‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’ receives 5.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters on June 6th is ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina‘, which is a spinoff to the ‘John Wick’ franchise that takes place in between the events of ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ and ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’.
Directed by Len Wiseman (‘Underworld’), the film stars Ana de Armas (‘No Time to Die’), Gabriel Byrne (‘The Usual Suspects’), and Norman Reedus (‘The Walking Dead’), as well as returning franchise actors Ian McShane as Winston Scott, Lance Reddick as Charon, Anjelica Huston as the Director, and Keanu Reeves as John Wick.
Related Article: Director Chad Stahelski and Producer Josh Oreck Talk ‘Wick Is Pain’
Initial Thoughts
‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’ has shades of what made the previous ‘John Wick’ films great, especially in the second half, but suffers from a boring first half and tonal issues throughout. The first half meanders through exposition and trying too hard to fit into the ‘John Wick’ universe, while the second half succeeds in delivering the type of action sequences we expect from the franchise. Director Len Wiseman fails to inject the first half of the film with any urgency, and instead relies on the second half’s action sequences to sell the movie.
Not surprisingly, Ana de Armas shines in the action sequences, but her character’s backstory is muddled by the slow tone of the first half. We also are meant to follow her as she learns to become an assassin, but this becomes tedious as we want our hero in a ‘John Wick’ movie to be kicking butt and not getting her own butt kicked. The returning ‘Wick’ actors are all welcomed but not given much to do, except for Keanu Reeves in the second half, but even his character seems wasted in a way and brings into question how this movie fits into the larger ‘John Wick’ franchise timeline.
Story and Direction
The film begins with a flashback revealing how a young Eve Macarro (Victoria Comte) watched as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), a member of the High Table, murdered her father before she escaped, and was taken to the Director (Huston) by Winston Scott (McShane). Through an opening credits montage, we learn that Eve was trained by the Ruska Roma crime syndicate as both a ballet dancer and an assassin.
The story then picks up at the beginning of ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’, with de Armas now portraying Eve, as she watches the notorious John Wick (Reeves), a former member, now on the run, seek refuge from the Director. After a brief encounter between the two, Wick leaves and the story then jumps ahead several months. Eve is now working as an assassin but struggles with her first assignment. She soon discovers that her target has the same mark on his hand as the man who killed her father.
Looking for revenge, and against the orders of the Director, Eve searches to find Daniel Pine (Reedus), who is trying to protect his own daughter and is also being hunted by the group that killed Eve’s father. Eventually she discovers that the Chancellor is behind her father’s death, and she travels to the remote town of assassins that the Chancellor leads. However, to protect an alliance the Director has with the Chancellor, she hires John Wick to stop Eve from killing him, even if that means John must kill her himself.
I consider Len Wiseman a serviceable director having made decent films like the ‘Underworld’ franchise and ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, but he is by no means a great director, and hardly my first choice to take over the franchise from Chad Stahelski, who’s brilliant work with the action sequences set the tone for the entire franchise. Wiseman was clearly out of his depths working on a ‘John Wick’ spinoff, and the pacing, tone, and the uninspiring action sequences in the first half of the movie prove it.
But the second half of the film does deliver the fast-paced tone and vibrant action of the previous films, so how did that happen? Well, if rumors are true, Wiseman was replaced during production by producer and ‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski, who re-shot most of the movie, particularly the second half’s action sequences and the scenes with Reeves. If this is true, it would explain why the movie feels like two different films. It’s not as bad of a “Frankenstein assembled movie” as say, ‘Justice League’, but it is still quite glaring and I’m not sure why the studio didn’t just hire Stahelski in the first place?
While the tone and pacing are all over the place, and the story itself contradicts the timeline established in the previous movies, if Stahelski did reshoot half the film, it was well worth it and saved the movie from being a complete disaster to a decent action film that gets exceedingly better in the second half.
