What is it about these movies that I do not get but other people see?  Is it a simple matter of taste?  Do people not care about plot and just want a bunch of over-the-top, nonsensical violence?  The only thing you apparently need to get people into it is a revenge plot and off you go.  Aside from my Catholic aversion to such material, I need a little more for my enjoyment.  After all, this movie cannot seem to even get its title correct.  Is it From the World of John Wick: Ballerina?  When I rented it on Amazon Prime, it rendered it as Ballerina: From the World of John Wick?  Or is it just Ballerina?  While the focus of the story is clearly the title dancer, Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has an important role to play in this farse.  Forgive me, for I am not being charitable.  Then again, there is a lot of Christian imagery in it that is upsetting because it is used for the opposite purpose for which it was designed.  I had to get that criticism in here because it is not a terribly important aspect of the film.  Nonetheless, let me tell you about the rest.

I am sure that Javier Macarro (David Castañeda) is looking forward to some rest while raising his little Ballerina, young Eve (Victoria Comte).  Sadly, the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) has other plans.  His men assault the Macarro compound, wherever it is, and eventually manage to overwhelm Javier, who is evidently skilled in combat.  Though he manages to get Eve out, he is mortally wounded in the process.  As she is sitting in the police station, her father’s blood still on her hands, she is approached by Winston Scott (Ian McShane).  Because this movie trades on its audience being familiar with this franchise, we are supposed to know that he is the owner of the Continental Hotel in New York City and what that means.  Since I have a vague recollection of these things, I can tell you that his establishment is some kind of haven for assassins where they are supposed to be safe from attacks on each other.  Anyway, there is an underworld of contract killers, and Eve is introduced to one of its “tribes,” the Ruska Roma.  In addition to training their women for the title profession, they also give them instruction in martial arts and weapons.  Winston brings her to their leader, known as the Director (Anjelica Huston), and letting the little girl know that she can always turn to him for help.  It is also clear what they are going to teach Eve to do, but she accepts because she wants what many characters in these kinds of movies want: revenge.  As she grows up, her anger at losing her dad fuels her budding skills, but they are easily defeated.  It is not until her primary instructor, Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), tells Eve to fight dirty, for lack of a better term, that she begins to excel.  It is also during this time that Even meets John, which I guess is supposed to take place during one of his films.  Do not ask me the one with which it is supposed to align.  She wants to know how she can become like the legendary assassin, and his advice is to essentially not do so.  Of course, that is not going to be enough to stop Eve, and soon she is off on her first assignment, protecting the daughter of some high-ranking Asian businessman from kidnapping.  Once she is successful in that, it is time for her to become the killer she had been learning to be.  A few months pass and she is emerging from yet another assignment.  In the course of piling up the bodies of people who would do her harm, she notices an “X” shaped scar on the wrist of one of her victims.  It is the same mark that her father’s killers had.  Upon returning to the Ruska Roma base, she asks the Director about them.  The Director refers to them as the Cult, whose leader is the Chancellor.  However, she also says that there is a truce between the Cult and the Ruska Roma, and that Eve is not to interfere in the Cult’s business.  Ignoring this order, Eve goes to Winston.  He tells her about one of their members staying in the Prague, Czech Republic, Continental.  The person she is after is Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus), who we later learn is the Chancellor’s son.  He has come to the Prague Continental with his daughter, Ella Pine (Ava McCarthy), who Daniel wants to keep away from the Chancellor and a life as an assassin.  Daniel and Ella’s predicament reminds Eve of her own, so she agrees to help them escape.  Sadly, she fails in this attempt, being knocked out by one of the Chancellor’s top killers, Lena (Catalina Sandino Moreno).  When Eve comes to, she makes her way to some kind of assassins’ gun shop.  Its proprietor had been unwilling to point her towards the Cult until they attack his establishment.  The location to which she is sent is a town in the Alps that is populated entirely by Cultists.  Not even Eve can overcome all these deadly people, and at one point she is captured and told by the Chancellor that this is her birthplace.  Furthermore, once she slips free of her bonds, Lena catches up with Eve and reveals that they are sisters.  Before Eve can process this, the Chancellor orders both their executions.  As such, it is back to kicking, punching, shooting, and stabbing.  In the chaos, the Chancellor calls the Director to cancel their truce, but she tries to salvage it by offering John’s services.  He arrives, but instead of killing Eve, gives her twenty minutes to complete what she came to do.  Once accomplished, she returns Ella to Daniel, and then it is back to New York.  The final scene is her watching a ballet and receiving notification that a $5,000,000 bounty has been placed on her head.

For someone who has just captured the attention of every contract killer in the area, the Ballerina takes it pretty calmly.  I am sure we will see her a little more excited in the inevitable sequel.  Sigh.  It always comes back to revenge, does it not?  Still, I have covered why that is a no-no in the Catholic view while talking about many other films.  There is also the pseudo-Catholic imagery in this one that has been explored while reviewing other entries in the franchise.  For example, on Eve’s back is a Latin script tattoo that reads “Lux in Tenebris.”  That translates to “light in darkness.”  I am sorry, but that is a bit much for a film with so much violence.  I know this is speaking to well-worn paths on this blog, but seeking vengeance is not being a “light in darkness.”  Such actions add to the darkness.  To be a light in the world, one needs to bring peace, not guns and knives.  It is also doing nothing for the darkness within.  What Eve experienced as a child created a wound that she seeks to fill in all the wrong ways.  Actually, I have to applaud John for trying to get her to follow a different course because it would be more in keeping with what her tattoo means.  Furthermore, it is not silly to think about this in Catholic terms.  Aside from Latin skin art, there are ceremonies that involve people on their knees on kneelers that would be familiar to any Catholic.  Also, below the “Lux in Tenebris” piece, a Crucifix is added to Eve’s back.  I am not sure why these symbols are used.  Perhaps there is something in these secretive organizations’ backstories that I am not remembering?  Or is it the secretiveness that is the connection?  There is the stereotype that Catholicism is an arcane religion that lends itself to comparisons to other mysterious groups.  If that is the case, I wish such conspiracy theories would go away, like this film.

However, Ballerina and its inevitable sequels will likely not go away no matter how much I rage against them.  I suppose I should take some joy from the fact that she saves a little girl?  Otherwise, this, like the others in the franchise, can be ignored.