In the high-stakes world of modern action cinema, the John Wick franchise stands as the undisputed champion, a benchmark against which all others are measured. With its hyper-stylized “gun-fu,” intricate world-building, and the stoic charisma of Keanu Reeves, it has carved a legendary niche. Now, the universe expands with Ballerina, a spin-off that carried the weight of immense expectation and a healthy dose of online skepticism. The prevailing fear? As one online commentator cynically predicted, “Let me guess, we’re gonna have a girl boss character come in and make John Wick her [subordinate] in his own franchise.”
This sentiment, born from a divisive cultural landscape, hung over the film’s production. Starring the incandescent Ana de Armas, Ballerina: From the World of John Wick (we’ll just call it Ballerina) dances into a precarious position. Canonically set between the explosive events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and the game-changing John Wick: Chapter 4, it introduces a new assassin on a deeply personal quest for vengeance. But with a troubled production history involving extensive reshoots, the question wasn’t just whether it could live up to the Wick legacy, but whether it would be a coherent film at all.
After the credits roll, the verdict is clear: Ballerina is a brutal, beautiful, and breathtaking action spectacle that not only honors its lineage but carves out its own vicious identity. While it may falter in its narrative ambitions, it soars where it counts most, delivering some of the most inventive and satisfying action sequences in the entire series, all anchored by a phenomenal lead performance. This is more than just a spin-off; it’s a powerful statement of intent.
A Spin-Off Forged in Fire: The Troubled Production and Chad Stahelski’s Rescue
To properly appreciate Ballerina, one must understand its tumultuous journey to the screen. The film was initially helmed by director Len Wiseman, a filmmaker known for the slick Goth-action of the first two Underworld films and the surprisingly excellent R-rated cut of Live Free or Die Hard. While Wiseman has his fans, reports surfaced that the studio was underwhelmed with his initial cut of Ballerina.
This led to a significant intervention from the franchise’s architect, Chad Stahelski. As the director of all four mainline John Wick films, Stahelski is the master of this universe’s specific action language. He was brought in to conduct extensive reshoots, with the primary goal of “pumping up the action.” The ambiguity surrounding these reshoots fueled speculation. Was he simply adding a few set pieces, or did he fundamentally remake the entire film?
This kind of production turmoil is often a death knell for a movie, resulting in a final product that feels disjointed and stitched together with cinematic duct tape. Thankfully, Ballerina largely avoids this fate. While some narrative seams are visible upon close inspection, the film feels surprisingly cohesive, a testament to Stahelski’s ability to seamlessly integrate his signature style. The end result is a film credited to Len Wiseman but bearing the unmistakable, blood-soaked fingerprints of Chad Stahelski, creating a fascinating hybrid of two distinct action sensibilities.
The Action: Meeting and Exceeding the John Wick Gold Standard
Let’s cut to the chase: if you are coming to Ballerina for its action, you will leave more than satisfied. This is the film’s crowning achievement and its undeniable raison d’être. The action is, in a word, kick-ass. It absolutely meets the gold standard set by its predecessors, feeling like an authentic entry in the universe rather than a discounted, direct-to-streaming imitation.
What makes the action so compelling is that it doesn’t just copy the John Wick formula; it adapts it. The choreography brilliantly accounts for the physical differences between the towering, 6-foot-plus Keanu Reeves and the more petite Ana de Armas. Where John Wick is a force of nature, a relentless juggernaut who absorbs and deals punishment in equal measure, de Armas’s Rooney (her character’s name) is a whirlwind of lethal precision and desperate improvisation.
The fighting style is scaled differently, focusing less on pure brute strength and more on agility, speed, and a wider variety of weaponry. This shift allows for a fresh and exciting take on the established combat system. The set pieces feel both familiar in their quality and unique in their execution. When the film transitions from its initial plot setup into full-bore action mode around the 45-minute mark, it kicks into a gear from which it never downshifts.
Furthermore, Ballerina might just be the most unapologetically violent and gory entry in the entire franchise. For audiences who appreciate a healthy dose of carnage, this film delivers in spades. One sequence involving a grenade turning an unfortunate henchman into little more than “pink mist” elicits a visceral “hell yes” moment. Another standout scene features Rooney wielding a flamethrower, a gloriously over-the-top display of pyrotechnic mayhem that is pure, unadulterated badassery. The film revels in its R-rated brutality, and it’s all the better for it.
Ana de Armas: From Bond Breakout to Franchise Anchor
Ever since her show-stealing, all-too-brief appearance in James Bond’s No Time to Die, audiences have been clamoring for Ana de Armas to lead her own action franchise. Ballerina is the glorious fulfillment of that promise. She is simply incredible in the role. Much like John Wick, her character is relatively soft-spoken, a woman of few words whose actions speak volumes. This places the burden of performance squarely on her physicality, and she carries it with breathtaking confidence.
De Armas is utterly convincing as a world-class assassin. You believe every punch, every kick, every gunshot. Her commitment to the stunt-driven performance is top-notch, making it feel as though she is the one executing these complex maneuvers within the established rules of the Wick universe. She embodies the grace of a dancer and the ferocity of a killer, a duality that is central to her character. It’s a star-making action performance that proves she has the charisma and physical prowess to carry a franchise on her shoulders. One can easily imagine—and hope for—future installments, or even a team-up film that is surely already being discussed in boardrooms.
