Finally, there is a film that answers the question, “What happens if two people shoot each other’s flamethrower?” In “Ballerina”, things start out in a very bumpy way, falling in with almost surprising dullness. Then, suddenly, the “ballerina” finds her foothold and begins to happily unleash absurd action scenes one after another. Conclusion: Whenever a film takes action, it’s an explosion. Whenever your character gets late to offer a boring world-building exposition, it’s an absolute slogan that will make you sleepy. Perhaps all the action will be sufficient for the viewer. Here I confess that there are some violent scenarios, laughing as I am appreciating their originality. But, well, everything surrounding those action scenes is a real drug, man.
As Marketing reveals, “Balerina” is a spin-off of the “John Wick” franchise (the poster is to give the film a very clunky title of “John Wick: Ballerina” despite the fact that its title doesn’t appear on screen). All trailers put Keanu Reeves’ Monosyllabic Assassin Front and Center as if he was a major player in the story. To be fair, John Wick plays a bigger role in the film’s finale than I had expected, but this is just a glorious cameo. Still, I understand why Reeves is slapped all over the trailer. We love him.
The “John Wick” movie works for many reasons. The action is great, the filmmaking is stylish and exciting, and there is an increasingly complicated lore to be enveloped. But be honest. The biggest attraction of those films is watching Keanu Reeves kill many people. We really don’t care about myths. We care to see Keene Reeves in the middle. This is a hypothesis that the franchise has already proven. After all, when was the last time someone talked about the Reevesless TV spinoff series “The Continental”? Did you remember that it existed? Probably not.
Ballerina takes too long
Reeves gets a gunshot moment in “The Ballerina,” but the film is also about to launch a franchise in a new direction along with new main character Ana de Armas’s Yves Macalo. To her credit, Delmas, an attractive and charismatic performer, is extremely capable here. We buy her entirely from a series of beloved henchmen as she walks through the film and paves a bloody path. But “The Ballerina” has little mythical mayhem of the opera that made Vic’s film so memorable. Ironically, Reeves’ pop-ups throughout the “ballerina” serves as a distraction. John Wick’s story was so clear that it didn’t make much sense to have him here, as he focused on his own film. It appears he rarely cares about what is happening in “ballerina.” Why not shine a spotlight on her own story on the new heroine Eve? Perhaps because the story isn’t that interesting.
Like “John Wick,” “Ballerina” uses vengeance as the launchpad. When Eve was a child, her father was murdered by a mysterious man played by Gabriel Byrne. Orphaned, Eve was taken to a ritual-loving assassin known as Luzca Rome and grew up as part of a ballet school that teaches students both dances. and Kill People (the organization was featured on the frontlines of Anjelica Huston in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Ballerina, set between the film and John Wick: Chapter 4). Eve appears to have grown into a highly skilled assassin/bodyguard and forget all about revenging her father’s murder…until a random encounter fires her again.
All this unfolds in the first hour of the film. It’s a boring and expo that I found myself sinking into my seat. Is this? Really What do you want to give us, movies? Are you going to break this pain? Sorry, but the late, great Lancereddick, featuring Wick characters like Ian McShane’s continental owner Winston, and hotel concierge Chalon, reminds us of other better films. But everything is not lost, and “ballerina” finally begins to become a thrill when Eve is engaged in an increasingly faded (free) action scene.
When action scenes occur in ballerina, they are pretty amazing
In one sequence, Eve fights a series of bad guys using only a series of rena bullets. I have to admit it. I’ve never seen it in an action movie before, and at some point I stuff the grenades and use the metal doors while exploding). The moment Eve and another character begin to destroy dinner plates on each other’s heads, just like they are in the middle of the three Stooges Skits (Stooges screams in the film). The action is really exciting (you have to wonder how much filming was filmed by credit director Len Wiseman and how much was made during the re-shooting of “John Wick” franchise filmmaker Chad Stahelski), but it’s not enough to keep “ballerinas” floating.
There are neat ideas everywhere. The character of Baan, known as the Prime Minister, leads the whole thing. town Full of assassins who are part of the cult, the idea of a cult in the complex, maze-like world of “John Wick” is potentially exciting. Sadly, the script, which has been credited to Shay Hatten, has no real interest in exploring who they are or what they want. Byrne is a great actor and he is appropriately in a gross mood here, but he is not given anything to work with at all. He’s just complaining to the main.
As for Eve, she’s a little less shiny, but De Armas is trying her best to fix it. John Wick was a fascinating character as Reeves made him so stoic and mystical. Certainly, he was seeking bloody revenge for the murder of a cute dog, but he was also tackling grief and decades of violence. You can feel the weight of the world pressed against Reeves’ shoulder. In contrast, Eve is a kind of blank slate. John Wick managed to find complicated while he said the words. Eve speaks more, but comes across quite one dimension. I totally believed she could beat people, I didn’t find anything that persuasive.
A ballerina may give you a whiplash
“Ballerina” has conflicting experiences. Again and again I thought the film had lost me – clever and funny, and only to have an action sequence on stage suddenly arrive and kick my ass. The end result gave me a bit of a whiplash. I didn’t enjoy the movie and ended up spending my life in just a second, then back to getting bored again.
In the end, it all started to wear out a little thin. We know that Lionsgate is leading to living the “John Wick” universe (they plan to make an entirely new film with Reeves, despite the fact that “John Wick: Chapter 4” felt like the perfect end to the character’s story), but “The Ballerina” suggests that this premise can be extended.
It doesn’t help that filmmaking is often flat. The “John Wick” films, particularly “John Wick: Chapter 4,” is a visual feast with breathtaking shots. “Ballerina” is surprisingly bland. Certainly, it’s so much fun to watch beautiful assassin Ana de Armas pick up a flamethrower and burn it to something vivid, but a film featuring such an exciting concept should never forget this.
/Film Rating: 5 out of 10
“Balerina” will begin at the theater on June 6th, 2025.
