LOS ANGELES, June 4 (UPI) -- Ballerina, in large format theaters Wednesday and all theaters Friday, applies the superior action of John Wick to new characters within that world. Though the story is simpler, the action is undeniably relentless.
Ana de Armas stars as Eve, a woman who was taken in by the Ruska Roma ballet after Continental hotel manager Winston (Ian McShane) rescued her as a child. While training under The Director (Angelica Huston) with the ballerina assassins, Eve dreams of avenging her father.
In the film's opening scene, Eve's father tries to protect her from The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), the leader of a tribe of assassins described by others in the Wick world as a cult. As an adult, The Director forbids Eve from pursuing the tribe, so in rogue hero fashion she does it anyway.
Avenging a loved one is a much more conventional motivation than in John Wick. In the first film, Keanu Reeves' Wick was avenging a dog, though the film added layers of subtext to address the other convention of a retired assassin being forced back into the business.
Each Wick film further developed the world of the Continental and High Table assassins. After four of those, Eve's quest remains more straightforward, learning to kill so she can defeat the killers. When a villain tells her they are one and the same, it will sound familiar from many other action movies.
