or risk burning falling, and exploding to death to make Ballerina an fun to watch as they hoped it would turn out.
The movie leaves off in a good place for the sequel to go. This was a good IP gamble, because Keanu has to retire at some point and the Wick world still has lots of juice in the tank I’m sure of it. Maybe we can get a Daniel Craig Bond cameo in the next one talking about Eve and his time in Cuba on that job, or Benoit Blanc follows Eve around, investigating her left behind crime scenes. “Marta, what’s happened to you!?”