Ballerina 4K 2025

Finally, the long-awaited spin-off in the John Wick universe, Ballerina, has been released.

The story tells us about Eve, a killer from the Ruska Roma clan. Her father was killed by assassins when she was young. But by a twist of fate, she is saved by Winston and handed over to the director. There, she trains her for 12 years to become a clan mercenary with the call sign Kikimora. But her childhood trauma won't let her go, and she sets out to avenge her father.

The plot reveals the universe to us again, but once again, there's no need to take the film seriously. The plot is just there to somehow explain the conditions of the action scenes to us. But there is one snag: Baba Yaga's participation in the film, which could be cut out altogether and is just there for the sake of it. There is nothing new to say about the characters as a whole; each one oozes style and brutality.

But what we can talk about is the action. It's good, but after the fourth installment, it's becoming more and more difficult to surprise the audience. Plus, even though the film was reshot, some of the scenes were shot by a different director, not Stachewski, and it's clear that the overall quality has dropped slightly. In fact, the main surprise was the flamethrower, which had not been seen in the films of this universe before. They came up with quite a few tricks for it, and they look exciting.

In terms of overall technical execution, the picture is also stylish, but after the fourth installment, there are somehow fewer cool shots. Remember the shootout with a bird's-eye view in Paris. I'm also slightly disappointed with the soundtrack. Overall, it's in the spirit and style of the entire series, but it's sad that there are no songs, when they were skillfully used in part 4 to accompany the action.

Overall, as a spin-off, it's not bad as a one-time entertainment, but it's definitely not on the same level as the fourth installment of the adventures of the Child of Belarus. The only thing I would do is cut Jordani out of the film entirely, as he is very poorly integrated into the plot, and focus more on Eva's story.