Movie review: Ana de Armas is better at killing than ballet in ‘Ballerina,’ a John Wick spinoff

By JOCELYN NOVECK Associated Press Watch a bunch of John Wick movies all in a row and you can get pretty paranoid You start to think everyone s an assassin The guy at the newsstand the street musician the subway rider that nice neighbor in the elevator ruthless contract killers all So perhaps it shouldn t be too surprising that in From the World of John Wick Ballerina the latest installment in the Wickian world we reach the logical endpoint a town where every single inhabitant s a killer Yes it s a picture-perfect snowy winterscape in Austria where everyone wears wool beanies and very nice sweaters But they also wield a mean flamethrower and schoolkids have mandatory shooting practice This image issued by Lionsgate shows Ana de Armas in a scene from Ballerina Larry D Horricks Lionsgate via AP The early scenes in this wacky place high in the mountains are the best part of Ballerina they literally contain deft surprises and even a glimmer of humor which is hardly something we expect in a John Wick film Have you ever see the guy smile Watching our energetic star Ana de Armas engage in a plate-smashing contest with a sweet waitress-turned-vicious-killer reminds us that action can be clever even if the majority scenes in this series inevitably become numbing as the body count rises stratospherically Before we go further a few clarification on where this film fits into the timeline Let s forget for now that there was a John Wick because the events of Ballerina take place during the third movie So erase from your mind whatever huge life-altering thing may or may not have happened in the last film OK This image circulated by Lionsgate shows Ana de Armas in a scene from Ballerina Larry D Horricks Lionsgate via AP Eagle-eyed viewers may in fact remember a brief scene in the third movie where a ballerina is trying to do a series of fouett s those whiplash turns on one leg that are a big attraction in Swan Lake The same scene returns in Ballerina where we see de Armas character Eve doggedly trying to master them in training Why she keeps falling every time after years and years of class is a mystery We don t aim for full realism in action films guys but may we suggest that falling flat on the floor in your pointe shoes every time you do a turn feels like much more complicated stunt work than anything else in Ballerina including obliterating a horde of townspeople It also speaks to a troubling lack of coordination a definite predicament for an assassin Anyway We authentically first meet Eve as a child living alone with her cherished father in several wind-swept coastal abode Suddenly a crew of black-clad assassins arrives by sea targeting the father He manages to protect Eve but dies from his wounds This image circulated by Lionsgate shows Ana de Armas in a scene from Ballerina Lionsgate via AP Soon now-orphaned Eve is approached by Winston Ian McShane returning owner of the Continental Hotel Winston says he can bring her to her father s family He takes her to The Director a haughty Anjelica Huston who welcomes the budding dancer to what seems an elite ballet academy but is also the training ground of the Ruska Roma the crime organization where Wick himself learned his business The years go by Eve is now a young woman determined to strike out on her own though she still has problems completing a fouett turn Tend to your wounds before you get sepsis and we have to cut off your feet the Director suggests helpfully Luckily she shows more aptitude with firearms And that s crucial because her overriding goal is to avenge the death of her father So when Wick himself Keanu Reeves of class appearing in a limited key scenes makes a crucial stop at the academy Eve looks at him and asks How do I get out of here This image distributed by Lionsgate shows Anjelica Huston in a scene from Ballerina Lionsgate via AP The front door is unlocked Wick replies a line that got applause at the screening I was at but so did virtually everything Wick declared or did No how do I start doing what YOU do Eve asks Wick tells her she can still leave she has the choice to reject a killer s life The sad subtext He does not But while Wick wants out inevitably Eve wants IN Otherwise we wouldn t have a movie And so her quest for vengeance takes her clue by dangerous clue and against the Director s strict orders to the snowy hamlet of Hallstatt There the fearsome Chancellor Gabriel Byrne duly chilly leads a band of assassins all of whom want to kill her Oh also the Chancellor killed her dad This image distributed by Lionsgate shows Norman Reedus in a scene from Ballerina Larry D Horricks Lionsgate via AP And so Eve has to fight using all the training and ingenuity she has amassed One lesson she must draw on from a trusted guide Fight like a girl In this event as you can imagine that s not a derogatory phrase What it means is to lean into your strengths you won t beat a man by brute force the instructor has narrated her but with smarts and inventiveness That means using ever more gripping weapons to kill an endless supply of people it must be explained the cheers from moviegoers are as ever disconcerting And by the end getting pretty content with a flamethrower This image circulated by Lionsgate shows Ana de Armas in a scene from Ballerina Lionsgate via AP From the World of John Wick Ballerina a Lionsgate release has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association for strong bloody violence throughout and language Running time minutes Two stars out of four