“John Wick” Spin-Off “Ballerina” Reviews Are In

After delays, extensive reshoots, concerns and rampant speculation, the “John Wick” spin-off “Ballerina” finally arrives in cinemas on Friday and the reviews are now out.

The verdict is decent. The film is sitting at a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 62/100 on Metacritic, certainly the weakest of the film franchise though considerably better than the widely panned last attempt at a spin-off with “The Continental”.

Reviews paint the picture of strong action, a robust turn from Ana de Armas, a more comedic tone than the main “John Wick” series, and a film that improves as it goes along. Most of the issues seem to tie to the script and story.

Here’s a sampling of reviews:

“The good news is that “Ballerina” has another place it wants to show us, and that place turns out to be a wonderful addition to this franchise’s ever-swelling cinematic universe.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

“It’s absurd, and thrilling, and gorgeous, and I don’t know what got us there, but while Ballerina doesn’t start off as a real John Wick movie, it sure ends as one.” – Alison Wilmore, Vulture

“De Armas is a magnetic presence with all the right moves, and Wiseman’s muscular direction make for mindless summer action entertainment with a lot of style.” – David Rooney, THR

“I do have to admit that de Armas carries off the essential silliness of Ballerina and, after her performance as Paloma in No Time to Die opposite Daniel Craig’s 007, she proves again she can do action.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The fight scenes are all Ballerina has going for it, but they’re frequent, varied, and clever enough to make watching the film a worthy summer pastime.” – Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict

“Ballerina is a cluttered mess with a boring storyline but the action is often amazing, and there’s a genuine sense of humor to all its weird duels to the death. That’s something that’s been absent from the self-serious John Wick movies for far too long.” – William Bibbiani, The Wrap

“As a vehicle to add more lore and nuance to the JWCU – while also delivering numerous fun action sequences – Ballerina functions well. Unfortunately, it fails to give its star a real character to play, or a substantial plotline to follow.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

“Ana de Armas has already proven her onscreen ass-kicking bona fides, but the movie merely gives her a lot of the same rinse-repeat emotional beats in between respectively receiving and dishing out beatings.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“Sans a mythology of its own, or any substantive ties into where the John Wick films go chronologically after this, Ballerina is just another 87Eleven joint.” – Justin Clark, Slant

Ana de Armas stars as a young female assassin named Eve Macarro who is trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma and seeks revenge against the people who killed her family.

Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, the late Lance Reddick, David Castaneda, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves co-star.

“Ballerina: From the World of John Wick” will open in cinemas on June 6th.

The post “John Wick” Spin-Off “Ballerina” Reviews Are In appeared first on Dark Horizons.