The John Wick franchise has become one of the most popular and successful action franchises of the last decade, with the titular assassin turning into an iconic role for Keanu Reeves. With Ballerina (official title From the World of John Wick: Ballerina), for the first time we get to see this world on the big screen from another character’s perspective, a young assassin named Eve played by Ana de Armas (in actuality this is the second John Wick spinoff, though The Continental was a TV series).
The result: thanks to action sequences that are similarly creative and well choreographed as ones from John Wick and a solid performance from de Armas, Ballerina punches, kicks and shoots its way to being an entertaining movie, even as its story and antagonists are just barely passable.
