Ballerina
Starring Ana De Armas, Keanu Reeves and Gabriel Byrne
MA15+
4/5
Ballerina is a more-than-worthy spin-off in the John Wick action franchise, but lacks the focus of the better films in the series.
Set between John Wick 3 and 4, Ballerina sees Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a member of an order of dancer assassins, resolve to hunt down the people who murdered her father.
De Armas is an elegant, fiercely determined lead and a dynamo in the abundant action scenes, which are a smorgasbord of bone-crunching fist-fights, blades and kinetic gunplay (all well-
framed and easy to follow).
The choreography does a good job of showing that since Eve is smaller and less physically strong, she must use her wits, speed and environment to beat her opponents, and the thrilling climax contains the only two-way flamethrower fight I’ve ever seen.
Ballerina’s dark humour, score and opulent yet grungy visual design pay tribute to the prior John Wick films while forging their own identity, but Ballerina’s plot stumbles with extraneous details and clumsy links to the past.
Keanu Reeves’ supporting role as John Wick feels very crowbarred-in (despite some cool scenes).
John Wick 3 featured flawed world-building that John Wick 4 wisely dismantled, so it’s a shame to see Ballerina return to the third film’s brackish well.
Eve’s quest for vengeance is well-paced, but the broader plot has some jarring jumps in time, and Eve’s secondary goal of rescuing a little girl from a cult (with Norman Reedus in a barely-there role as the girl’s father) is tacked onto her already-sturdy revenge mission.
Gabriel Byrne is also unmemorable as the Chancellor villain.
An engrossing thriller that continues the John Wick franchise’s gold standard of American action but could do with a narrative trimming, Ballerina is playing in most Victorian cinemas.
