ask4sara

People treat not watching the John Wick films like it's a cardinal sin. I thought I understood the weight behind this accusation because I initially believed I was missing out, but now that I have unfortunately watched Ballerina, I believe that I was right not to, because if the John Wick films are anything like this one, then I'm glad I didn't waste any more of my time trying to watch them.

Naturally, when Ballerina came out, I thought "Hey! Why not give it a shot? It's a Thursday night and I have nothing to do, and if I can get a taste of a John Wick spin off that seemed to be comparably and similarly well liked, then perhaps I could later give the series a chance!". I was wrong.

It is not very often that a film makes me contemplate leaving the theatre before it ends, and it is not very often that I contemplate this multiple times throughout its entirety. Ballerina is surely not the worst film I've ever seen, for it would need something so horrible for it to earn that title- but no, it doesn't even deserve that honor. The movie just lies in a forgettable middle. Not fully sunken, but not close to the surface either. It is nothing but redundant fight sequences, with no plot development through lasting dialog. Just 2 hours of slashing knives, bullets, and some occasional flame thrower action (which I found to be completely and utterly ridiculous, and that one scene with Eve and the gigachad assassin was the point where I found myself seriously considering leaving the theatre).

Nonetheless, I chose to stay.

Do I regret this decision? In hindsight, yes.

Some semblance of hope led me to believe that the final 20 minutes of the film would be the Hail Mary that would eventually save it, and that I would earn something from the 2 hours I spent grasping at straws trying to justify my time sitting in the theatre waiting for it to get better. But I was wrong, once again.

The moral of this story is a harsh one: Don't waste your time for impending mediocrity, or for the hope that things could ever get better when it is proven to you early on that it will, in fact, disappoint you.

Seriously, I already had pretty high expectations after watching the trailer and hearing everyone's praise for the movie, but it still blew me away. Dev Patel is an amazing director, actor and storyteller! I don't know whether I like him more as a director or actor. Ever since I watched Slumdog Millionaire as a kid, I knew this man would be going places! The cinematography, the acting, the action, the direction, the drama, the comedy... I'M GAGGED! This man deserves all the flowers, all the praise, and I'm RUNNING to the cinema for his next film (and you should be too!).

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL A MOVIE!

This documentary has been on my list for around 3 years, and I'm so glad I finally got down to watching it. I am only 20 years old, but this film really resonated with me. It was a mind-opening experience that plunged me further into my existential crisis, and which reaffirmed something that I had been in denial of- that nothing stays the same, and that I need to accept this as a fact and eventually embrace it. Though I did appreciate the beauty in this film, it did scare me, and I'm sure I'll be thinking about it and the concept of death further down the road- which is, of course, bittersweet, but a needed intervention.