Ballerina
Serving as a spin-off in the highly coveted John Wick franchise, Ballerina sees Ana De Armas star as Eve Macarro, an assassin raised in the dark and mysterious world of the Ruska Roma following the murder of her father when she was a child. Vowing to avenge his death, Eve defies orders and travels the world in a hunt for answers, destroying anyone who gets in her way.
Taking place specifically between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Chapter 4, Ballerina takes full advantage of the universe that has already been built and established in the Keanu Reeves movies and trusts the audience to already fully understand the environment in which our heroine navigates. De Armas ventured into the world of spy-based action thrillers in 2021, when she starred as CIA agent Paloma in the James Bond film, No Time to Die, and completely stole the show. Now, she has the opportunity to fully showcase her talents for stage combat and as a leading star, and she doesn’t disappoint. Eve is a force to be reckoned with, and De Armas executes every action sequence to perfection, whether it be hand-to-hand combat, swirling ice skates around her head, or simply lobbing grenades around a cabin in the mountains.
As expected, the fight sequences are exceptional, and the film comes to life most in these moments. Director Len Wiseman clearly knows this as well, because boy, are there a lot of them (undoubtedly too many) and sometimes in the most extravagant ways imaginable. Even De Armas’s character exclaims in utter disbelief after one such surreal encounter. The trailer promises an appearance of Reeves’s “Baba Yaga” Wick, but in all honesty, this isn’t a necessity to make the film a blast. Of course, once he does arrive on the scene, the viewer understands that there are levels to this game, and he is the alpha dog, but you can fully rally behind Eve and the character’s intentions.
The flaws to this film lie in the hasty narrative, where storytelling takes a backseat so the action can take centre stage. Supporting characters fall to the wayside and remain underdeveloped, including Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine, clearly a deadly fighter, but relegated to a concerned and protective father. Then there is the biggest plot twist in the movie involving Catalina Sandino Moreno, which could have a cataclysmic effect on the plot but lasts all of five minutes before being blown to smithereens.
If you suspend all belief in reality, Ballerina is an action-packed popcorn munching romp. It is really refreshing to see a devastatingly deadly female lead introduced into the Wick universe, so let’s hope there is more to come.
Guy Lambert
Ballerina is released nationwide on 7th June 2025.
Watch the trailer for Ballerina here:
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