Ballerina, a worthy successor to John Wick?

I will confess, I went to watch this movie not having watched the full extent of the John Wick Franchise, I had pretty much only just started John Wick Chapter 3, by the time I sat in the theatre to watch this movie.

Thankfully it takes place somewhere in between 3 and 4(at least that's what the internet tells me.) and I had already seen the one scene that this movie references/shows another point of view of when introducing Eve(the main character of this spin off) and John Wick to each other.

It is the scene where John asks the Ruska Roma for help and the Director Chides him for causing all of this chaos over a mere puppy... But you better treat John Fucking Wick with some respect, because...

I mean It's funny how these things happen, somehow simply by chance I had seen just enough of the John Wick Franchise that I wouldn't get confused watching Ballerina, because I knew who the Ruska Roma were, their connection to the Continental and the Table that guides them, and their Connection to Jardani Jovonovich who we know as none other than the Baba Yaga(The Boogeyman) John Wick.

So now that I have established what I knew while watching this movie, time for me to actually talk about it eh?

Ballerina as mentioned before, follows Eve Macarro an orphaned daughter of Javier of the Ruska Roma and a wife from a Cult, a Cult that carries an X on the hand as a mark of membership, and who has a relatively cordial relationship with the Ruska Roma, the family that John Wick belongs to, and the one that chooses to train Eve as a sort of Anti-Assassin one who would stand in between an Assassin and their target if the Target was under the protection of the Roma.

During her initial training she meets John Wick who tries in vain to dissuade her from this life of violence.

On her first mission, Eve sees the mark of the cult and decides against the Director's orders to go after the cult.

But how does one find this cult?

Because it's location is a secret, and no one knows where it is, not even Winston, but what he does know is that Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding is staying in one of the continental hotels, oh sorry, no it is actually Daniel Pine, played by Norman Reedus who also played Sam Porter Bridges.

Pine has a daughter he is trying to protect from the Cult, and has a bounty on his head, a bounty which is subsequently increased to goad some Continental members to risk Excomunicado by attacking him on Continental grounds and forcing him out into the open where he is free game.

Eve wants to attack Pine, but learns that he is a deserter and decides to respect his wishes of protecting his daughter because technically, it is her job anyways.

Eve fails and Daniel is injured so Eve decides to go to the cult location and get her revenge while saving Pine's daughter.

It is in this section of the movie that the true entertainment begins, as Eve finds more and more creative ways to kill everyone.

It is while doing this that she realises that Pine is a son of the Cult leader, the leader killed her father, her mother was the ex wife of the leader and she has a half-sister called Lena.

But the leader being as ruthless as he is, decides to kill them both, and further threatens the Roma with an all out war due to eve's actions.

The Roma disavow all of her actions and offer to send someone after Eve as a peace offering.

And who else can it be but John Wick

John decides to not kill Eve and asks her repeatedly to leave as he relates to her need for revenge, eventually however, John decides to let her kill the leader because either way, his mission will be over if it were to happen before midnight, as that was the time when the leader would declare all out war.

and then what? Ana De Armas uses a Katana to kill everyone, no wait that happens before this...

Sorry, forgot to mention it.

And from here on, the movie goes to crazy town, as Eve uses a fucking flame thrower to kill everyone, there is another flame thrower and after eve runs out she uses a hose pipe to counter it only for the user to be killed by John

um... I am not sure that is how Flame Throwers work...

But obviously, once John decides to help Eve, all hell breaks loose, and then everyone dies, the Cult leader decides to make the same mistake as the second Elder in John Wick 4 and gets killed by eve.

So, is this a worthy successor to John Wick?

Yes absolutely, I mean the katana scene alone is enough to give Eve her own franchise, I am sad though that John Died in Chapter 4, right after all his dues are paid, too bad, he now has a gravestone and so we will never ever, get a John Wick Chapter again...