Ballerina (2025) danced into my heart oh no that's a knife
Sliding down to my seat a little late for the film, I forced a mother to move away from her husband to sit by her children. She was in my seat. I was not just breaking up parental date nights at a violent action movie for the fun of it just because. This time.
Settling in, I was just in time to see a young girl watch her father be murdered and vow a silent revenge against her attackers. We later learn that this mysterious cult will be a strong opponent, but I was happy to be ushered into the assassin-filled world of John Wick by Ian McShane's Winston with some kind words of loss and inviting her to a dancing school. Fast forward and our little Eve (De Armas) is all grown up and in Russian ballerina murder school like a fucked up Hogwarts with house names like Kikimora and Shotfaceindoor.
Here the movie had a moment or two to split from the previous four John Wick movies. Eve loses karate battles and is told she is smaller and weaker than most appointments. She is told, "Fight like a girl." Apparently this means kicking lots of balls and using everything around her to tenderize any piece of flesh that comes near her. The balletic performance of De Armas bouncing around rooms grabbing hammers and knives forces personality to the normal brutal fight scenes we have come to expect.
Then the movie says that it needs a little break and John Wick walks in, placing the movie's beginning right in the middle of John Wick 3. We get to see how crazy it is when a man is branded on his back tattoo out of context, then some inspirational words from the man himself. When asked how to start to become a world class purveyor of violence, death, and fear, Wick says "looks like you already have." I've never wanted a scene with Keanu Reeves in a tutu more in my life.
As for the action itself, like I said above it is more choreographed feeling. Armas is more graceful than the purposeful moves of Reeves, and her fights feel like she is both fighting for her life and dancing to a beat. The kills she enacts are just as brutal as the rest of the series. Stabbings, shootings, hammerings, and all manner of other -ings happen to people in her way. A few times she sticks an arm in a car window or against a table to bend it the wrong way with a crunchy snap. Big shout out to the sound department of this movie. We were in a Dolby theater and every shot and crunch felt like a drum set pounding beats.
Going back to the lead actor and her plot, both give a vulnerability to the franchise that has not been reached before. Sure, the various animals gave our previous hero plenty of pathos, but Eve starts out as a young child with trauma and a large subplot in the middle is her saving a young girl who witnesses the same trauma. Not very novel storytelling, but effective in the simplicity. At least they did not have an evil ballerina for her to fight. Or a line of clog dancers or something.
Our villain in Gabriel Burne's The Chancellor is good and menacing, but the connection to our hero is tenuous at best and convenient at worst. The movie reveals a telenovela-style secret about a secondary antagonist and then dispatching them with a well timed explosion. In the end, the perfunctory connection serves to fill the screen with bad guys to kick in the balls which is never a bad thing. Bonus points having the man give a speech covered in deer blood that cannot be good for the inner workings of an iPhone.
Overall, an enjoyable time at the movie that should be seen as big and as loud as possible although it will probably get many hungover dad viewings on a Sunday afternoon.
Standout moments include but not limited to:
Lance Reddick's last role. Damn this kinda hurt to see and I was not expecting it. Teared up a little. He will be sorely missed across all the roles that could have been.
Grenade fight. When you are out of knives and guns but full of grenades, get to grenading. Sure, that's cool.
Gun knife. When you are out of grenades and need to get close, tape a knife to a gun and get to gun-knifing.
Flamethrower duel. The standout fight of the film where two characters become anime as fuck and just burn the world.