From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, 2025.
Directed by Len Wiseman.
Starring Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Norman Reedus, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ava Joyce McCarthy, Juliet Doherty, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Robert Maaser, Victoria Comte, David Castañeda, Sooyoung Choi, Rila Fukushima, Magdalena Sittova, Waris Ahluwalia, Daniel Bernhardt, Jackson Spidell, Zac Ladkin, Tracie Bennett, and Abraham Popoola.
SYNOPSIS:
An assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death.
Spinoffs were inevitable for the John Wick franchise (which is owned by the financially struggling Lionsgate). The good news is that, with all the mythology, assassin organizations, hallowed grounds, and meticulous rules, the franchise lends itself to spinoffs. Rules are also meant to be broken, which is essentially the modus operandi for director Len Wiseman’s (working from a screenplay by Chapter 3 co-writer Shay Hatten, who might be least responsible for that entry being fantastic having gone on to write Rebel Moon and other junk) clunkily titled From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, typically finding action when and where viewers will least expect it on behalf of a new assassin group that doesn’t abide by any rules. That subversive approach to the action is one of the middling spinoff’s strengths.
As for Len Wiseman, he doesn’t have a remotely solid or strong track record either, having finally been released from director jail after his underwhelming remake of Total Recall and the generic Underworld movies. How this became the assembled duo to continue on the greatest modern action franchise is a mystery, but the result could have been worse. The most glaring problem is that, despite Ana de Armas’ impressively physical commitment to playing a vengeful ballerina-assassin, these filmmakers visually emulate select showstopper sequences without the same ingenuity, verve, momentum, and stakes.
It’s a distracting call to attention that they know what John Wick action is about stylistically and visually (the overhead flamethrower shot comes across as a tryhard choice; that POV was the way in for a truly creative and dynamic sequence in Chapter 4 – in other words, immediately going back to the well for a crowdpleasing moment), even if they can’t make it pop (They are without regular cinematographer Dan Lautsen, and longtime series director Chad Stahelski was brought in for late re-shoots, although the extent of these re-shoots is a matter of interpretation. ). It’s also frustrating to have to say that, since the preceding flamethrower chaos and duel are the action’s high points, alongside some brutal explosives kills.
Lowered expectations were always there for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, and this is by no means a bad film. However, it feels stuck somewhere between wanting to expand the universe and repackaging some of the action’s greatest hits. That’s not a fatal headshot putting the movie six feet under. Where From the World of John Wick: Ballerina most falters is its struggles in balancing the absurd with grounded storytelling, as past films have succeeded. The story here becomes increasingly ludicrous while also refusing to explain anything about the cult Ana de Armas’ Eve is up against, seeking revenge on them for murdering her father in front of her when she was a child, for trying to escape that life.
At the halfway point, she encounters Norman Reedus’ Daniel Pine, a father on the run with his young daughter trying to get away from the same cult, still run by Gabriel Byrne’s heartless and remorseless The Chancellor, a leader operating on twisted logic proposing that his faction are morally above a group like the Ruska Roma (using ballerina training as a means to train female assassins). He believes that his anarchic community is given freedom without buying into the assertion that the Ruska Roma are being given choices. Nevertheless, when we finally get to see this community, it begs the question of how these seemingly decent men and fathers are even buying the Kool-Aid for this cult in the first place. That’s without getting into how this snowy, lawless town has been around for thousands of years with, apparently, law enforcement doing nothing about it.
Somehow, the filmmakers don’t see that the obvious thread to pull on here is a woman trying to help a father protect her daughter from the same circumstances that got her father killed. Shockingly, Norman Reedus is wasted here, unless bets are being hedged on potential sequels in which he can be further incorporated. Who knows how bloated the title for that film would be – From the John Wick Universe and the Ballerina Story: Assassin Daryl Dixon! Then there is the finale, which is the proof in the pudding that these filmmakers don’t trust themselves or have any original vision, catering to fan service in bringing John Wick into a scenario he doesn’t need to be in. It’s as graceless as each new Star Wars property circling back to the Skywalker family. Speaking of families, there are reveals here that go nowhere. Much of this feels like a pilot for sequels, containing little emotional payoff.
Even the revenge angle is disappointingly generic when the foundation for this franchise is hordes of dead bodies brought on by murdering the wrong person’s dog, increasingly leaning into the ridiculousness of that turn of events with each subsequent installment. Equally frustrating is that the film isn’t expanding much on the Ruska Roma or even the cult introduced here.
Not blind to the fact that people come to John Wick movies for insane, kinetic action heavy on stuntwork and bruised bodies doesn’t negate that there hasn’t been an entry this empty-headed and narratively cartoonish. Perhaps that’s fitting, considering there is also a Looney Tunes-esque moment where Ana de Armas and a waitress cult member repeatedly smash plates over each other’s heads. There is also an amusing gag where she smashes someone’s face in with a TV remote that changes the channel to show different classic stunts. That moment is befitting for everything about From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – all respect and serviceable imitation, but Ana de Armas aside, lacking the same benchmark thrills and a sturdy narrative.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
