Ballerina (2025) Disappointing addition to “The World of John Wick”
“Fate is a very humbling thing”
In the long ago year of 2014 I watched the original John Wick film on a grainy internet download, didn’t care for it very much (don’t throw your popcorn at me just yet…) before buying the DVD on a whim and falling in love with the assassin who just wants to be left alone yet can’t escape his fate. I tend to watch more serious fare when it comes to my cinema choices but John Wick became another franchise of films that I’ve added to my list of guilty pleasures, all subsequent sequels were watched and thoroughly enjoyed at the cinema with my beautiful son and so I was rather excited to see where this spin-off creation would take us all in his assassin filled world and, much like the original in the series, I remain unimpressed with Ballerina, even after two separate watches and a raft of time in between to collect my considered thoughts. Only further time will tell if, like the original, I reevaluate my instant underwhelming reaction to one of love or appreciation in the near future.
My John Wick collection:
As always, there are very few spoilers here except for the dissections of the coming four scenes which I dedicate to the returning of everyone’s favourite anti-hero assassin. Then with a twirl of my tutu and before anyone places a hefty bounty on my head I’ll briefly recap the film as a whole, recommend a brilliant documentary to you, and then depart for a short stay at The Continental Hotel.
28 minutes pass as our ballerina assassin nears the completion of her training…
Scene One
With the titular ballerina “Eve Macarro” (Ana de Armas) watching a glass domed toy ballerina spinning to the iconic music of Swan Lake in the dormitory of the academy, her attention is drawn to a number of her fellow students murmuring in excitement as they exit they shared space and into an adjoining corridor. Following them, Eve reaches the top of a staircase as the “Director” (Anjelica Huston) or mother of the dance academy, can be heard chastising someone in a room nearby and “Somehow you managed to get out, and here you are back where you began”. We cut to an angle over Eve’s shoulder looking downward from the top of the stairs as we catch our first glimpse of “John Wick” (Keanu Reeves) as he descends the stairs with the Director before they stop in the middle of the staircase. “All of this for what?” she asks the bloodied assassin who briefly looks skyward, away from the Director and directly at Eve, before returning his gaze back to the Director as she laments in Ruska Romani Russian “Because of a puppy?”. John doesn’t respond and simply follows the Director down the stairs as a bodyguard (off camera) continues in Russian “It wasn’t just a puppy”. As those of us bathed in John Wick mythology will testify, he’s correct. It wasn’t “just a puppy”. It was John Wick’s dog and a present from his deceased wife.
Big difference.
Seconds later, Eve is found listening intently to the Director talking once more to John in another room. “With this, Jardani” she continues as we follow the camera into the room (John has his back to camera, the Director front and centre of the frame) “Your ticket is torn”. At this announcement, John is branded in the middle of his back by one of the Director’s henchmen and as we as the audience depart from the room and back to Eve “You can never come home again. Take him to the lifeboat” and finally, a dismissive “Das Vedanya”. As Eve quickly runs from her position next to the door, we cut back inside the room as an in pain John begins to re-dress himself, he utters a deflated “Das Vedanya”, but the Director has long left the room.
From the fade to black that segues the final two segments of this scene we fade in on the back of John preparing to leave the academy as off camera we hear Eve exclaim “You’re him” and now fully seen in the frame “The one they call the Baba Yaga”. Stopped in his tracks and turning slowly to face Eve, we see our favourite assassin fully for the first time. Bruised and with multiple bloody facial cuts, John says nothing as Eve excitedly continues with “The students all talk about you”. With John still saying nothing in response, Eve asks “How do I get out of here?”. John finally finds his voice with a pithy “The front door is unlocked” to which Eve responds more urgently “No, I mean, how do I start doing what you do?”. After an intake of breath, the assassin of few words states “Looks like you already have. That door will lock sooner than you think. You can still leave. You still have a choice”. Eve instantly responds with “Why didn’t you leave?”.
Walking away before stopping and turning to face his eager questioner once more, John announces “I’m working on it”.
Following the successful completion of her first assignment, the calling in of a favour from “Winston” (Ian McShane) and the tracking and tracing of the cult that destroyed her family, Eve turns rogue and against the wishes of her cigar smoking mother at the academy. With 100 years of peace between the factions at stake, she still seeks bloody revenge…
Scene Two
A train arrives in the dead of night in the snow bound city of Hallstatt. First we only see the lower half of the man descending the steps from the train before quickly we see it’s the reluctant avenging angel of death, John Wick, much to the delight of the “Chancellor” (Gabriel Byrne) and leader of the cult who dominate the city as he announces the arrival of the “Baba Yaga” with a smile. Hiding and badly injured, Eve is surprised to hear the Chancellor announce on the loudspeakers that dot the city for all residents to stand down, cease the on-going hunt for her and to “Leave the wolf to his prey”. We now see the wolf slowly prowling the streets for his prey and he doesn’t have to walk far before finding Eve in the snowy ruins of the city’s castle.