Cast and Performances
Taking over for real life ballerina Unity Phelan, who played Eve in a cameo in ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’, Ana de Armas brings a lot to the role. She is captivating on screen and brings true emotion to her character but is also fantastic in the action sequences. However, the poor pacing and confusing tone of the first half of the film does the actress no favors.
The concept of a ‘Ballerina’ movie, so I thought, was to establish a “Female John Wick” in this cinematic universe, but the first half of the film feels more like “Female John Wick Begins”, with the character still finding her way as an assassin. That might have worked in any other film, but this is a ‘John Wick’ movie, and if Eve is going to go up against “Baba Yaga” himself, I would have wanted the character to be a match in experience and fighting skills to Wick.
Once she does face off with Wick towards the film’s finale, she is able to go toe to toe with him, but that doesn’t exactly align with the character that was established earlier in the movie. But regardless, de Armas is a very strong actress, and despite the film’s shortcomings, carries the movie well, especially in the later action sequences. The character is a great addition to the franchise but will perhaps be better used in a supporting role in a possible ‘John Wick: Chapter 5’, rather than in her own series.
It’s always great to see Keanu Reeves playing this character, but except for a cameo appearance in the beginning, he is not given much to do until the end. While the inclusion of his character was meant to bridge the gap between this film and the original series, it does take the audience’s attention away from Eve, and this really should be her story.
Reeves inclusion at the end also feels like a desperate move to link the films, and the timeline of how this happens might be confusing for some. My guess is that the end of ‘Ballerina’ takes place between the end of ‘Parabellum’ and the beginning of ‘Chapter 4’, but it’s hard to really know. Having previously worked together on ‘Knock Knock’ and ‘Exposed’, Reeves and de Armas do have strong chemistry together, which shows in their scenes.
As for the rest of the returning ‘Wick’ characters, none of them are given much to do. Anjelica Huston is good as the Director, but after the beginning of the movie, is relegated to “phone acting” in most of her subsequent scenes and the history of the character is never really explored.
The same could be said for Ian McShane’s Winston Scott, who is de-aged for his opening scene with a young Eve, and then not really revisited till the end of the movie. I would have liked the film to explore his connection to Eve more and have that play a bigger role in the story. But it was a treat to see the late great Lance Reddick return one more time as Winston’s right hand man Charon, even if his role is a glorified cameo.
Gabriel Byrne’s Chancellor fits well into the seedy world of ‘John Wick’ and is a strong advisory to Eve. The actor walks the thin line between generic bad guy and a real emotional and physical threat and does his best to overcome the script’s shortcomings. ‘The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus is also a good addition to the franchise, but his role was cut short, and I really would have liked it if the film had explored his character, relationship to his daughter, and encounter with Eve more. As it is, Reedus only has one scene but does the best he can with it.
Final Thoughts
In short, ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’ was not as bad as I feared, but not as good as I had hoped. While the first half is slow and does not feel like a ‘John Wick’ movie, the second half is more of what I expected, and is worth watching. But despite some great action sequences and strong performances from both de Armas and Reeves, the movie fails to truly resonate for ‘Wick’ fans and non-fans alike.
T6zQSeyAbhbLqgQYrfPFZ7What is the plot of ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’?
Taking place between the events of ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ and ‘Chapter 4’, Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a ballerina-assassin, begins to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma and sets out to exact revenge for her father’s death.
Who is in the cast of ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina’?
- Ana de Armas as Eve Macarro
- Anjelica Huston as the Director
- Gabriel Byrne as the Chancellor
- Ian McShane as Winston Scott
- Lance Reddick as Charon
- Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine
- Keanu Reeves as John Wick
List of Movies and TV Shows in the ‘John Wick’ Franchise:
- ‘John Wick‘ (2014)
- ‘John Wick: Chapter 2‘ (2017)
- ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum‘ (2019)
- ‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ (2023)
- ‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick‘ (2023)
- ‘Wick Is Pain‘ (2025)
- ‘From the World of John Wick: Ballerina‘ (2025)
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