‘Ballerina’ Review: ‘John Wick’ Spin-off Burns Like, Well, a Candle in the Wind

Ana de Armas overdelivers in this appopriately large-scale and visually scrumptious actioner that occasionally undermines itself via reminders that, yes, it's a Wick flick.

Ballerina: Sorry, But Absolutely No One is Referring to This Film as ‘From the World of John Wick’ (2025)

125 minutes/Rated R for strong/bloody violence throughout, and language
Directed by Len Wiseman, Written by Shay Hatten, Based on characters by Derek Kolstad
Produced by Basil Iwanky, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski
Starring: Ana de Armas, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McShane, Anjelica Houston, Norman Reedus,
Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Lance Reddick and, yeah, Keanu Reeves
Music by Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, Cinematography by Romain Lacourbas, Edited by Jason Ballantine
Production companies: Summit Entertainment, Thunder Road Films and 87North Productions
Opening theatrically the week of June 6, 2025, courtesy of Lionsgate

Ballerina opens in a world where 87North is not just a production company but an action cinema brand in its own right. It exists midway through a decade that began with Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video being flooded with “bad-ass babe kills righteously” thrillers—some better than others—like Ava, Gunpowder Milkshake, The Mother, Kate, Prey, and Jolt. Ballerina succeeds in distinguishing itself from the legion of John Wick pretenders, lady vengeance actioners, and relatively “cutesy” action comedies (varying quality aside) like Love Hurts, Nobody, and Bullet Train. It earns its place in the, uh, “World of John Wick” by being an uncommonly polished and large-scale real-world action spectacle (most of its $80 million budget is on the screen) that is awash in the franchise’s “action movie-meets-opera house” aesthetics and is filled with creative and compelling set pieces of varying scope, scale, and intent. 

That should’ve been enough, even as a three-star flick alongside a quartet of four-star bangers. Alas, whether out of fear or a misguided “listen to the fans” mentality, the picture too often stops in its tracks to remind you of its cinematic heritage. Yes, it takes place between John Wick: Chapter 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4. Heck, the brief first act cameo from Keanu Reeves himself is surprisingly clever, occurring during an established sequence from Parabellum and allowing the infamously unretired hitman to offer not notes of encouragement but grim “Get out of Derry while you still can!” warnings. If that’s all the movie did, that would be fine. However, it kneecaps its third act with extended “Okay, this is where you go to the bathroom!” inserts that threaten to make its new action star a sidekick in her own movie.

The Len Wiseman-directed picture opens with a thrilling extended prologue as young Eve Macarro witnesses her father’s violent death at the hands of a mysterious asshole played by Gabriel Byrne. She is whisked away by Ian McShane’s Winston Scott and sent to Angelica Houston’s previously established ballet+murder school. Cut to 15-ish years later, and a now-grown Ana de Armas is sent on, surprisingly enough, a “protect the innocent” mission during which she is given a gun loaded with rubber bullets. That said, it’s a fantastic set piece filled with creative and clever martial arts and fisticuffs. Like Wiseman’s best action sequences, whether in good movies (Live Free or Die Hard) or bad ones (Total Recall), this scene, along with a few others that follow, employs the tricks and tropes associated with 2-D platform video games for a multi-level, multi-location adventure. 

The film loses some momentum when a routine hit puts her on the path of the folks who orphaned her. The story then primarily focuses on Eve defying the High Table to avenge her father in a way that puts her at odds with her adopted community. As Ballerina delves deeper into the hows and whys of Eve’s childhood trauma, it begins to diverge from the expected path. The good news is that, being intentionally vague here, it allows the spin-off to differentiate itself from a conventional John Wick movie. The bad news is that, in terms of the narrative, character revelations, and locations, Ballerina quickly starts to more closely resemble a (comparatively speaking) run-of-the-mill real-world run-and-gun film. Even that would be more of a curiosity than a criticism if the John Wick-ness of it all didn’t keep getting in the way.

The above title-specific “joke” isn’t just snark. The fact that the studio (or related promotional advisors) chose not to simply call the movie “Ballerina,” but instead “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” typifies a primary fault. It’s not just that Wick appears in the film’s extended finale in a way that doesn’t make much sense in terms of what he was doing during that time; it’s that the characters stop in their tracks to metaphorically offer proper reverence despite more pressing priorities. If Lionsgate and friends want high-gloss action melodrama spin-offs in the world previously inhabited by John Wick, they can’t place so much emphasis (especially in the marketing) on John Wick. It’s more frustrating than deal-breaking (especially considering Reeves’ likely good-sport participation after working with the actress in Knock Knock and Exposed), since the movie didn’t need it.

Ballerina does its job in terms of delivering action skills and big-budget thrills in the vein of John Wick with a new protagonist. Ana de Armas is, as expected, excellent—a knockout in every sense of the word. The production value and technical craft on display make it worth seeing in a quality auditorium, despite my more industry-specific reservations. The big climax seems to gloss over some potential moral dilemmas regarding who is being killed and who is (presumably?) being left behind. That perhaps only matters if we’re painting Eve not as a super-assassin but as a “hero,” but it does lessen the potential fist-bumping potential. In the future, ThunderRoad and Lionsgate should remember that the “world of John Wick” branding should prioritize franchise-specific entertainment and relatively high quality rather than simply reminding audiences how much they liked the John Wick movies.