From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

The concept of a spin-off can be a fun way to expand on a supporting character the audience is already familiar with but here we would get to spend more time with them and see the same universe but from a slightly different perspective. However, the spin-off in mind for the John Wick films takes the concept but chooses to shoehorn in a completely new character, which goes against the premise but could allow us the chance to see a fellow assassin actually carrying out their profession, something we never really saw Wick do.

Sure, we saw him put his skills to the test as he went out on revenge but every film was him going against the system in some way shape or form, with the brief exception of the Rome sequence in John Wick 2. The idea still had potential but then the filmmakers for the not so neatly titled From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, decided to make this a straight-up revenge film so there goes any chance of seeing a professional actually do their work to the letter, but I went in hoping for the best... 

Set around John Wick: Chapter 3, Ballerina sees a young girl brought up in Angelica Huston's ballerina school for assassins. Her name is Eve and she lost her family to a bloodthirsty cult at a young age, and she intends to put her skills to use in getting revenge, even if it means going against Huston. Cue lots of bloody, exhaustive action for two hours.

Ballerina had a difficult production and had to be reshot following some disastrous test screenings, which or may not have led to director Len Wiseman being pushed aside for franchise regular Chad Stahelski to put things back on course. Wiseman has had some luck with the Underworld films, or at least the first one, but he was an odd choice and automatically made me see this film a B-tier effort. Regardless, the story is quite frankly terrible, the villain is both boring and weak, and the action fails to satisfy on the same level as the Wick films. It has its moments, particularly towards the end as the action picked-up, but this was a surprisingly more lacklustre than I had expected.

I think what audiences wanted was more of the fun action Ana de Armas effortlessly delivered in No Time to Die but with that John Wick flare. Instead, the revenge story is uninspired and drags things down making it all so serious but without any reason to really care. The action, possibly from Stahelski's reshoots, is competently shot and choreographed but it feels stitched into the drag story whereas the action in John Wick 4 felt like the result of a lot hard work and preparation to make everything cohesive.

Ultimately, Ballerina is the spin-off no one asked for and should never have been given to Wiseman, who had not directed a film since that terrible Total Recall remake in 2012. And to summarise; Ana de Armas is still solid in the leading role and action fans will find some enjoyment as things heat-up with flamethrowers in the final act but this will go the way of that John Wick prequel TV series and be forgotten before long.