What’s It About

An assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Look, I’ll be straight with you, I went into Ballerina with pretty low expectations. After The Continental flopped hard on Peacock, I figured this John Wick spinoff would be another cash grab trying to milk the franchise dry. But Ana de Armas said, “Hold my beer,” and delivered something that actually worked. The movie takes place right between John Wick 3 and John Wick 4, which is smart timing. We follow Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a young woman whose father gets murdered right in front of her when she’s just a kid. The Russian crime family called Ruska Roma takes her in, and she ends up training at their ballet school – which is really just a cover for assassin training. The Director (Anjelica Huston) runs this operation, and she’s tough as nails. Eve spends years learning to fight through bloody feet and broken bones, all while plotting revenge against the people who killed her dad. When she finally meets John Wick, everything clicks into place, and she’s ready to hunt down her father’s killer. Here’s the thing that impressed me most – de Armas doesn’t try to be a female version of John Wick. She creates her own lane entirely. At 5’6″ and pretty slim, she can’t exactly go toe-to-toe with these massive dudes like it’s nothing. Instead, the movie gets creative with how she fights. She uses everything around her – kitchen knives, carpentry tools, hand grenades, even flamethrowers. The choreography makes sense because she’s always thinking three steps ahead, using her environment and quick thinking to take down bigger opponents. It reminds me of how real people would have to fight if they were outmatched physically. The best part? She gets beat up. Like, really beat up. Her face shows every punch, every cut, every bruise. Too many action movies try to keep their female leads looking pretty throughout all the chaos. Ballerina says forget that, Eve looks like someone who’s been through hell, and that makes her feel real. Director Len Wiseman knows how to stage a fight scene. The movie starts a bit shaky, literally, with too much camera movement in the opening fight that made me dizzy. But once it finds its flow, the action is insane. There’s a flamethrower cartel sequence that is intensely over-the-top. Eve is fighting these guys inside what looks like a warehouse and starts torching everything including the guys. And it’s amazing and terrifying at the same time, like a deadly ballet. Another great moment involves her using grenades in close-range combat. She’s tossing them around like a pro, timing the explosions perfectly while dodging gunfire. The whole thing feels like something out of a John Woo movie, which is probably intentional. The movie builds these action sequences perfectly. Eve starts with paintball guns, moves to rubber bullets, then graduates to the real deal. By the end, she’s cutting through enemies like she was born for this life. One thing that worried me was whether this movie would feel like actual John Wick or just some random action flick with his name slapped on. Thankfully, it belongs in that world completely. The Continental Hotel shows up, with Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick) giving Eve protection when she needs it. The rules and mythology all make sense. And when Keanu Reeves appears as John Wick, it doesn’t feel forced or awkward – he fits right into Eve’s story. There’s even this scene where John and Eve face off in the snow that’s absolutely gorgeous. You can tell both characters respect each other, but they’re on different sides of this particular fight. It’s tense without being over the top. The first act drags a bit. There’s too much explaining and not enough showing. We get it, Eve wants revenge, she’s training to be deadly, and the Ruska Roma are connected to her father. The movie takes too long to set this up when it could have jumped into the action sooner. Some of the dialogue feels clunky, especially early on. The characters spend too much time telling us things we can figure out ourselves. The movie works best when it shuts up and lets the action do the talking. Also, while most of the fight scenes are incredible, that opening sequence with all the shaky camera work is rough. It almost made me want to walk out, but I’m glad I stuck around because the rest of the movie fixes this problem. What I really appreciate about Ballerina is how it expands the John Wick universe without just copying what came before. The Ruska Roma gets more depth. We learn they’re not just random criminals but people who protect others and try to prevent bigger disasters from happening. Eve’s story also feels more personal than John’s revenge arc. Don’t get me wrong, I love John Wick, but his motivation always felt a bit thin after the first movie. Eve’s pain runs deeper, and her journey feels more earned. The movie also doesn’t shy away from showing the cost of this lifestyle. Eve changes throughout the film, becoming harder and more ruthless. By the end, she’s not the same person who started training with the Ruska Roma. That character development makes the action mean something. Ballerina proves that the John Wick world can work without John Wick being the main character. Ana de Armas brings her own energy and style to the franchise while respecting what made the original movies great. The action is brutal and creative, the story makes sense, and Eve feels like a real person instead of just a tough girl stereotype. Sure, it has some problems with pacing and dialogue, but when it works, it really works. If you’re a fan of the John Wick movies, you’ll probably dig this. If you’re new to the franchise, it’s a good entry point that doesn’t require you to know everything that came before. Most importantly, Ballerina gives us hope that this universe can keep growing in interesting ways. Ana de Armas deserves to come back for more, and I’m here for whatever she does next.

OUR RATING – A REVENGE TAKEN 8

MEDIA

• Genre – Family
• Street date
• Digital –July 1, 2025
• 4K/Blu-Ray/DVD – September 9, 2025
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 2.39:1
• Sound – English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Audio descriptive
• Subtitles – English SDH, Spanish, French

Extras

• The Making of Ballerina (HD 10:54)
• Building a Frozen Underground (HD 6:09)
• The Art of Action (HD 11:09)
• Deleted/Extended Scenes (HD 29:49)
• Theatrical Trailer