Ballerina (2025)
Directed by Len Wiseman
Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Eve Macarro begins her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma.
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26 films that influenced Ballerina
What critics say influenced Ballerina
Yet while the film is in harmony with the franchise’s established sense of style, unique world-building, and ferocious fight choreography, “Ballerina” is more than some cheap knockoff.
But, we must remember that this is Ballerina, not John Wick.
As the John Wick films have grown with each chapter, it makes sense to expand the franchise into spin-offs, including The Continental miniseries and now Ballerina, a (mostly) standalone feature focused on Ruska Roma assassin Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) following in Wick’s footsteps on her quest for vengeance.
If John Wick is willing to reign holy hell down on the men responsible for the death of his dog, imagine what Eva could do to avenge her father.
As it did with John Wick, the Ruska Roma has trained Eve well and even tattooed ominous Latin phrases on her back, too, in exchange for services rendered.
For instance, the original John Wick gave the title character 20 or so minutes for the audience to understand his heart before the intruders decided to kill his puppy.
That said, it would be unfair to go into Ballerina expecting John Wick 5, especially when it’s being delivered to us hot off the heels of arguably the best entry in the franchise with Chapter 4.
…such as a sequence in a neon-lit club reminiscent of a similar scene in the magnificent John Wick: Chapter 4…
John Wick Chapter 4 saw The Boogeyman using a shotgun that fired explosive shells, but the flame thrower sequences are somehow even wilder.
The movie, set between chapters 3 and 4 in the Wick series…
While it experiences a few missteps and doesn’t surpass John Wick: Chapter 4 (what movie could?), it still delivers the explosive and stylish action fans expect from this franchise.
Essentially John Wick Chapter 3½, the ferocious femme-driven spin-off Ballerina—nestled chronologically between the penultimate Wick installment and its four-peat grand finale…
Black Widow (dir. Cate Shortland, 2021)…
If the concept of a ballerina assassin feels familiar, it’s because Red Sparrow (2018) and Black Widow (2021) both got there before.
Atomic Blonde (dir. David Leitch, 2017)…
Ballerina joins the ranks of bad-ass femme fatales like La Femme Nikita, Hanna, Atomic Blonde, The Old Guard, etc.
De Armas is a whirlwind buzzsaw like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde.
The 87Eleven stunt team behind all the Wick films previously mastered the expression of feminine physicality in Atomic Blonde as well, so it’s no surprise they nail the way in which Eve must feel both overmatched and underestimated during her combat sequences.
…a brief glimpse on a television of the Buster Keaton gag in which a two-story house collapses around him from the film Steamboat Bill Jr. offers an inkling of the general frame of reference for Ballerina’s headspace.
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As On Her Majesty’s Secret Service heats up inversely to its setting’s temperature, Ballerina cooks once it decides to decamp to the cold-climate hidey-hole for a cult of domesticated but still deadly assassins who demand eternal loyalty and punish any derivation with death.
It echoes Assault on Precinct 13, The Raid 2, and most recently, Monkey Man.
Resembling a rejected retreat for Mr Freeze from Joel Schumacher's Batman And Robin…
A test was reminiscent of New Police Story but Jackie Chan's influence is felt every time someone lamps someone with whatever they light upon first.
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The imagery of a sleepy town in Austria coming alive with the shopkeepers, old ladies, and even children wielding weaponry is all too reminiscent of Hot Fuzz (2007).
It takes a while for Ballerina to find its footing, because Eve has to grow into her potential through the grind of training, which here resembles an airless Black Swan.