Ballerina

  Any doubts about whether Ballerina will be a worthy addition to the John Wick universe are quickly dispelled by its prologue. Not by an early action scene where a bunch of assassins attack a cabin; It's a decent sequence, but not up to the series' ridiculously high standards. No, we know it's a proper John Wick movie because when we first meet the Ballerina (Victoria Comte) she's a just-orphaned, tiny little girl clutching a blood-splattered music box. Meat-headed symbolism, right from the get-go! All it's missing is someone solemnly intoning a world-weary "CONSEQUENCES"... but don't worry, that comes later.

 The little ballerina is taken in by the concierge for the New York Continental hotel for civilized assassins (Ian McShane). He then takes her to the academy for young ballet dancers who are also badass tattooed assassins, and hands her over to the mistress there (Anjelica Huston). If you haven't seen any John Wick movies this will likely make no sense to you, and yes - it's exactly as silly as it sounds.

 There the Ballerina grows up to be Ana De Armas and learns the dual arts of ballet dancing and beating the shit out of people real good. There's some stuff about the dancers being trained to protect people, complete with a silly Slavic mythological connection* - but once the Ballerina graduates she's then shown killing loads of people for money, so I call bullshit on that.

 Anyhow, during the course of her work she runs into one of the assassins that killed her father (they have one of those convenient tatoos/scars that identifies them in a pretty visible place). This sends the Ballerina on an unsanctioned mission against an assassin cult led by a philosophizing asshole (Gabriel Byrne). Things get... pretty nuts, in the best way possible; The script takes the Wickiverse's conceit that every other person is an assassin, and it takes it to its absolute illogical conclusion. The film's last forty minutes or are made up of an escalating series of confrontations - the early stages reminded me of Gymkata**, and it builds up to a staggeringly awesome flamethrower duel that must last something like ten minutes. It is fucking glorious.

Seriously - if they don't get an oscar for this, fuck the oscars.

 The script, by Jay Hatten, was an independent piece written shortly after John Wick 2, and was retrofitted for the series once Lionsgate bought it. It also got Hatten a gig co-writing the latter Wick films, and he used the opportunity to introduce the threads that would lead to Ballerina in Part Parabellum.

 The connection to the assassinating world hurts the movie a little in that by becoming part of a franchise, it loses its potential identity. There are frequent visual callbacks, which include some action gimmicks (a few overhead shots of the action, a fight in a cavernous discotheque) and a lot of the elements of the John Wick world (some of which, at this point, Hatten had helped establish): Pneumatic tubes, the tattooed old lady operators, hidden shops catering to an assassin clientele. I did like that when they show the concierge for another branch of the Continental, it's Anne Parrillaud; Cute action movie homage there.
 The good thing is that within its guard rails it also manages to tweak expectations a little - the script is way more playful than it seems. I loved that one of the bigger massacres in the movie isn't shown at all, we just see someone navigating the aftermath... the action only comes crashing in (literally) just when the camera starts panning out. Beautiful concept, perfectly executed. There's also another fun subversion of a now-standard John Wick gearing up scene, and I cannot overstate how crazy the setting for the whole third act is.

 I've long thought of Len Wiseman as a good action director with bad taste (or luck) for projects, and Ballerina is actually excellent proof of that; Having to work within limits established by a franchise, and having access to one of the best stunt teams in the business lets him rip with near-constant, top-tier action. He flounders a little with the close quarters combat - his editing schemes and blocking are nowhere near as good as Chad Stahelski's (or David Leitch's) and he struggles to capture the action with the clarity the intricate choreography and wince-inducing stunts deserve. He fares a lot better in all the other types of action, of which there's a huge variety. I don't think it reaches the height of the last two Wicks aside from the aforementioned flamethrower cookout (which is an all-timer)... but it comes very close several times.
 Cinematographer Romain Lacourbas also does a good job aping the look of the main series, and manages to expand the palette with some wintry, alpine action later on.

 Ana de Armas looks great, and gets to wear a lot of cool-looking outfits***, but her character is a bit of a blank. And yes, you could say the same of Mr. Wick, but Armas lacks Reeves's presence, world-weariness, and flair for action. She's lithe, and manages some pretty impressive gymnastics, but even when the film insists that she had to learn to 'fight like a girl' (this translates to frequent nut shots, but doesn't really come into play all that much), she's just not badass enough to pull off the character convincingly. I wasn't a fan of The Princess****, but that movie had a better handle in how a small woman might fight off huge grizzled warriors, and Joey King sold her grit much better - Ballerina also puts the protagonist through the wringer, but it feels slightly off.

 So that nagged at me while watching the movie, but we're talking about a series with armour-plated designer suits and people who routinely take on superhuman amounts of punishment. She's definitely fun to watch, and that should be more than good enough for anyone. Please feel free to disregard me.

 Ballerina has a slight but distinct second-hand feel, and the thin connective tissue between all the action won't convince people who aren't in it for the action. On the other hand it's relentlessly paced, loud, and proudly ludicrous, with some truly incredible stunt work, excellent choreographies, and some lovely over-the-top moves. But all this - good and bad - is a moot point, because the movie has a flamethrower fight. And a then water hose versus flame thrower fight (sadly spoiled in the trailer) that looks like a practical-FX version of one of those stupid Harry Potter magic beam fights, but cool. That alone makes this an eleven out of ten.

*: The Kikimora, which these ballerinas call themselves after, are basically house elves. Not as silly as calling the John Wick the Baba Yaga, I guess. John Witch!

**: Just to be clear, this is a good thing.

***: Even a flame-retardant suit looks fashionable.

****: I realize I said exactly the same about Joey King on that one, and I kind of stand by that, but King's acting was nowhere as vulnerable as Armas's here. The main issue in The Princess is still that the protagonist is completely eclipsed by Veronica Ngo.