Ballerina (2025)

Ballerina earns its place in the John Wick universe by bringing a fresh face and a fierce point of view, turning Eve Macarro’s ascent into a sleek, propulsive ride that feels both familiar and newly charged. The action isn’t just loud—it’s inventive and brutally choreographed, staged with the series’ signature clarity so you can savor every clever beat instead of losing it in shaky chaos. Ana de Armas anchors the mayhem with real presence, making the film’s cool-blooded momentum feel personal even when it’s operating at full throttle. If you’re not in the mood for stylish, punishing violence, this won’t convert you—but if you want unpretentious, stellar fight cinema that knows exactly what it is, Ballerina delivers.

Ballerina is clearly aiming to bottle that John Wick blend of sleek world-building, disciplined assassin lore, and cleanly staged violence, while giving Eve Macarro her own origin lane inside the Ruska Roma. The problem is it takes a while to get moving, and the story can feel cluttered with familiar crime-thriller beats that don’t land with much urgency, making stretches feel oddly inconsequential even with the franchise connection. When the action kicks in, it’s generally well-executed and sometimes genuinely stylish, but the film often carries itself with a seriousness that doesn’t always match the material, and it struggles to step out from Wick’s long shadow. If you’re here for nonstop momentum and a plot that meaningfully shifts the franchise, you may leave underwhelmed; if you mainly want polished fights and more of the Wick-adjacent underworld, it can still scratch that itch.