Tiny Dancer

John Wick-lite done right (Spoilers)

Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) is a ballerina, assassin, and bodyguard. When she was a little girl (Victoria Comte), her father Javier (David Castañeda) was killed under the orders of the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). After that, she was delivered by New York Continental Hotel Manager Winston Scott (Ian McShane) to the Director (Anjelica Huston) of the Ruska Roma, who taught her how to dance, fight, and kill.

One of the things that I liked about Ballerina is that it shows Eve having to work hard to get where she is. Something that J.P. Beaubien has frequently criticized on Terrible Writing Advice is protagonists who are handed a bunch of cool powers and abilities without having to earn them, and I agree. I wanted this whole movie to be about Eve’s learning curve, but there are a lot of time skips that speed through that.

One day, Eve learns that the people who killed her family belong to a cult that’s never given a name. Maybe the writers couldn’t come up with something as clever as the High Table. Anyway, the reason why Javier was killed is because no one is allowed to leave the Cult. Eve discovers this for herself when she meets another father, Daniel Pine  (Norman Reedus), who is also trying to give his daughter, Ella (Ava McCarthy), a normal life.

Eve’s meeting with Ella seems to be setting up a surrogate parent arc, like in Aliens or Gunpowder Milkshake, but Ballerina doesn’t go there. Ella gets captured by the Cult very quickly, and while Eve does want to rescue her, revenge remains her main objective, which is just as well. While the whole b****s and child (NSFW) plot is one of my favorite tropes, that wasn’t necessary here.

More Thoughts

After tracking the Cult down to their hideout, Eve learns that cultist Lena (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is her sister. However, shortly after this revelation, Lena gets killed on the orders of the Chancellor. That was a mistake because there’s so much more they could have done with the character. Lena should have had the “I’ve been ordered to kill you, but I don’t want to kill you” fight with Eve, which she instead had with John Wick (Keanu Reeves).

In a plot twist ruined by the trailers, John is brought in by the Director to take out Eve to prevent the Cult from retaliating against the Ruska Roma. As cool as it was for Reeves to have his rematch against de Armas after Knock Knock, the five minutes of John Wick in this movie was four minutes too much. That brief moment where they talk during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was enough.

That said, Ballerina was a solid movie. It has what you’d expect from a film in the John Wick franchise – high-octane action mixed in with a lot of black comedy. Another thing I like about the movie is how, despite ending with a cliffhanger, there’s still this feeling of closure. The main reason why Parabellum is my least favorite movie in the series (so far) is because, in the end, I felt like nothing was accomplished.