Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Eve Macarro begins her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma.
Rated 3.1 / 5 from 5 logs on Katalog
The thing about this movie is that it inherently fails to capture the very thing that made John Wick charming. John Wick movies worked because—well, because of the stunts, obviously, but past that, they worked because Keanu Reaves carried them perfectly. Underneath the wacky stunts and impeccable worldbuilding, the movies boast delicate and satisfying character work. Whether this was intend d or if it manifested by accident it’s there and it’s why these movies are as beloved as they are. John Wick is a miserable, brooding bad guy. He hates his life, hates the mistakes that lead him to where he is, hates the world he lives in. He is lonely, sad, hurting and furious about it all. At base, these movies are tragedies because there is nothing to look forward to; when he succeeds, he is either right back where he started or even worse off. The fourth movie really brings this theme home, of this exhausted, resigned despair. His happy end is to die and be buried with his wife. And we are all like, yeah. Fair enough. That’s sort of why Ana de Armas’ character doesn’t work. John Wick takes a lot of damage, he is constantly in pain, he’s running in circles, gnawing off his own leg to escape the hell of his own making. But her? She hasn’t earned this. She was brainwashed by a cult, bought into their ideology, then suddenly decided to take revenge on the people who killed her father—a motivation that wasn’t developed in any meaningful way beforehand—and cut ties with her cult. They tried to make her motivation be the familial love she sees in the little girl and her dad, but that’s hardly going to be as impactful as Wick’s whole misspent life. Had she never seen a father love their child before that point? Is that all it took? One positive example of filial loyalty is enough to buck a lifetime of brainwashing? The original movies made a good decision to leave out John Wicks backstory, to let it stay mysterious and let us assume what had went down. If they made a prequel film about his early years, it would have had to be a horror film of some sort, a large stretch of a bad guy winning all the time, a paid assassin who was very good at killing on command. Would that be fun? I doubt it, I doubt even Keanu Reaves could pull that off. Ana de Armas certainly can’t, so they sped through her character arc in a really unsatisfying way. The choreography was fun, though. The part with the flamethrowers was especially inspired.
to the person 3 rows infront of me that said ballerina cappuccina at every kill … im gonna miss you
The first open air cinema movie this summer, beautiful starry sky, 3.50 EUR ticket, no people and only one mosquito bite. Under these conditions nothing could get less than 3 stars, except Tenet. All John Wick sequels fail to accomplish what the first movie did, and Ballerina is no exception. With every movie, there are more faceless goons, more available weapons and way fewer scratches. And I wish there was more ballet! No idea about the general direction these movies are heading, but I’m still glad they’re making them. They feel like a little comeback of martial arts genre which I really appreciate and enjoyed soooo much as a child
Not too bad considering a new protagonist is always a big divergence. Like with all Wicks since the first, the last act drags and the action becomes a bit too repetitive. The scope felt a bit too grand, and it didn’t feel like Ana de Armas’ character deserved what she accomplished. The worldbuilding is getting a little sloppy. I want mystique and epic enemies, neither of which was properly done in this one. The first and second acts had some incredible sets, mainly hotels, and some of the lighting design was really nice. It was fun, and of course always nice to see Keanu
Amazing stunt work and choreography! This movie is all about action scenes, which was expected.
Better than a marvel film, worse than any other film 👍🏽
