Title – From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)
Director – Len Wiseman (Total Recall)
Cast – Ana de Armas, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Keanu Reeves
Plot – Orphaned assassin Eve (de Armas) forgoes the rules of her organisation the Ruska Roma to set out on a personal quest for revenge when she finds out pertinent information about those responsible for the murder of her father.
“Fight like a girl”
Review by Eddie on 12/06/2025
The first cinematic side foray for the John Wick extended universe (lets just forget about ill fated TV spin-off The Continental), From the World of John Wick: Ballerina finds oft-derided director Len Wiseman and reshoot/uncredited overseer and previous Wick helmer Chad Stahelski embedding able-bodied star Ana de Armas into the ruthless world of assassins, hitman and dinner plates, culminating in a result that won’t set the world on fire but is sure to please long-term series fans.
Recently receiving far better critical and audience receptions than many anticipated yet still underperforming in its opening week at the box office, showing a potential disinterest for John Wick fans to show up for anything that isn’t centred around Keanu Reeves titular dog owner, Ballerina is an action event with little in the way of substance or long-standing takeaways but that’s never been a strong component of any Wick based offering and if audiences want an adrenaline fuelled abundance of gun-toting, grenade throwing and flame throwing roasting, they’ve come to the right place.
Overcoming a relatively ho-hum opening section that makes you wonder how things will pan out, Ballerina quickly lets its wafer thin plot of de Armas’s Eve heading out on a quest for personal vengeance and answers against the wishes of her Ruska Roma overseers take over, giving us and the film the perfect excuse for action beat after action, creating a relentless experience that won’t win over new fans but one that manages to match its set pieces right up there with the top-class offerings that the four Reeves backed Wick films provided us with over the last decade.
Making little in the way of logical sense and featuring a genuine disinterest in any deep level of character depth or growth, Ballerina makes zero attempts at being anything it’s not supposed to be but when de Armas is having so much fun fighting like a girl and taking down all those that stand in her way and talents like Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reedus and old series staples like Ian McShane, Angelica Huston and a fairly prominent Keanu Reeves join her for the old-school like action ride, it’s hard not to find enjoyment from a feature that embraces what it is and runs with it.
Overall it’s hard to say that Ballerina adds a whole lot to the grand scheme of the greater Wick picture but in an age where it’s becoming harder and harder to find good quality throwaway genre films of this ilk, Ballerina justifies it’s existence and makes a decent attempt at creating a reason why the Wick head honchos should feel more confident moving forward and not feeling the need to instil their bankable main character into future offerings or allowing them to be named outside of the titular character.
Even if it doesn’t appear as though audiences are overly eager to pay up for Wick films that aren’t based around their favourite anti-hero.
Final Say –
Far more successful than many would’ve predicted, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina proves that there is life outside of the series main player and that star Ana de Armas is a capable action centrepiece. Fast, frenetic and as frivolous as they come, this is Hollywood action at its popcorn munching best.
3 TV remotes out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
“Overcoming a relatively ho-hum opening section” — It was a rather “ho-hum” opening, wasn’t it? There was violence, blood, and Gabriel Byrne’s very earnest portrayal of the antagonist was very entertaining for me, but all I cared about was “when is Ana de Armas’s training montage gonna start?”
“Making little in the way of logical sense and featuring a genuine disinterest in any deep level of character depth or growth,” — very well-said. ^J^
Are there rumours that the character of Akira from John Wick 4 is gonna get her own movie? If it’s true, and Rina Sawayama returns to play her, would the box office numbers be even lower? I’d probably watch it b/c her section of that film was my favorite.
My gut feel is that after the financial performance of this film there might be a lot of planned Wick spin offs that get put on the backburner or more turned into streaming offerings.
I heard that the first segment was a Wiseman action sequence but then a lot of the other action scenes weren’t shot by him. It’s nothing confirmed but you can sense they had to work hard here to ensure action standards were met.
E