Review: ‘Ballerina’ has just enough jaw-shattering action to justify itself

2025 / Dir. Len Wiseman

☆ 3.5/5

In this expansion of the John Wick universe, Ana de Armas stars as Eve Macarro, a “Kikimorra” bodyguard/assassin trained and raised by Anjelica Huston’s Ruska Roma criminal family, going rogue in an attempt to get revenge against the assassin cult who killed her father.

Does Ballerina have compelling characterization and witty dialogue? Does it cleverly use returning supporting actors Huston, Ian McShane, and the late Lance Reddick? Does it expand the genuinely compelling lore of the John Wick universe, particularly the Ruska Roma “tribe” that Eve grows up in? A big fat no to all of the above. Does Eve get into a basement grenade fight and a flamethrower duel in a Bavarian mountain town? Hell yeah, she does! 

Though directed by Underworld’s Len Wiseman, John Wick mastermind Chad Stahelski was clearly behind the many jaw-shattering fight scenes that echo the hallmarks of the John Wick series, with a few curveballs that keep the movie feeling fresh enough despite not narratively adding much of anything to the series. In particular, de Armas’s diminutive stature is a secret weapon, requiring the more vulnerable Eve to get clever with her fighting in a way that the superhuman John Wick would never have to. 

Ballerina has plenty of story ideas that go nowhere that could have been compelling, like its central cult of enemy assassins that’s supposedly so brutal that every other crime family is afraid of them—despite being the blandest opposing force in the series to date. That makes it even more remarkable that Stahelski can produce the weakest entry in the franchise and still come out with what is sure to be one of the most fu action movies of the year just through the strength of its fight scenes alone.

Watch if you like: John Wick, John Wick 2, John Wick 3, and John Wick 4.