Addressing the “Girl Boss” in the Room: How Ballerina Gets Female Action Right
In today’s cinematic climate, the introduction of a powerful female lead into an established male-led franchise is often met with preemptive criticism. Fears of “girl boss” characters who are inexplicably overpowered and effortlessly defeat male opponents with no justification have made some viewers wary. Ballerina seems keenly aware of this discourse and addresses it with remarkable intelligence.
The film goes out of its way to justify Rooney’s lethality. It doesn’t shy away from her physical disadvantages; it makes them a core part of her fighting philosophy. There is a pivotal training sequence where she is explicitly told that because she is smaller and weighs less, she cannot fight her larger male adversaries head-on. She is instructed to “fight like a girl”—not as an insult, but as a tactical doctrine. This means being vicious, using her environment, and fighting dirty. She is encouraged to “scratch, grab eyeballs, bite, kick dudes in the balls,” and do whatever it takes to win. It’s a strategy of survival, not of effortless superiority.
This grounding in tactical reality makes her victories all the more earned and believable. The film presents a masterclass in how to write a formidable female action hero without falling into lazy tropes. As for the much-anticipated fight scene with John Wick, teased in the trailer, viewers worried about her “making him a [subordinate]” can rest easy. Without spoiling the details, the purpose of their confrontation is not to establish a victor. It serves a narrative function that respects both characters immensely. For those tired of poorly justified action, Ballerina may be the very film they’ve been waiting for.
A Seamless Fit: Expanding the World of Wick
One of the greatest strengths of the John Wick series is its immersive world-building. Ballerina does an excellent job of weaving itself into this existing tapestry in a way that feels natural and additive. We see the return of Anjelica Huston as “The Director,” the stern matriarch of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate who we first met in Chapter 3. Her presence provides a crucial link for Rooney’s backstory and training.
Ian McShane also returns as the ever-charming Winston, proprietor of the New York Continental, along with what is likely the last recorded performance of the late, great Lance Reddick as his loyal concierge, Charon. Seeing Reddick on screen again is a poignant and bittersweet moment that adds a layer of emotional resonance for long-time fans. These cameos are not just fan service; they are woven into the plot in a way that reinforces the interconnectedness of this hidden world without overburdening the mainline films with new, contradictory lore.
The Narrative Achilles’ Heel: Story, Lore, and an Underdeveloped Villain
For all its triumphs in action and performance, Ballerina stumbles significantly in its narrative. While no one goes to a John Wick film expecting a Shakespearean plot, the mainline films succeed by complementing their simple revenge plots with fascinating lore, rich world-building, and a roster of instantly memorable supporting characters.
This is where Ballerina falls short. The story is a stock-standard revenge tale that feels thin and perfunctory. We are here to get from one action sequence to the next, and the plot often feels like little more than the connective tissue to do so. The film does little to advance the lore of the universe. We already knew about the ballerinas from Chapter 3 and the coin-based markers from Chapter 2. Ballerina doesn’t introduce any compelling new rules or factions to the world.
This is most apparent in its underdeveloped villain. The antagonist, a sinister cult leader played by the legendary Gabriel Byrne, feels like a missed opportunity. Byrne is a phenomenal actor capable of immense menace, but his character is a generic placeholder. The nature of his organization, their motivations, and why they command such fear are never fully explored. Consequently, the central conflict lacks the weight and intrigue that defined John Wick’s clashes with The High Table.
Furthermore, a significant plot reveal that occurs late in the second act feels like a narrative dead end. It promises to add a fascinating new layer of complexity to the story, only to be almost immediately abandoned in favor of the third-act action finale. This feels like a potential casualty of the reshoots, a ghost of a more complex plot that was sacrificed at the altar of more action. While most will agree it’s a worthy trade, it leaves the story feeling even more hollow.
The John Wick Conundrum: A Welcome Cameo or a Distracting Shtick?
Keanu Reeves’s appearance as John Wick is, understandably, a major marketing point. His presence was necessary to put fans in seats and officially christen this spin-off. And for the most part, his inclusion is satisfying. However, it also feels somewhat like a “commercial break” in Rooney’s story, a moment where the film pauses its own narrative to remind us of the franchise’s star.
More distracting, however, is the continuation of a peculiar trend in Reeves’s recent performances. His line delivery as John Wick has become increasingly stilted and mannered, almost a self-parody. Where the first film saw a Wick filled with raw, explosive rage (“I’m thinking I’m back!”), his dialogue in Ballerina is delivered in a strange, halting cadence. A simple line like “The front door is open” is read as “The. Front. Door. Is. Open.” This odd affectation, also present in his voice work for Sonic 3, feels like a shtick that detracts from the gravity of the scenes, especially when he’s acting opposite the more naturalistic de Armas.
Final Verdict: Is ‘Ballerina’ Worth the Price of Admission?
Ballerina is a film of brilliant highs and noticeable lows. It may rank as the “least” of the five films in the John Wick universe, but in a franchise of this caliber, that is hardly an insult. This is a situation where even the bottom rung is still head and shoulders above most other action films.
The movie is an absolute must-see for fans of the franchise and for anyone who loves high-octane, expertly choreographed action. Ana de Armas has cemented herself as a bona fide action superstar, and the set pieces are worth the price of admission alone. Go for the jaw-dropping fights, the brutal violence, and the thrill of seeing a new legend being born in this rich world. However, manage your expectations when it comes to the story. It’s a simple, functional vessel for the carnage, and that’s perfectly okay. Ballerina doesn’t just enter the stage; it executes a flawless, blood-soaked pirouette right through the heart of the action genre.