Ballerina

Ballerina checks every box of a John Wick film! It just gives you what you want from these movies - just the coolest stuff every 5 minutes, even after I assumed the John Wick movies left everything on the table with regards to inventive action scenes. It's impressive how John Wick writers keep finding new ways to do combat scenes. Ana de Armas kicks ass in a variety of violent and creative action sequences - grenades, flame-throwers, you name it! All movies should write action like this! Instead of relying on the same bang-bang-bang routine, the filmmakers constantly search for fresh angles - be it through location, weaponry, or method. That's a big reason why John Wick continues to offer the best gunplay in Hollywood.

So yes, Ballerina absolutely delivers on the action, and I had a blast with the fight scenes. But, like most of the Wick films, the story falls short. The revenge-driven plot is serviceable but basic, with flat characters who lack compelling motivations, and a villain who ultimately disappoints. It's the action - not the narrative - that keeps the film alive.

At a certain point, I had to stop watching it critically. Because it's so dumb, and yet so entertaining. I fully admit this is not an ideal situation, and normally I'd be very against this. On many occasions, after giving a negative review to something, someone will say to me, "Oh, just turn your brain off and enjoy it." To that, my response is always, "Well, if it was actually good, I shouldn't have to." Ballerina, however, is somehow both not good and also incredibly good at the same time. It's a mostly brainless, cold, cookie-cutter revenge movie that has so much unfathomable yet enjoyable action in it that the two are completely at odds. How can a film this hollow have action this entertaining? Why is such care devoted to these sequences when the story and emotion are so surface-level? It's bizarre and a little confusing. And yet, without realizing it, I did exactly what I always say not to do - I shut my brain off and had fun. I'm not surprised. I've had to do the same with the other Wick films, and Ballerina fits right in. And, like those films, I still came out leaning positive in the end.

Ana de Armas is a force of nature here, bringing intense physicality and a surprising vulnerability to this scrappy revenge tale. She ensures her character feels just as iconic as John Wick himself. Keanu Reeves has a much larger role than expected, but I appreciated that Wick never fully overtook the film - even if his presence does feel a bit like fan service. That said, I really missed Dan Laustsen's luminous cinematography from the earlier films. The visual identity takes a hit here. Still, the fact that Ballerina works as well as it does is a testament to the foundation that Chad Stahelski and Reeves have built and continue to shape. But when the bar is set this high, it's hard not to notice that this doesn't quite measure up. Even so, this is still everything you could want from a summer blockbuster. It's tons of fun and packed with killer set pieces.

If you love what the John Wick series has become then you'll love this movie, it's full of action and great fight scenes. However I can't get over how repetitive it is, it's just on and on with the enemies and to me that gets boring pretty quick.

Also, there is almost zero depth to the movie, thematically, emotionally, metaphorically, you name it. Even the main character barely has any story or depth, let alone any other character. It's just one big revenge story and that again ties into the predictability aspect, after about 25 minutes most people should be able to guess what happens the rest of the way.

It's a good theater flick, it's entertaining, but it's not worthy of a high rating due to its tunnel vision plot and lackluster depth.

This isn't a film, it's a live action video game with a predictable plot and loads of energetically choreographed CGI to substitute for anything vaguely akin to a story. It starts with the young "Eve" (Victoria Comte) who witnesses her father's death at the hands of "The Chancellor" (Gabriel Byrne) before being adopted into the secret society of "John Wick" by "Winston" (Ian McShane) and his drag-like boss (Angelica Huston) where she learns to combine the artistic skills of a ballerina with deadly ninja ones - as she morphs into Ana de Armas (whilst everyone else remains exactly the same). Anyway, none of that really matters as she accidentally discovers the identity of the tribe who ruined her life and despite warnings of dire consequences, sets off on a lethal mission of retribution that takes her to a Czech Republic where everyone speaks perfect English. The thing is, it appears that her gang and the one she is pursuing have a sort of unwritten truce, and given she is about to throw that under the Skoda, Angelica has no choice other than to bring out of retirement the legendary you know who. Will that make anything any different or safer or even less repetitive? It not so much that this is derivative and really quite dull, it's that the dialogue is woeful and the constant frying pan to fire scenarios where people get used and abused are ridiculous. Knives, guns, bottles, pots, pans, kettles - even a pair of ruthlessly applied roller skates and some flamer throwers help our heroine along but it's hilarious that they always appear just when she needs them. She's got the points and gone up a level, She also heals as if she were the sister of "Wolverine" and no amount of training is going to remove a six inch shard of glass from your body without it impeding your ability to scale a wall and wield a pick axe. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but just like the series upon which this is based, it is unoriginal and after the umpteenth time she has survived against innumerable odds to fight again just had me wondering how long until she's back with "Ballerina II - the Pirouette". All of that said, though, it does look good on a cinema screen and that's where it ought to be seen. It will be even more unimpressive on a television where you can easily hit the fast-forward button.

Get ready for plenty of fighting and gunfight scenes when you take your seat. Nearly three-quarters of the film consists of this type of scene. While the quality of these scenes is slightly below that of the latest John Wick movies, they are still quite enjoyable. It looks like Ana de Armas must have worked very hard to be able to perform in these scenes. Her efforts deserve respect.

The plot of the movie is extremely simple. Perhaps if it had been slightly deeper and more interesting, the movie would have been better.

Another criticism is that our 50-55 kg main character takes extremely heavy blows from men but recovers in just a few seconds. This wasn't believable or realistic. Similarly, our main character is too emotional to be a death angel.

The grenade scenes were over-the-top and even absurd, but the flamethrower scene was the most entertaining.

The duration of John Wick's scenes may exceed your expectations, but that's a good thing, It was nice to see him.

In summary, if you've watched and enjoyed the John Wick movies, you should watch Ballerina. I hope there will be a sequel.

🏆86%

Ballerina is shockingly really good. I did expect it to be decent, but it definitely went past my expectations. Originally, the thing I was most excited about before seeing this was to see John Wick again, but it turns out that even if he weren't in the film, the movie still would've ended up being as good as it is. The scenes with John Wick were amazing, but every scene that didn't include him was equally as good. I liked Eve's character more than I expected to, and even though he wasn't in the movie that much, I did enjoy the scenes with Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine. The amount of action sequences in this movie is insane, mostly every second of this movie, we get more and more action without being able to take a breather. This might just be the most action-packed movie of the franchise yet, right next to John Wick: Chapter 4. Overall, Ballerina is exactly everything you could ever want from a John Wick spinoff. I still prefer the original four John Wick movies, but this is definitely a worthy entry to the franchise!