Don't you hate it when you're an hour into something you're excited about and realize that it sucks? It could be a date, a concert, or, for me, a movie. Something clicks in your head like a lever has been pulled, and you whisper, "Oh no...this is bad." Ballerina, or as it was hilariously marketed, "From the World of John Wick: Ballerina," is a seriously frustrating film. A seriously tedious slog of a film's first half that sprinkles fan service from the Wick franchise eventually leads to decent action set pieces where we finally see Ana de Armas turn into a little vicious demon, which is what we are all waiting for!
The film lacks the tight wit or charm of the previous entries in the franchise. Still, once we get to the final third, where we have a ski town of trained killers trying to take down Ana de Armas, and she's taking them down Ellen Ripley style in Aliens with a flamethrower, I was having a blast. It's just a terrible shame the film feels the need to be bogged down with tying the franchise back to John Wick, who's just kind of there, and I hate to say that Keanu Reeves is a complete distraction here when Ana de Armas could have lead this film without all this universe building bullshit. The unnecessary ties to the John Wick franchise only distract from the film's potential, leaving the audience disappointed and wishing for a more standalone experience.
The stark difference between this film's first and second halves can't be understated. The first half is an origin story trope that's incredibly boring. Ana de Armas is taken under the secret ballerina assassin school, and seeing her become the lethal weapon of grace should be way more entertaining, but it feels like they put a silencer on. Even for her first mission, she is forced to use rubber bullets, which is lame!!! The film's use of dark nightclub after nightclub and locations we've already become accustomed to in the franchise feels like a retread. It's not until she visits the gun shop halfway through the film and all hell breaks loose that we see her not just hold her own but go completely mental. Sticking grenades in guys' mouths, shutting them behind steel doors, and taping a knife to the end of the gun so she can stab and use someone as a human shield, and guide them with the knife to her next target to shoot, the innovative type of action I was begging for.
Ballerina had moments when my Dad turned to me in the theater and said, "That was sick." He's not wrong! I don't believe the action sequences ever lived up to the highs that the previous entries had, especially John Wick 4, an operatic masterpiece, but there is decent fun in the back half of Ballerina. Ana de Armas can lead this franchise in a new and fresh direction because she can handle herself and has a more elegant fighting style than Wick, characterized by grace and precision. The handholding of fan-fair, dry script, and pacing issues in the front half hold this back from being a delightful action flick, but there is fun. This doesn't help the film at all, but I did almost tear up seeing Lance Reddick on the big screen for his final film role. A true 1 of 1.
Final Score: 5/10
Written by Kevin J. Pettit
Yeah, it was no good. 3 of the 5 people we saw it with liked it and I was shook.