REVIEW: ‘Ballerina’ Shows That A John Wick-Verse Can Be Good

The world of John Wick has been off to a rocky start. With John Wick: Chapter 4 signalling the “end” of John Wick, the franchise gave the keys to Peacock’s The Continental, which was anything but a critical success. With Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves redefining American action cinema, Ballerina, the franchise’s Ana de Armas-fronted side story, has a lot to live up to. While it doesn’t break through the ceiling set by the Wick films, it is damn good.

Directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (yes, that’s the whole name) stars Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Juliet Doherty, and Keanu Reeves. Set during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Ballerina follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma.

Having seen her father murdered in front of her, Eve is given to the Ruska Roma. Connected to the organization through her father, she enters the Director’s (Anjelica Huston) ballet theater. There she learns to dance through bleeding feet and fight men twice her size. She steels herslef under the tutalige of her mentor Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). After a fateful meeting with Wick, she embraces her path to become like her father, a kikamaru.

The lore behind the Ruska Roma expands in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.

A unit of the Ruska Roma, the Kikamaru aren’t like the Baba Yaga. They protect, serving as bodyguards of sorts, eliminating threats for clients and stopping a single bullet that would change the world for the worse. This one element puts the Ruska Roma into a different perspective, but also adds more context to John Wick’s morality and the help they give him in John Wick: Chapter 3.

Eve’s time in the theater is one large training montage, paced to add more flair to the Ruska Roma. It’s not all bad, but the repetitive nature of sequences starts to wear thin. However, just when it starts to become too much, the film begins to shift as Eve embraces who she is after meeting John Wick for the first time.

Still, the first act of Ballerina is set to simmer as Eve ramps up from paint balls to rubber bullets and then ultimately makes her debut, standing in a blood-covered bathroom after eliminating her target. It’s here that she finds a clue as to who killed her father, and then Ballerina is off to the races.

Ballerina may not reach the heights of Chad Stahelski’s original film series, but it also doesn’t belong in their shadow.

Ballerina may not touch the highs of Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves’ John Wick films, but it gets close. The film is missing the quintessential Wickian style of wide shots and oners, allowing the action to breathe. While the Wick is Pain documentary highlighted that the style we’ve come to know and love was forced due to resource constraints, it has become a shorthand for the world it’s created in and set a new standard for Hollywood action. Here, there is too much shaky cam in certain sections. However, those moments of shaky cam feel like a different movie given the rest of the film.

Chief among them is Ballerina’s open fight sequence. Here, there are cuts, tight shots, and a shaking camera that made me worry that the action would trigger my motion sickness. However, this is the longest sequence that rests on some of the action’s worst laurels. In reality, the rest of the film captures the brutality, creativity, and environmental combat we’ve come to love, all while embracing Anna de Armas’ small stature.

Each act and major story beat throughout Ballerina tightens like a tourniquet, with the action growing bloodier, the choreography becoming tighter, and the camera’s trust in De Armas deepening. By the end, the film fits into the Wick-iverse. The elements of the film handled in reshoots are so evident, ultimately covering a bad movie beneath the explosions and smart hand-to-hand combat.

The film may sometimes feel like two different directors because of reshoots. Still, it ends on top.

Despite some narrative and early film hiccups, Ballerina is the first time I’ve believed that the world of John Wick can exist. Ana de Armas thrills in her role as Eve, and ultimately, the film’s focus on her ability to fight like a girl does the most in the best ways. One of Hollywood’s action sins is the idea that a five-foot-six woman with a thin frame can take down a 6’4″ muscle man. It’s not impossible, but it’s not on an equal playing field.

Instead, Ballerina tasks de Armas with using everything around her, just like Wick does. In fact, some of her fights with the men throughout the film actually mimic the few times John has taken on men larger than him. Grapple, use your environment, don’t abide by rules. This ethos for fighting, tattooed into her by the Ruska Roma, aligns with how John Wick fights.

Eve mirrors him in moments but never stands in his shadow. The thoughtful fight choreography and stellar use of smartly placed explosives help her craft her own visual language. Judoka grappling is core to overpowering large men, and ingenuity and creativity, such as taping a knife to the butt end of a Glock, help her keep her edge.

This is the first time the franchise feels like it doesn’t need John Wick at its center, just on the side.

As I watched Ballerina, I didn’t compare her to Wick. Instead, she belonged in his world. When he shows up throughout the film, establishing the events of Ballerina as a concurrent story and not a prequel, it’s magic all over again. His first entrance may feel slightly hamfisted, but when he appears again, he’s the Baba Yaga in a cinematicscape that would make the Silent Hill team at Konami smile, and is nothing short of perfection.

Much like the world in which Eve is situated, Eve is driven by anger and revenge, and most importantly, her drive to chase revenge doesn’t stand out. Ana de Armas is at her absolute best when she is relentless, fighting, and clawing her way through the horde of men trying to keep her from her mark.

The lethality that Eve develops as Ballerina progresses through the story is never cold. Instead, as she gets closer to the man who killed her father (Gabriel Byrne), her brutality becomes more personal. She moves from practice, to non-lethal rounds, to preventative measures, to sweeping through a horde of enemies. And of course, even lighting some of them ablaze with one of the best flamethrower sequences I have seen on film.

Ana de Armas’ physical performance reshapes what to expect from women-led Hollywood action films.

Eve wears all of her kills on her face, and she finds herself deeper and deeper. It’s easy to see how changed she has become. Where the beginning of the film peddles too much exposition, its ending lets the sets, environments, and actions do the work instead of relying on dialogue. The Eve we see at the film’s end and the one we met as she was completing her Ruska Roma training are two different women—two sides of one coin.

Additionally, Ballerina isn’t afraid for Eve to be wounded, to be bloodied, or to just be ugly. There isn’t an emphasis on keeping her pretty for the camera, especially in the second and third acts. Unlike other women in American action films, this isn’t about how she looks. Sensible combat boots and a suit keep her in the Wickian uniform, but her flair is all in her ability to fight.

Ballerina is good. It may stumble, but it’s proof that other assassins can hold together the world of John Wick in his wake; however, small pieces of the film point toward an entirely different movie that wouldn’t have worked. Lucky for us, however, Ballerina is an actioner with teeth and hopefully a solid start to a long action career for Ana de Armas.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is playing in theaters nationwide June 6, 2025.

Catch Up On The John Wick Universe Here
John Wick 3 | John Wick 4 | Wick is Pain
The Continental | John Wick Hex | John Wick Graphic Novel