A worthy addition to the John Wick universe. Unlike the Marvel Universe, this one’s for adults. With only a walk-on part for Keanu Reeves, it’s left to killing machine heroine Ana de Armas to fight her way through two hours of entertaining bedlam. Resourceful baddies, crunching fight sequences not ruined by jigsaw edits, a rousing electronic rock score and dynamic directing from Len Wiseman (perhaps his best film yet). No social realism, boring plot exposition, filler talkathons, woke nonsense etc. Great set of DVD Extras too. So why not five stars? The drawn-out flame-throwing climax, with a lacklustre cameo from Keano, is a disappointment. It may have looked original on paper, but it lacks the hand-to-hand gusto of earlier confrontations. Otherwise, Ballerina revels in the image and is pure cinema.
Ballerina has the bones of something stylish, but the final product feels like it’s been patched together—and to be fair, it was. You can see the reshoots and delays in the seams. Ana de Armas gives it her all and carries the thing with poise, but the action’s mostly samey, and Gabriel Byrne’s accent is anyone’s guess. Keanu and Anjelica Huston are in and out far too quickly. It’s watchable, just not particularly memorable.