Ballerina

Ballerina is a very worthy edition to the John Wick franchise, with the spin-off staring Ana De Armas putting onna strong performance in a story that fits well with the John Wick storyline and adds it’s own spin and difference to the series of Action Thrillers. 

First of all, we will talk about the main reasons we come to watch any film within the John Wick universe, and thats the action and fight sequences. As per usual in this franchise the gunplay is superb, mixed with great fights and stellar camera work to make the choreography look outstanding. Some really fantastic work was with the first introductions into the film with ‘Eve’s’ first mission in the club, some great lighting and cinematography mixes well with the battles as they usually do in the John Wick series. The cinematography is really beautiful in this too, as mentioned with the fight sequences, but especially towards the end with the flame throwers and capturing the landscape of the Villains home in the snowy mountains. You can clearly tell that it’s not the same director as the John Wick films but it is definitely not too much of a problem, yes it doesn’t fully capture the magic of the previous films, but it still has the same vibes and keeps the characters very similar. 

Eve Maccaro’s story is really good in this, they have many call backs throughout the film and the ending that has parallels to her childhood and realising that she can save people rather than ruthlessly kill people, as she saves Pine’s daughter from the fate that Eve has had.

 Ana De Armas is strong in this, a really dominant performance showing that ‘fighting like a woman’ is unique and brutal in it’s own way. Yes the dialogue from Ana is a bit robotic but you can’t blame her fully as it’s not her first language, and she powers through difficult scenes. Having John Wick in this film was super cool and Keanu Reeves is as amazing as he usually is in this film, but I can’t help but question how and why he is in this, isn’t he meant to be hiding/on the run, maybe it’s just me that’s slightly confused with this. Norman Reedus was so awesome in this, but I wanted more from him and more of a character too. 

The film did lose me slightly in the middle as they took a while to establish what was actually happening and added random plot points like Eve’s sister for no reason really. It got there in the end though and the action was that cool, you kind of just sit in awe of the brutal and crazy action on screen.

Overall the John Wick spin off is a really great entry into this franchise, with some nice visual, character work and incredible action, but the directing didn’t have the same vibes as the other films, and the film takes a while to establish what was happening towards the end

Final Review - 3.5/5 or 7/10