Young Eve (Victoria Comte) sat in the hospital with a glass-encased ballerina in her lap; there was blood on her and the glass. Earlier, she had been with her father when armed men attacked. They were led by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Her father fought until he was mortally wounded but succeeded in getting her away from the men. Now she was alone. Then Winston (Ian McShane) arrived and offered her a future. He delivered her to the Director (Anjelica Huston) of the Ruska Roma. Now she would train.
Twelve years later, Eve (Ana de Armas) had learned to dance, to shoot, and to fight. She felt she was ready. The Director agreed and dispatched her on a mission. Success. A tattoo was etched to her back to mark her success. Two months later, she stood before a broken mirror and pulled a shard of mirror from her shoulder. Then, she took a picture of the dead man and made her way out of the bathroom, stepping over multiple bodies on the way. Oh, she's lethal. As she left, she was attacked, but she kills her assailants. One of them had the same mark as the men who killed her father. The Director told her to forget it. She could not forget it.
From here, the movie becomes one long series of gunfights and brawls. Story, dialogue, and character development are unnecessary. The plot of Electra avenging her murdered father is as old as literature; it needs no development, just execution. The problem is the suspension of disbelief. That she is an expert with a gun, knife, or sword is not a problem. However, once she gets into an unarmed brawl, it's just silly. During her training, the movie tried to inoculate against that, explaining that she had to set the terms of engagement to her advantage; that is, don't try to beat a wrestler by wrestling him. Good advice. Then she gets into physical brawls. Sigh. The amount of punishment she suffers during her extended fights are beyond what John Wick suffered, and it was a stretch for him.
Though the fights are well-choreographed and exciting, Eve's fight skills vary widely depending on what has been choreographed. For instance, during a lull in combat, she came across the barista who server her coffee. She's not a threat, right? Wrong. A battle commenced and was quite a challenge for Eve despite having a gun and a knife. Later, Eve was faced with six men with assault rifles; no problem, she had a katana and sliced and diced the bunch of them. Wow. Lucky that she didn't have to face 6 unarmed baristas there instead.
The villains are stupid. Despite having communication, the villains never converge. They just wander the streets like video game NPCs who wait for Eve to show up and kill them. She is on their turf, a town where she has never been and doesn't have a map, but she is always surprising them. Where John Wick was on the run and being chased, these guys know exactly where she is headed: to kill the Chancellor. How about we put the Chancellor in a non-bulletproof car to extract him but drive through the part of town where she was last reported? Sound like a good plan?
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) makes a couple of appearances. First, his dealings with the Director (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum) are partly replayed and Eve briefly interacts with him. Later, he arrived in the town where she was running rampant with instructions to neutralize her lest a war between Ruska Roma and the Chancellor was triggered. When one considers how easily he subdued her, repeatedly, it is a wonder that she was such a threat to this town. Nonetheless, it was cool to see John Wick in action again.
The movie ends with Eve receiving word that she has a $5 million bounty on her head. Here is an opportunity for a sequel in which Eve must fight wave after wave of assassins, repeating the career of John Wick.
Eve is entirely too good after a couple of months in the field. She, like Rey (Daisy Ridley) from Star Wars, is just naturally better than everyone because reasons. Her backstory is too bland, especially compared to John Wick. He had his dog killed and his car stolen. That's original. He left the life for a woman who soon died of cancer. Yeah, that sucks. He had years of experience where he earned his reputation as the top killer. By contrast, Eve wants to avenge her dad.
"Hello. My name is Eve Macarro. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"
Old hat. Then there are the interesting twists that are wasted. Oh, look, this assassin that we've been seeing around since Prague is actually her sister. Whoa. Maybe they will team up and... she's dead. Sigh. Well, good thing we included that in the movie. I never got invested in Eve's journey and was kind of indifferent whether she succeeded or not.
Worth watching to see the old gang from the John Wick movies, but otherwise a skip.
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