From the World of John Wick: Ballerina: Movie Review

Cast: Ana de Armas, Gabriel Byrne, Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus

Director: Len Wiseman

Early on in the latest John Wick spinoff, Ana de Armas' character Eve is told the best way to fight is to improvise, to step away from the expected and to go rogue.

In truth, it's something this new film (easily written off as a Jane Wick) seems to have taken literally - because while the fight choreography is taut and as expected for a John Wick franchise entrant (and matches the work done by The Continental Prime Video series), the rest of what transpires on the screen feels like a collection of episodes pieced together by bone-crunching fights and little else to thread it together.

For what plot there is, a powerful de Armas' Eve witnesses the murder of her father early in life. Shattered by his death, she's co-opted into the world of the assassins by Ian McShane's Winston Scott, who puts her in the care of Anjelica Huston's Director.

Despite being trained and told to not chase those responsible, Eve goes off the beaten path to pursue vengeance.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina does little to subvert the expectations of a John Wick movie and director Len Wiseman brings a workmanlike edge to the proceedings, something akin to what you'd expect from the eye behind the Underworld franchise. There's nothing showy nor original here whatsoever.

Neon-soaked club fights, the aftermath of carnage after one of Eve's contracts is carried out and on-street gun-fu is all very well, but the film can't quite kick the idea of something new - other than having a leading lady doling out the beatings.

For her part, de Armas has little emotional depth to work with in a linear story - her pain and sadness is what fuels her, but there's little sign of that on display other than early on. However, she more than gets the job done and proves worthy of her place in the John Wick world. (But she fares better than The Walking Dead's Reedus who barely merits more than a slightly extended cameo's worth of screen time).

Creatively, the franchise feels on a knifepoint - and while the inevitable showdown between Wick and the Ballerina eventually appears, the film does little else to provide a new power to what's going on.

A final snow-set village showdown complete with the fact everyone's an assassin (one of the film's high points) and some flamethrower escapades try to enliven the film's back third, but emotionally, audiences will be checked out by this point, wearied - and dare you say it, bored - by a lack of heft other than multiple beat downs.