Ballerina (2025) Review

Following the very profitable and successful John Wick franchise we have started to see the franchise expand. First we got the Prime show The Continental and now we have the first film spinoff in Ballerina, I saw this film yesterday and here is my review for Ballerina. The premise of the film sees a young women trained in the world of assassination in order to get revenge on the man who killed her Father. 

Main Character

Ana De Armas takes over the lead role as Eve and she is great in the role. Her motivations were incredibly simple but it was well conveyed by Armas and I wanted to see her succeed. She is also great in the action scenes and is super believable in taking out these guys that are trying to kill her. Eve is a worthy addition of protagonists in this franchise. 

Supporting Characters

Might as well start with it, Keanu Reeves reprises his role as John Wick and it is so much fun to watch him back on screen. Though, I had some issues with how the character is used, you cannot deny that seeing The Boogeyman in action is a great sight. 

Ian McShane is back as Winston and he is fun to watch but he is a really small part of the film and doesn't have anywhere near as big a presence as he did in the previous films. Also a shoutout to Lance Reddick who has been in all of these films and this is his last appearance due to his untimely death. 

Angelica Huston reprises her role as The Director and I just think her role didn't hit the note that it could have done. I just think the relationship between her and Eve is kind of forgotten about and not given the real depth it deserved. 

Gabriel Bryne plays The Chancellor who is the main villain here and he is just such a weak character. There is nothing interesting about this guy and his motivations just didn't work for me and that is a shame. 

Also Norman Reedus is here in a role and he is really wasted and it just feels like he did this as a favour to someone while he was filming his latest Walking Dead show. 

Story

The story is a pretty simple revenge story and that is fine with me and I did like how that was conveyed. Also it was pretty cool to see some of the training that Eve had to go through, though I wish this had been a bit longer. Though, the film starts to try and throw twists at the film that make no sense and there is a bigger focus on John Wick that does take away from Eve's final revenge. There is also a big plot involving a young girl and it could have been completely removed from the film and it would have been no different. 

Script

The script is okay, there is enough drama and some dry humour here that makes Eve a cool character. But the overall writing isn't great, character motivations and those unnecessary twists feel forced and that they didn't need to be there. 

Style

The film has a really cool style to it. These John Wick films have been known for their amazing action scenes as one person destroys a group of enemies in creative ways and this film really delivers there. It is dumb and silly but it moves at a good pace and has some truly brutal kills here. 

Overall

Overall. Ballerina is a good action film and though it maybe doesn't reach the heights of the best John Wick films it is a worthy addition to the franchise and is a good action film to watch and turn your brain off for. 

Rating - 7/10