From the World of John Wick: Ballerina Review - Is It Worth a Watch?

From the John Wick expanded universe, "Ballerina" tells the story of Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a skillful assassin trained by the Ruska Roma organization. During her first assignment, Eve realizes she is ready to face the world, and decides to get vengeance on those who killed her family.

Check out the trailer below:

This movie is also set during the events of John Wick 3 - Parabellum and John Wick 4 - Baba Yaga. By the way, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) himself is in it. As Eve has proven to be a relentless assassin, very similar to Wick indeed, he is called to clean up her mess and deal with the issues she caused.

"Ballerina" was directed by Len Wiseman, who previously directed several action movies and TV shows, like Live Free or Die Hard, and the Underworld franchise, starring Kate Beckinsale. As such, he has experience directing female protagonists set at the very core of very traditionally masculine movies.

In fact, though this is the main gist of Ballerina too, it is groundbreaking. The other 4 movies are centered around Keanu Reeves, who previously starred in movies like The Matrix, Constantine, and Speed. A true movie star, Reeves has already shown us his skills multiple times, as well as his relentless personality. It's no surprise that, when we, the audience, see his action scenes, we are inclined to accept all the absurd, even fantastical details. We just go, "but it's John Wick, though".

Can Ana de Armas Handle All This Responsibility?

Ana de Armas is a rising star. She was recently nominated for multiple movie awards, including the Oscar, for her work in Blonde. In this movie, she played the iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe, but that's not all. In that same year, Ana de Armas also showcased all her versatility in another movie, Deep Water, and The Gray Man, all released in 2022. So, she can definitely transition between biography, drama, suspense, and action genres really well. Her filmography is quite extensive, and she is certainly quite versatile as an actress.

After establishing herself as this very versatile actress, besides strikingly gorgeous, she set her sights on new horizons. Her recent works are mostly action movies that need her to spend months preparing herself, and action scenes that lean very heavily on her body.

Ana de Armas (an ironic name, considering "Armas" means "Weapons" in Spanish and Portuguese) is now at the center of car chases that will make you close your eyes every once or twice - they're that aggressive and violent. Not to mention that, occasionally, Eve has to face an entire city full of crazy mercenaries who are after her.

"Ballerina" Has Too Much Flourish, Not Enough Substance

This movie was written by Shay Hatten, who also wrote John Wick 4: Baba Yaga, so the goal was to stick to the good old "John Wick" formula, but put a female character under the spotlight. Maybe reducing this entire movie to this idea is a bit harsh, but that's precisely what it is: it tries to charm the audience with a new character that is just like John Wick, but she's a woman. They could have explored the female universe and strength a bit more, and perhaps even taken advantage of Ana de Armas' exotic beauty (her features even have a somewhat "wild" quality to them) to make this character a bit more original. But, no. They decided to give us a generic, obvious protagonist.

It's clear that they just want to make more money by expanding this universe, most likely in case they can't make more movies with Keanu Reeves as John Wick and need to replace this vindictive mercenary.

By the way, that's another thing Eve Macarro has in common with John Wick: for her entire life, she has trained to be a mercenary assassin, but, eventually, she spirals into her bloodlust for revenge and becomes a target for her colleagues.

This movie might work for you if you truly enjoy John Wick movies. That is, if you don't mind all the absurd details and exaggerations this franchise features, like killing its protagonist several times, but bringing them back unharmed, or, at most, a bit hurt. The same will happen to Eve Macarro, but more drastically, which is perhaps a bit too much.

In that sense, I can't see this movie charming new viewers or the critics, considering it forces you to accept all its absurd scenarios in the guise of "entertainment". We know nobody can escape a barrage of bullets and come out completely unharmed. Imagine, then, it's a flamethrower, not bullets.

How Is It Doing In Theaters?

Frankly, Ballerina won't be a blockbuster, even more so considering it's competing with other big titles, like Lilo & Stitch and Mission Impossible, as well as many others still in theaters right now. On the contrary: Ballerina premiered this week in theaters and could create some buzz, but I firmly believe it will slowly disappear from the theaters, and, in just a few weeks, will become available on streaming platforms.

If it at least took advantage of the John Wick universe to bring something new, even more considering the new protagonist is a woman... But no, they just copy/pasted the original script and only changed the protagonist. There's no way it can be good. We, the viewers, aren't stupid, and, in fact, we're often even more selective with the content we watch than ever, particularly as going to the movies became quite expensive in some places.

Then, you add in technical issues, like continuity errors, crazy sequences, and bizarre sound mixing... Watching Ballerina in theaters is definitely not a straightforward choice.

Personally, I believe you should wait until Ballerina is available on streaming platforms because watching it in theaters is a bit disappointing. You'll go expecting something, and get something else entirely. Even Ana de Armas could have been better, but I don't believe she made the movie worse because she does perform really well when it's time to be dramatic, suspenseful, or whatever else the character needs of her. However, the most you'll see her do in this movie is punch, kick, fight, shoot, and kick ass, which means she is just a simple punching bag. She'll be there and take hit after hit, even throw some punches back, but not much more.

With Keanu Reeves, we could at least feel the drama of a guy looking for revenge for his puppy, you know? Now, we have a woman looking for revenge for her dad, but we just can't empathize with her. That's because of a menagerie of issues: an absurd script, and an actress who follows this script and ends up making the protagonist, who should be a hero, completely bland.

So, make your choice: go to the movies if you thoroughly enjoy the John Wick universe and don't care about these details, or go if you want to come to your own conclusions, but don't say I didn't warn you!

What about you? Are you a John Wick fan, or will you wait until Ballerina gets on streaming platforms? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!