Eve: “She sent you here to kill me?”
John: “That’s up to you. Or you can leave. You choice”
Smiling in somewhat disbelief, Eve asks “Do you remember me?” as the assassins slowly walk toward each other through the remains of the castle ruins. “Remember what you said to me?” she continues, “You told me I could leave, that it was my choice?”. Still a man of few words, John coldly replies “It still is” as we cut to Eve dropping her bag of ammunition and samurai sword to the ground before announcing defiantly, “I’m not leaving”. John sighs before Eve opens fire on her fellow assassin, the two of them now ducking for cover behind separate walls of the castle. Quickly John locates his prey and attempts to fire his gun only to find a clicking sound signifying his weapon is empty. This is the first of many opportunities the legendary killer has to carry out the orders put before him by their joint leader and matriarchal figure, the Director. “You don’t have to do this” he warns his fellow assassin, but Eve ignores his warning before throwing her gun at him and pulling her knife. A hand-to-hand combat fight ensues before John finally gains the upper hand, disarms Eve of her knife, throws her to the ground and forcibly restrains her as he holds the blade against her throat. For the second time John has the opportunity to carry out his leader’s orders, and for the second time he chooses to spare her life with a simple plea: “Just leave”. Taking the knife from Eve’s throat and slowly walking away, John is bundled through a wooden door by a resurgent Eve before John returns the painful favour seconds later. “Leave” he implores her, but still she fights on as the assassins engage in yet more hand-to-hand combat. Thrown to the ground, Eve inches toward her bag of ammunition before John drags her away and a further struggle ensues until with Eve’s hands on John’s throat, he pulls yet another gun, the third occasion now he’s had to kill her, and yet again he implores her to “Just…Go”. Looking at John with a breaking voice full of tears, Eve exclaims “He killed my father”. Still unwilling to pull the trigger, John admits “I know”, before Eve requests a final opportunity to complete her own personal mission, “Let me finish this”. Checking his watch (11.32pm), John announces simply “Midnight” as Eve replies with her own simple, one word answer, “Rules”.
“And consequences” John reiterates as the assassins finally disengage. There is one final close-up shot of the hired killers before an overhead shot depicts them departing the scene in opposite directions.
Eve’s killing spree throughout the city now continues with death by ice skate, trip wires, land mines and a violent rampage with a flame thrower…
Scene Three
Following her showdown with The Chancellor’s trusty, and seemingly last, personal assassin (and one of the film’s stand-out scenes as flame thrower meets water cannon), we cut to John high in the bell tower of the city’s church, Eve squarely in the centre of the sniper scope of his rifle. For the fourth time, John has the easiest of kills in his sights. He checks his watch (11.56pm) and rather than carrying out his orders, he kills the assassin. Eve searches for the direction of John’s kill shot and finally locating it, we cut to John, Eve in his direct line of fire and now a fifth opportunity to carry out his orders. Instead, he turns his gun 180 degrees, inside the bell tower, and eliminates the city residents who have tracked him to his high vantage point. Quickly he now trains his scope back on Eve and for the sixth time he refuses to execute his fellow assassin before storming inside the bell tower to take on all comers and engage in a murderous rampage. “This is fucking suicide” one resident shouts, and “This is John Wick”. Another responds “Come on, he’s only one man”. John executes the pair swiftly before another, then another, as he circles the bell tower until he’s all alone. More will follow. More will die at his hands, and all whilst Eve exacts the ultimate, and sweetest, of bloody revenge.
We cut to John, all alone in the bell tower, and for the seventh and final time he has Eve squarely in the sights of his sniper rifle. As Eve looks directly at him, he lays down his rifle for the final time.
Scene Four
We cut to John calling the Director…
Director: “Jardani?”
John: “It’s Done” (In Russian)
Director: (close up in her office) “So, she is dead?”
John: (close up in the bell tower) “He is dead”
Director (close up in her office, and after a long pause) “Fine”
As the Director hangs up and ends the call, John walks slowly back inside the church…
According to the scant reviews I’ve seen and read of Ballerina (with one in particular citing an elongated shooting schedule and several months of re-shoots from John Wick director Chad Stahelski) this perhaps goes some way to explaining why I felt the film had a patchwork feel to it and a real lack of the heart, soul, warmth and fun of the original films. Yes there’s the close-up gun fighting and explosive assassinations of the John Wick franchise (though in this film they look clunky and filmed way too quickly, jarring me from appreciating the film surrounding it) and yes there’s death by grenade, flame thrower, ice skates and even dinner plates (kind of) and some of the fight scenes are incredible and it’s ludicrous, over the top, and very John Wick, there’s just a lot missing from the films that should have inspired it to be far, far better. Alas.
And if you’re looking for a top class documentary to run alongside these films sometime, I heartily and strongly recommend this year’s Wick is Pain documentary film.
Anyway, this franchise is sure to run and run and Ballerina is perfectly set up for a sequel.
Here’s hoping for a more stellar showing next time.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon
