Review: Ballerina (2025), The Film…

There’s nothing like a balletically violent action film to start your Sunday morning. The intermittent splashy gore only adds to it. 

Ballerina (2025), from the World of John Wick, is just such a film. This is a revenge movie, much like many great action films, taking place in a world where, incongruously, analog communication systems work seamlessly with digital ones. I used to think that this worldbuilding choice was simply stylistic, which it is, but it also explains how the world of assassins can function in a society where digital footprints are oh-so easy to track. And what professional assassin would want their actions easily tracked? Receiving text messages about kill contracts notwithstanding. 

Ana de Armas (Knives Out) plays Eve, the ballerina of the title, who is also a trained killer with a vengeful bent. A nameless tribe of assassins, led by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne, Miller’s Crossing), murdered her father, Javier Macarro (David Castañeda, The Umbrella Academy), for the sin of attempting to raise his daughter in a place far better than a world of ruthlessness and violence. Winston (Ian McShane, Game of Thrones) intercepts the young Eve after murder to drop her off with her husband’s “family.” This family, headed by the Director (Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor), is actually a New York-based crime syndicate—aren’t they all?—that grooms young girls into assassins, called the Ruska Roma. 

Eve is no natural killer, no agile athlete, no prize student, which is a sound character development choice. All she has is the will for revenge, for blood. She literally stumbles through her dance and assassination classes until Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Dune: Part One). Ruska Roma lieutenant, asks her what she truly wants. With a refocused will, Eve improves and eventually graduates. 

Until a chance encounter with Ruska Roma alumnus Baba Yaga, or John Wick (Keanu Reeves, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure). He tells Eve that there is a way out, that the front door is open, that all she has to do is walk through it, but it will be closing soon. Eve listens but doesn’t. 

Hollywood has no dearth of strong female characters these days; the quantity is there, but the quality remains wanting. Eve is one of the better ones, thanks to the script and an understated performance by Armas. Director Len Wiseman (Underworld) knows how to direct fight and action sequences. Coupled with stunt coordinators Stephen Dunlevy (The Matrix Resurrections) and Jackson Spidell (Spider-Man: No Way Home), the fight sequences are nearly flawless. 

Critics claim that the narrative and worldbuilding of Ballerina are underwhelming. But how, since this is a film set in an established world with its already in-place mechanics, can the worldbuilding be further developed here? Methinks that the story, and not the advancement of this world’s rules of play, is more important than further advancement of lore. Critics also complain of the film’s lack of emotional center, that Eve’s motivations seem curbside puddle deep, and that her character development is sacrificed for the seemingly more important action sequences. They could not be more wrong. Remember, Eve is a single-minded protagonist, and most characters like this are overly-focused, if not outright obsessed, with their goal. So to say that Eve has little emotional depth is, frankly, missing the point. 

I highly recommend this film. I even plan on rewatching the four John Wick films. Be on the lookout for my reviews.