'BALLERINA’ RATED R

Summer season for the movies arrived on Memorial Day weekend when the eighth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise delivered the action thrills that come with Tom Cruise’s over-the-top action stunts.

But if anyone ponders whether the seasonal expectations of action cinema have yet to fully materialize, then the unwieldy-titled “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” arriving with a surfeit of violent action and chaos, should remove any reservations.

Under the direction of action maestro Len Wiseman (“Live Free or Die Hard”), “Ballerina,” with a new spin, taps into the ethos of the “John Wick” franchise not just in name, but for the hallmark elements of its adrenaline-fueled action.

Set oddly for a timeline during and after “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” the only connection that makes sense is the ballet training school run by Anjelica Huston’s mysterious The Director.

Arguably, in some ways this thriller takes the action to a higher level with propulsive set pieces, intricate fight choreography, and an arsenal of inventive weaponry, from ice skates and samurai swords, to ice axes and flamethrowers.

Previews have already revealed that Keanu Reeves’ John Wick will be in the film, but the titular character is Ana de Armas’ Eve Macarro, whom we first see as a child (Victoria Comte) fascinated with a music box that has a mechanical dancing ballerina.

She is soon robbed of childhood innocence when a band of killers come looking for her father at their home, resulting in a daring escape through secret passageways that only Eve survives.

Orphaned and scared, Eve is recruited by Winston (Ian McShane), manager of the infamous Continental New York hotel that is a safe harbor for assassins, to join the ballet school that is a gateway to the Ruska Roma criminal organization.

As the ruthless head of Ruska Roma, The Director runs her school like a military boot camp and the ballet training results in Eve acquiring a killer instinct inspired by rigorous physical feats far beyond working off a balance barre.

The training program is run by Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) who wisely tells Eve to “fight like a girl.” Karate kicks and gunplay level the playing field for a female assassin overmatched by the brutal strength of male opponents.

Besides a career path of a female assassin, Eve is consumed with exacting revenge for the party responsible for the murder of her father, though The Director warns against such action as it would upset a centuries-old truce in the underworld.

A trip to the Continental Prague has Eve on Ruska Roma business in pursuit of Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus) who happens to be part of the assassin cult run by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).

After checking into the room next to Pine’s, Eve discovers that the assassin is looking to get out from under the thumb of The Chancellor’s cult because he has a young daughter he wants to protect from a life of crime.

Meanwhile, Eve has also learned that someone who tried to kill her had the same “X” tattoo on his wrist as that of the person who murdered her father, and this distinctive marking points to The Chancellor as the one behind his death.

The plot may be relatively thin, as it relies on relentless action scenes with Eve plowing her way through one ambush after another, but all roads end up leading to a snowy Alpine village run by The Chancellor.

Stopping at the town’s restaurant for a cup of coffee, Eve ends up in a death match with an assassin followed by a fight with the cook where dinner plates and other utensils become the weapons of choice.

The quaint Austrian village turns out to be entirely populated by members of The Chancellor’s cult, and this is when the action really kicks into high gear, with Eve resorting to using grenades, swords, and guns in fighting relentless foes.

Action scenes seem obviously inspired by the “John Wick” franchise, but Eve gets to ratch up the stakes with an awesome flamethrower battle that literally lights up an onslaught of thugs, and then hand grenades also prove effective in the mix.

With the timeline of “Ballerina” falling somewhere between the third and fourth chapters of “John Wick,” we get not only the benefit of Ian McShane’s urbane manager running the Continental, but also the return of fan favorite Lance Reddick as Charon, the stoic hotel concierge.

Reflecting on the last moment in the film, it seems almost like a sure bet that Ana de Armas will return for a sequel, if for no other reason than we have been left hanging with the idea that her battle with the underworld has no quick end in sight.

If there is a “Ballerina 2,” the legion of fans for the “John Wick” franchise will be anticipating the return of the female John Wick. The only question might be whether Keanu Reeves is still up for another cameo turn.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.