‘Ballerina’ review: Ana de Armas shoots to kill in underwhelming John Wick spinoff

Dir: Len Wiseman. US. 2025. 124mins

Early in Ballerina, Ana de Armas’ budding murderer is complimented on her singular killer intuition. Anybody who watches this John Wick spinoff will agree with that evaluation, because the Oscar-nominated actress delivers a ferocious, muscular efficiency that just about overcomes the movie’s weaknesses. Motion followers ought to savour the spectacularly violent set items, however a bland villain and an underwhelming narrative finally show much more deadly than de Armas.

Has none of John Wick’s emotional underpinnings

Rolling out globally from June 4, Ballerina shall be a check of de Armas’s box-office would possibly: she has beforehand starred within the likes of Knives Out and Blonde, and had a short however memorable cameo in 2021’s No Time To Die, the place she bought to indicate off her motion expertise. That is the primary instalment within the franchise since 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4, which grossed a series-high $440m worldwide, and Keanu Reeves does certainly present up for this spinoff. (Ballerina is about in the course of the occasions of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which is essential contemplating Reeves’ hit man died on the finish of the 2023 movie.)

De Armas performs Eve, who, as a toddler, witnessed her father being murdered by masked males. Now educated by the fearsome Ruska Roma, which has taught her the artwork of ballet in addition to killing, this formidable murderer seeks to search out the people who executed him. Eve’s quest will take her to New York, the Czech Republic and Austria, the place she tracks down The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), the chief of a lethal cult liable for her father’s loss of life.

Within the 11 years because the first John Wick, the franchise has grown extra grandiose by way of its world-building, funds and struggle sequences. Sadly, the sequels typically turned so self-regarding and operatic that they sacrificed the down-and-dirty pleasures of the unique movie. However whereas Ballerina boasts the identical neon-lit theatrics as Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, this spinoff does considerably return to the ingenious, flagrantly bloody motion of earlier instalments.

Ballerina’s revenge plot has none of John Wick’s emotional underpinnings, however de Armas (changing actual life dancer Unity Phelan, who originated the position in Chapter 3) convincingly dispatches loads of dangerous guys. Eve might lack the witty panache of her No Time To Die character however de Armas once more proves to be a commanding presence depicting a resourceful, steely hit lady. She significantly impresses within the movie’s in depth, pummeling struggle scenes, wielding every little thing from landmines to machine weapons to hammers and ice skates to defeat her enemies.

Whereas the image was delayed because of the taking pictures of further motion scenes (which have been helmed by former stuntman Chad Stahleski), it’s noticable how flat Ballerina’s non-action sequences are. The screenplay from Shay Hatten, who co-wrote Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, brings again the collection’ most memorable supporting characters performed by Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick (who died in 2023), however their appearances are largely perfunctory. Additionally underwhelming is the movie’s ponderous, pseudo-profound dialogue relating to how destiny and selection dictate Eve’s future. The movie is much extra satisfying when it drops the pretense and easily embraces its giddy, over-the-top spectacle — particularly throughout an agreeably ridiculous finale that entails a showdown between two characters each brandishing high-octane flamethrowers.

To appease the John Wick devoted, the filmmakers don’t simply carry again Reeves’ iconic murderer but in addition function him in a strained late-reel faceoff with Eve. A lot in the identical manner that latest Star Wars spinoffs hold carting out Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker, Wick’s arrival smacks of desperation, though Reeves stays serenely balletic within the position. However he doesn’t have a lot to do, which may very well be mentioned as effectively for Byrne, who tries to carry some menace to an underwritten character. The Chancellor isn’t worthy of Eve’s wrath, similar to Ballerina isn’t sharp sufficient to deserve de Armas’s killer efficiency.