Ballerina Review
Full of gun-toting violence, Ballerina doesn’t quite capture the magic of John Wick.
Eve Macarro (Ana De Armas) joins the Ruska Roma organisation after her father’s death. When she comes of age, she delves into the assassin life, but against the wishes of The Director (Anjelica Huston), she veers off that path to hunt down those who took her father’s life.
Ballerina has all the trappings of a John Wick movie; it’s hyper-violent, with a super cool assassin taking on masses of baddies in an exotic location. Hell, there’s even John Wick himself making an appearance or two.
And there are great moments. The final battle in a wintry, lakeside European town was a clear highlight, with a myriad of intriguing kills to be had, and inventive violence consistently drawing you in.
Similarly, Ana De Armas is wonderful in the title role; a perfect mix of being able to carry the drama, and the bad-assery. Of course, it’s wonderful to see Keanu Reeves revive his iconic character too.
The problem with Ballerina is that it misses what made John Wick, and to a lesser extent its subsequent sequels, so fun. It’s not just about hyper-violence, or about a revenge laced story. Wick was a master, at the top of his game - Eve Macarro is just learning to be an assassin. Eve’s story is based on personal pain, and while John’s was too, it was also based on a somewhat ludicrous premise which gave the whole thing a certain sense of ridiculousness.
Ballerina sets up backstory, character development and emotion in a way that feels too grounded, too heavy-handed and too unsatisfying to truly reach the heights of Wick. It takes itself a little too seriously - what with all the assassin lore - and loses what made the John Wick fun and special; that it was a bit ironic in what it did.
Ultimately, that means Ballerina more closely hews to other, more standard action fare than the far more enjoyable Wick series, and that’s a bit of a shame.
