Film review: Ballerina (plus ticket giveaway)

Marketing is a darned thing. It’s because of marketing that Len Wiseman’s Ballerina‘s official title is the useless and long-winded From The World of John Wick: Ballerina, which I refuse to use because that’s obviously a title clumsily decided, and secondly because this makes a promise the film may not be able to fulfil.

The “world of John Wick” is a hyper-stylised universe that is part cyberpunk and part classic. The citizens who are not contracted killers are still mannequins in the background, what in videogame we call an NPC (or non-playable characters), which makes sense because videogame rules apply to this universe – brutal, unforgiving and compelling violence, with no consequences to the outside world. And it’s terrific. The John Wick saga was one of the most refreshing franchises to come out in the past decade, made with the utmost love for the craft of action choreography while trying to be the coolest person in the world. Chad Stahelski crafted a singular aesthetic experience that is instantly recognisable. The world of that? Thems some big shoes to fill.

And Wiseman kind of gets it? Set mostly somewhere between the third and fourth instalment of John Wick, Ballerina introduces us to Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), who, as a child, witnessed the death of her father at the hands of a mysterious cult headed by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) and is raised as an assassin, and a ballet dancer, by the Ruska Romans and their Director (Angelica Huston). Until the day Eve recognises a scar from a man she murdered as connected to her past and, against orders, goes on a quest for revenge.

So, if anything, it’s “from the world of John Wick” in the sense that it’s about a stoic assassin with a vengeance. The first 40 minutes are long and clumsy to set the tone and the story of a character we were just introduced to and how she interacts with people we already know (Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Keanu Reeves join Huston at reprising their roles). It takes a while to kick in and bring that recognisable Wick flavour, which eventually it does. The payoff is a treat to fans of the franchise.

If anything, Ballerina proves that “the world” doesn’t need Reeves to survive (even though when he finally enters the story, for just a second, we’re graced with a moment of action that towers over most of what the rest of the film has to offer). Armas is a fantastic actress who gets the style of this subgenre. At this point, she may be one of Hollywood’s most reliably versatile actors; a screen presence with enough gravitas to fill the Reeves-shaped hole and stand above the many shortcomings of Wiseman’s direction. She’s terrific in this, but again, when is she not?

The problem is how Wiseman doesn’t quite stand up to “the world of John Wick”. In a way, this is as if someone told him the elements of this reality, and he was trying to recreate it from hearsay. Gone are the cool stylised noir cyberpunk settings, and it is a strange grounding in reality. Right at the beginning, I was started by a shot of McShane’s character walking down a brightly lit corridor filled with extras, and it felt uncanny. This as much as the world of John Wick as it’s the world of Underworld (Wiseman helmed that franchise to completion).

There’s nothing wrong about a filmmaker adding his visual panache to his project – in fact, that’s mandatory. What is strange is how Ballerina goes out of its way to create every other narrative element of the Wick series down to the ending that recreates the final scenes of the second and third films. Why wasn’t this an opportunity to further expand this world and see through the eyes of another character? The world of John Wick is conditioned by his own experience and trauma; it’s stylised that way because he’s so focused on his task that he doesn’t pay due to his surroundings. Eve isn’t that, or at least it shouldn’t be. I like the idea of adding another group who don’t play by the rules (if you don’t know, in this world, there are many laws and traditions about contract killing), but it was so easy to break them, you wonder why no one tried before. I like it when the film finally gives in to its comic book-insane nature – a last duel putting flamethrower versus flamethrower got my attention. But these details are far too few, and at the end of the day, Ballerina falls short of delivering the work that Armas deserves.

Verdict: 2.5 out of 5
For anyone who isn’t done with the Wicker-verse, the second half of this film is precisely what they wanted. For everyone else, there are better things to do.

Ticket giveaway: Dangerous Animals

LSJ and Kismet have five double tickets for the upcoming Aussie thriller horror, Dangerous Animals.

Trapped at sea. Hunted below. Nowhere to run. From cult horror Aussie filmmaker Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devil’s Candy) comes Dangerous Animals, a relentless survival thriller starring Josh Heuston, Hassie Harrison and Jai Courtney. In Cinemas 12 June. Click here to watch the trailer.

For a chance to win one of the double passes, email journal@lawsociety.com.au with the subject line DANGEROUS ANIMALS by the end of day on Tuesday 10 June.