Movie Review: 'Ballerina'
The John Wick franchise spins-off
The John Wick franchise spins-off
We have gotten to a point in our Instant Information Society where learning that a movie is undergoing reshoots is commonplace. With the advent of digital filmmaking, this is a much easier task than it was in the days of actual film.
That’s right, reshoots have been around since the industry began, and they can be done for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they’re done in the name of “making the film better.” Sometimes they’re done because of situations no one could control. There can be other reasons, but those are the usual main ones. Yet, no matter the reason, the results have always been a mixed bag.
Surprisingly, great films have come of this. Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo lost its original lead actor to illness and had to reshoot all his scenes. Tarkovsky’s Stalker had to scrap everything when it was discovered the footage was developed incorrectly. Back to the Future originally starred Eric Stoltz, and we all know how that turned out.
Of course, where there’s good, there’s bound to be bad. The prequel film to The Exorcist was disliked by the studio so much that they commissioned a totally new one with a different director, and when that one failed they tried to save face by releasing the first one. Jaws 2, Wes Craven’s Cursed, the 2015 Fantastic Four are all examples of reshoots failing to save the final product. I barely want to mention it, but the most infamous has to be the debacle surrounding the two versions of Justice League.
The new spin-off from the John Wick franchise, Ballerina, was also caught up in “making the film better” reshoots. Let’s see if they succeeded.
When Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) was a little girl, she watched her father die at the hands of a group of men with X scars on their wrists, led by the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). She was taken from the police station by Winston Scott (Ian McShane) and given to the Director (Anjelica Huston), the woman who runs the Ruska Roma tribe of assassins that hides itself as a ballet company.
After years of training, Eve becomes a skilled killer. While on a job, she is attacked by men with the X scar. When the Director refuses to tell her which tribe this represents, Eve goes on her own mission to find the man responsible for her father’s death.
Ballerina is credited to director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free or Die Hard), but it’s been reported that producer Chad Stahelski (also director of the four John Wick films) took over and reshot a big portion of the film to punch it up, which delayed the release by about a year.
The result? This time it appears to have been a good decision, because Ballerina is an all-out banger of an action film. While it has to abide by the rules firmly set by the universe created around the Wick films, it does a stand-up job of standing out as its own thing.
(In case you’re wondering, Ballerina is set between Wick 3 and 4, which explains Keanu’s appearance…sort of. Don’t overthink it. Just accept it, enjoy it and move on.)
As Eve, de Armas does a great job portraying her as cold-blooded while on a job, yet she can turn it off and show a softer, personal side. Everyone else is there to be exactly the character they’ve either played before for us, or play what is needed for their characterization, such as with Byrne’s villainous turn. Even though he has very little screen time, it was really nice, and bittersweet, to see Lance Reddick in his final filmed role.
With it being a Wick franchise entry, you know the action is going to big, bombastic and exciting, especially in a scene that feels like it was totally conceived to top the great moment in John Wick 4with the flame-spewing shotgun. For me, personally, flamethrower vs. flamethrower is now my favorite fighting style, overtaking chainsaw vs. chainsaws (yes, plural) in what else but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
With all the behind the scenes messing around, it definitely is a wonder that Ballerina turned out as good as it is, but it somehow did, and without sullying the John Wick name.