It all started with a murdered Beagle puppy called Daisy-and the rest is box office story: “John Wick” (worldwide revenue: “only” 87 million) started as a crazy insider tip for action-Aficionados-and then collects “John Wick 2” (171 million), “John Wick 3” (326 million) to the tragically ending “John Wick 4” (440 million) more and more fans.
No wonder that the responsible US studio Lionsgate did not want to bury this pop culture phenomenon, which has now made a billion dollar pop culture. So it was searched for ways to further explore the secret world of order killers away from the main series. However, the first offshoot, the prequel series “The Continental” consisting of three feature-length episodes, was only moderately successful.
A promotion at the right time
Probably also because of this first setback, the Lionsgate managers decided to officially promote the Stuntman and “John Wick 1-4” director Chad Stahelski to the creative head of the franchise. And that also had a decisive impact on the canvas spin-off that has been under development for several yearsFrom the World of John Wick: Ballerina“By” Underworld “mastermind Len Wiseman:
On the one hand, the potential blockbuster with Ana de Armas was postponed by another year as a deadly ballet dancer due to several months, in which Chad Stahelski was also more integrated. But what is much more important: The additional effort, which was primarily in the action sequences, has definitely paid off-because even if there is still some behavior, the film pops in in the excessive finale, even if the flame thrower is finally taken out, really in.
It gets fiery in the final!
Mostly located between “John Wick 3” and “John Wick 4”, the Junge Eve (Victoria Comte) is accommodated in a ballet school for orphan girl after the violent death of her parents from the Continental hotel manager Winston (Ian Machan). However, the director (Anjelica Huston) not only lets her students dance there until her peak shoes are bloodlessly, she also trains her pupils to murderer. Eve (well: Ana de Armas) channeled all of her anger and – just like her great role model John Wick (Keanu Reeves) – is actually a dreaded assassin that on behalf of Ruska Roma around the globe orders.
But then you notice a tattoo with one of her missions, which at that time already wore her father's insidious murderers. Eve puts further studies on the importance of the motif on his own – and so not only quickly dozens of corpses bend their way. Her self-empowering also threatens to end the peace between two mighty order murderer brothers that have existed for centuries. And if the war actually occurred, the consequences would hardly be foreseeable, but the body count would certainly be very, very considerable …
Fight like a girl!?
When Eve is subject to a male opponent in the ring fight, the director gives her the tip that she should fight “like a girl”. After all, she would be smaller and weaker than her counterpart, so she had to change “the rules of the game” in her favor and somehow compensate for the physical disadvantages. But the “Ballerina” makers could not really get through to the fact that their protagonist only gains only by cheating. Instead, Eve quickly turns out to be a female answer to John Wick-and that also makes sense, after all, the original script was written as a direct reaction to the trailer for “John Wick 2”, but still regardless of the “John Wick” universe. Almost a kind of professional fan fiction.
But that doesn't matter. After the role in her short and wordless cameo appearance in “John Wick 3” was still embodied by the American professional ballerina Unity Phelan, “no time to die” bondgirl Ana de Armas now exceeds pretty much all expectations of the credibility of her physical punch. Only 1.68 meters tall and rather delicate, it looks anything but ridiculous when it shoots and beats through entire hordes of opponents. Played strongly? Spectacularly choreographed? Cleverly cut? Probably everything three. But it doesn't really matter as long as the result is right.
When the legendary Baba Yaga (Keanu Reeves) appears, Eve cannot be sure whether he wants to help her or, like everyone else, also want to kill her …
The epilogue is even more like behavior. When Froschmann assassins storm the property of Eve parents at night, there are some nice ideas, for example when a smoking security guard is hit by a harpoon into the chest, whereupon the smoke suddenly swells out of the additional hole. A sequence is also very successful in a night club that only starts when everything is already over. But when Eve walks towards the exit again after work and collect all of her weapons used while dozens of bodies line their way, you can very well paint yourself in your head what you have actually “missed”.
Nevertheless, the first three quarters of an hour reminds of solid blockbuster action from the nineties or nineties, and therefore not yet of the uninhibited overkill, with which the “John Wick” franchise has recently opened up wider mainstream fan layers. But in the course of the film, “Ballerina” constantly increases-both in terms of spectacular action and in relation to the general (sizes) delusion when decorating the global order murderer mythology. In the gratifyingly shouting finale, an entire alpine village full of order murderers mutates into the scene of a truly spectacular skirmish.
Who turned it? It doesn't matter, the main thing is that it pops!
It would be rather idle to break apart again exactly which action scenes actually come from Len Wiseman (“Stirb slowly 4.0”) and which Chad Stahelski has significantly revised or even completely re-turned. But if we had to bet, we would say that Stahelski's influence in the course of the film, despite the background story, increases more and more – until then the flame thrower is finally unpacked (and not packed up again for a long time).
The scenes look even more spectacular if you have pulled in a making-of. Because the flame thrower vs. firefighting hose sequence, which is almost reminiscent of the well-against-evil laser rays from Superman comics, does not come from the computer, but was actually shot like this. The new Oscar category for the best stunts was also created for such moments-a shame for Chad Stahelski, Len Wiseman and their teams that this will be used for the first time at the award in 2028.
Conclusion: Probably “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” would have lured more spectators into the cinemas if he had started as planned shortly after the megahit “John Wick 4”. But honestly, then prefer to wait a year and then get such a result. As far as the quality of the final film is concerned, the additional effort, especially in the action sequences, has obviously paid off.