action, Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Ava McCarthy, Ballerina, Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Castaneda, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McShane, John Wick, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Len Wiseman, movies, Norman Reedus, reviews, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Sooyoung Choi, Victoria Comte
June 4, 2025
by Carla Hay
“From the World of John Wick: Ballerina”
Directed by Len Wiseman
Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in New York City and partially in Europe and in Asia, the action film “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” (a spinoff of the “John Wick” movie series) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: After her single father is killed by a mysterious cult of criminals, Eve Macarro becomes a ballerina and then an assassin who goes on a vendetta to kill the people responsible for her father being murdered.
Culture Audience: “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “John Wick” franchise, the movie’s headliners and mindless action flicks that don’t anything innovative or creative.
It says a lot that the title of the formulaic action flick “Ballerina” was changed to “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.” This soulless and disjointed “John Wick” movie spinoff will keep viewers guessing on when action hero John Wick is going to show up, instead of feeling completely invested in “Ballerina” title character Eve Macarro. Mild spoiler alert: John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) is in the movie for less than 15 minutes.
Directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten, “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” is filled with cringeworthy dialogue and subplots that go nowhere. The movie takes place mostly in New York City and partially in Europe and in Asia, during the events of 2018’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.” (2014’s “John Wick” was the first movie in the series. “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” was actually filmed in Prague and Bohemia in the Czech Republic and in Budapest, Hungary.)
Even the characters who return from previous “John Wick” movies seem hollow and just go through the motions. Sure, there are plenty of violent action scenes to satisfy viewers who just want to see a series of bloody fights and killings. But after a while, many of the fight scenes become monotonous because there’s no real creativity. There are some attempts at comedy in the movie, but these attempts come across and forced and stale.
“John Wick” movies are known for their artistic, well-choreographed stunts for fight scenes. The fights in “Ballerina” look like increasingly ridiculous—especially in scenes with extensive flamethrower fights and explosions, and Eve barely has any soot on her face and doesn’t even get a hint of a burn or damaging smoke inhalation. She doesn’t wear a mask or face protection in any of these scenes where she uses flamethrowers and/or causes explosions.
You don’t need to know much about the “John Wick” franchise before seeing “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.” The basic throughline of each movie is that there’s a group of criminals called the Ruska Roma that has headquarters at a New York City hotel called the Continental. Ruska Roma, led by The Director (played by Anjelica Huston), is part of a worldwide crime syndicate called the High Table. John was a member of Ruska Roma who is trying to permanently end his association with the group, but Ruska Roma keeps getting involved his activities.
“From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” begins by showing childhood Eve (played Victoria Comte), at about 7 or 8 years old, becoming an orphan when her single father Javier (played by David Castañeda) succumbs to injuries he sustained in a brutal fight. Eve had witnessed Javier being captured and tortured by a ruthless underworld crime boss called The Chancellor (played by Gabriel Byrne) and several of The Chancellor’s goons.
Eve manages to escape, and she is taken in by Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane), an enemy-turned-ally of John at Ruska Roma. Winston arranges for Eve be raised by The Director, who trained John to be an assassin. The Director is a coldly manipulative control freak who likes to make cutting remarks and doesn’t like people questioning her decisions.
As an adult, Eve (played by Ana de Armas) trains as a ballerina and an assassin at the Continental’s Tarkovsky Theater. One of the Ruska Roma assassin trainers is the preachy Nogi (woodenly played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster), who thinks of herself as also being an existential philosopher. Nogi has some of the worst lines of dialogue in the movie.
After some obligatory ballet scenes, Eve tells the Director that she wants to quit ballet to find and kill those responsible for murdering Eve’s family. The Director tells Eve not to go on this vendetta mission. But there would be no “Ballerina” movie if Eve did everything the Director told Eve to do.
It turns out that the Chancellor is part of a cult of criminals that demand lifelong membership. His most-trusted sidekick is an assassin named Lena (played by Catalina Sandino Moreno), who has the personality of a pile of rocks. Eve meets Daniel Pine (played by Norman Reedus), who wants to quit this cult and has taken his kindergarten-age daughter Ella (played by Ava McCarthy) with him when he goes into hiding. Ella’s mother is not seen or mentioned in the film.
The subplot about Daniel and Ella is clumsily staged and is an example of this movie’s muddled storytelling. After a big fight between Daniel and some of the cult’s thugs (with Eve helping out Daniel), he gets severely injured. But the movie doesn’t show what happened to Daniel until toward the very end of the film. From what little viewers see of scruffy Daniel, he is tough but is a devoted father to Ella.
Eve doesn’t seem to be looking for Daniel when he’s suddenly not seen in the movie for a long stretch of time, as Ella awkwardly shows up in some of the other fight scenes. Hasn’t Eve ever heard of babysitting services? It seems like the movie is just jumping on filmmaking trend of a gruesomely violent action flick that has the protagonist looking after a kid who’s way too young to be a part of this carnage.
After Eve goes on a killing spree, “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” makes almost no reference to all the ballerina training that she has. The only reminder that Eve is a ballerina is when she quickly looks at a ballerina figurine in a snowball music box when she goes to place where she gets into yet another generic showdown. Later, a surprise “reveal” about Eve’s family background isn’t too surprising.
The Continental’s concierge Charon (played by Lance Reddick) is in this movie for less than three minutes. (Reddick died of heart disease in 2023, which gives you an idea of how long ago “Ballerina” was filmed and delayed before being released in 2025.) Scenes between Eve and Winston are quite bland. Winston is supposed to become somewhat of a mentor to Eve, but the movie doesn’t have Winston and Eve spending enough time communicating with each other to have a believable mentor/protégée bond.
Other characters come and go and are completely unnecessary to the overall plot. There are several scenes in the movie showing Eve’s job as a “bodyguard” for a young and wealthy partier named Katla Park (played by Sooyoung Choi, also known as Choi Soo-young), whose crime boss father Il Seong (played by Jung Doo-hong) has nefarious plans for Katla. It leads to a scene in a nightclub where Eve takes on a bunch of gangsters in a bombastic-looking fight. This subplot is then completely abandoned. And by the end of the movie, you find out that this subplot didn’t need to be in the movie at all.
As an action star, de Armas puts in a good effort that’s not entirely convincing, partially due to the mishandled direction and substandard editing. It’s too easy to see her stunt double(s) in the action scenes, and de Arma’s acting is a little stiff in the dramatic scenes. Eve’s interaction with John is so minimal, using the John Wick name to sell “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” seems like a cynical “bait and switch” cash grab. “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” ultimately becomes a checklist of fight scenes that look like inferior imitations of the spectacular fights in other “John Wick” movies.
Lionsgate will release “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” in U.S. cinemas on June 6, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on June 4, 2025.