The John Wick franchise has always been rather interesting to me. What started out as a very small-scale and self-contained revenge story spiraled out into its own universe with its own dense mythology and lore. And I have consistently found most of that uninteresting, but what gets me every time is the style on display in these movies. The action sequences are so thrillingly choreographed and so intense in their brutality, it’s hard not to be wowed by them even if you’re not necessarily vibing with the story being told here. And Lionsgate has been trying to make its Ballerina spinoff film (based on a character from the third John Wick film) forever, and that film is finally releasing this weekend. Chad Stahelski, director of the previous four John Wick films, is not directing this one (more on that later) and instead, director Len Wiseman, who has a far spottier track record as a filmmaker, comes on board to direct. And this all went surprisingly better than I expected it to. 

Ballerina follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), the daughter of two assassins who witnessed the murder of her father at a young age. She is taken in by the Director (Anjelica Huston) of the Ruska Roma, an organization of ballerina assassins, and is essentially trained from childhood to be a deadly assassin. Eve takes to this like a natural, but is haunted by her father’s death and once she finds a possible connection to the people responsible, she sets out on a journey of revenge.

The script here, from returning John Wick 3 and 4 screenwriter Shay Hatten, is kind of beside the point and the mythology of this franchise continues to deepen in ways I found occasionally fascinating but mostly incoherent. I feel like I understood the specifics of everyone’s relationship to one another maybe half of the time, but luckily this does not really matter. Ballerina is still a hell of a lot of fun, and there are two central reasons for that. One is the performance Ana de Armas is giving. Between her performance in John Wick Chapter 3 – Parabellum, where this character is introduced, to her scene stealing turn in No Time to Die, it’s clear De Armas has been itching for an opportunity to be the lead in an action movie, and she is not playing around here. She’s enigmatic and a little cold as a personality, and it would be nice if she had more to do as an actual actress, but once we get to the fight sequences and you get to see her physicality shine through, it becomes clear what an exciting performance this is. 

I also really enjoyed Anjelica Huston, also returning from the third film, as the mysterious Director. She’s doing a very campy Russian(?) accent and smoking cigars, and is clearly having fun with the inherent absurdity of this whole thing. Gabriel Byrne stars as the story’s central villain, and he’s fine, if not particularly memorable. The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus co-stars as a man Eve helps along the way, and he has a few fun fight scenes. It’s important to note this film marks the final screen appearance of Lance Reddick, who played the concierge at the Continental Hotel, in all the previous John Wick films. Reddick passed away in 2023, after the majority of this was filmed, and the film is dedicated to him, which feels like a nice touch. And of course, Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick, but the film doesn’t really need him. He feels like he was added in during reshoots so they could show him in the trailers and sell extra tickets. But he largely doesn’t have much of a reason to be here.

The second reason Ballerina works is because of how viscerally thrilling these fight sequences are. The action gets going pretty much as soon as the film begins, but it’s later into the film when things become truly thrilling. From the time our lead character arrives at a Prague ski resort, the action from that point forward is very exciting. There’s a great scene in a restaurant kitchen, and one that involves flamethrowers, that had me practically cheering. The viewer goes to a John Wick movie expecting this level of action, and I doubt they’ll leave this one disappointed. It’s been reported that Ballerina was something of a troubled production, with Chad Stahelski, who is only credited as a producer here, having to return for months of reshoots, practically shooting the entire film again, while credited director Len Wiseman was not present on set. And I will say with confidence that this does not show in the final film, and you wouldn’t notice these problems if you weren’t already aware of them going in. And the fact that this works at all is something of an achievement in itself.

So, I don’t know if I would say Ballerina is a compelling extension of the John Wick franchise, but as a summer action movie, it delivers big time. Ana de Armas is a total star, and she brings the energy and brutality required of a role like this, and she’s exciting to watch from beginning to end. The actual story being told here is very whatever, but the style of this world and the choreography of these fight sequences is as exciting as you want it to be. Films in the John Wick franchise seem to take themselves very seriously and also feel like they’re goofing on action movie tropes. And luckily, Stahelski (and Wiseman, I guess) find a balance in those two tones that totally works. This may be a hot take, but it’s more than a little surprising that Ballerina ended up being a more successful action movie than the long-awaited ‘final’ Mission Impossible film. And I certainly wouldn’t mind going on another adventure in the Ballerina universe.