The next incorporates minor spoilers for Ballerina.
I’m an unapologetic fan of all issues John Wick. I’ve seen all the flicks. I have been to the Las Vegas Continental. I really like the Keanu Reeves-led franchise, and so the truth that we’re not solely going to get extra John Wick sequels, however prequels and a number of spinoffs, makes me a cheerful man. As such, I used to be very a lot trying ahead to seeing the primary of these spinoffs, the Ana de Armas-led Ballerina.
Total, I believe Ballerina was a stable effort. The motion sequences, whereas not fairly as much as the identical commonplace because the John Wick movies, had been nonetheless effectively achieved, with a couple of actually standout moments. Ana de Armas held her personal all through the movie, as so many people hoped she would. However whereas Ballerina was a stable motion film, I felt it was missing as a John Wick movie, and never as a result of it didn’t have sufficient Keanu Reeves.
Ballerina’s Villains Are Much less Fascinating As a result of They’re Exterior The Guidelines
Ballerina introduces a brand new group {of professional} murderers that had not been beforehand talked about within the John Wick films. The group is known as a cult, and the outline is confirmed to be apt as all of them reside collectively, insulated from the remainder of the world.
However what units them other than the remainder of the characters we all know is that this cult doesn’t function inside the guidelines which have beforehand been established. It’s made clear that this cult has one thing of an uneasy peace with the world that exists beneath Excessive Desk. They’re given entry to Excessive Desk sources just like the Continental, however principally in order that world can regulate them.
We see how this new group operates once they try to control the Excessive Desk assassins into finishing up a killing on the grounds of the Continental. In the long run, when that doesn’t fairly work, they haven’t any downside pulling triggers themselves and “doing enterprise” on resort grounds.
Whereas I really like Gabriel Byrne, and was excited to see him in Ballerina, I discovered the villains of the film boring as a result of working exterior the foundations merely means we will ignore the foundations, and the foundations are what make the World of John Wick particular.
The Guidelines Are What Makes The World Of John Wick Fascinating And Distinctive
If you are going to create a brand new story set within the World of John Wick, it must take the foundations of the world into consideration. These guidelines is perhaps limiting in some methods, however that merely means discovering inventive methods to make use of the foundations (or to brighten them) with a view to make the story work.
Even Ballerina does this a bit of. When Ana de Armas’ character is threatened with loss of life for breaking the foundations, she factors out she was solely ever defending herself, and that she by no means really killed anyone on Continental grounds. The rule in opposition to “conducting enterprise” is suitably obscure sufficient that this works.
With one other main spinoff, Caine, starring Donnie Yen, on the way in which, in addition to an animated John Wick prequel. I hope the brand new movies take a lesson from Ballerina and not comply with in these footsteps. Do not ignore the foundations; as an alternative, discover inventive methods to make use of them that may make your motion and your story extra attention-grabbing.
The principles of the John Wick universe are removed from clear, they usually’re greater than a bit of weird. The gold coin-based financial system makes mainly no sense, however I don’t care. The principles are what make John Wick films completely different from different motion films, and as we see extra sequels and spinoffs, and no matter else within the John Wick universe, I hope we see extra films that discover attention-grabbing methods to make use of the foundations, and never merely ignore them.