From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025) Review

The official convoluted yet more beguiling title to the 2025 movie Ballerina directed by Len Wiseman is From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. We all know that this is because firstly, ‘Ballerina’ is a terrible film name and John Wick is a fantastic fan favourite franchise.

Ballerina isn’t the first spin-off to use the moniker of one of Keanu Reeves most popular and pain-inducing characters. The excellent prequel TV miniseries The Continental, which detailed the rise to power of one of John Wick’s key characters Winston Scott was also tagged as being ‘From the World of John Wick’.

But what does that strange subtitle actually mean? Well, what started as a seemingly middle of the road revenge story in 2014, penned by Derek Kolstad, has turned into a sprawling epic all action quadrilogy. It was elevated above other martial arts and trigger happy flicks by its lead actor, some truly innovative ideas and the stunt man and coordinator-turned-director Chad Stahelski.

So often film directors get action scenes wrong, but Stahelski understood what the audience wanted to see and what the actors and stunt performers were capable of – pushing the multitude of fist fights and gun battles to the limit and showing people things they had never seen on screen.

All this means anything coming ‘From the World of John Wick’ needs to deliver the same breakneck battles and awesome action as the films that have come before it. And thankfully Ballerina does.

Starting off so-so story-wise, we are introduced to Eve (No Time to Die and Knives Out’s Ana de Armas), who as a child witnessed her father murdered by a strange gang of killers led by a monstrous and merciless zealot known as The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne from The Usual Suspects and Hereditary).

Orphaned and alone, she is taken in by her fathers Tribe – Ruska Roma – at a school run by The Director (The Witches Anjelica Huston) where she learns to be a both a ballerina and a Kikimora body guard and assassin. Overcoming her obstacles and anger, Eve gains marvellous and murderous skills and starts taking jobs, one of which leads her to confront a man baring the same mark as the people who killed her loving dad.

Consumed by vengeance, she ignores the warnings of her mentors heading out on a suicide mission to take down the cult of killers who she believes took away any hopes she had of a normal life. Heading down a road that she may never return from, Eve is out for blood and answers and she doesn’t care which comes first.

Though exciting, Ballerina opens in a mundane way that most action fans will recognise, and even when Eva reaches the Ruska Roma, her training as both dancer and death-dealing badass is awfully reminiscent of films from Black Widow, La Femme Nikita and Red Sparrow and beyond.

Thankfully once Eva is out of school things get progressively more ultra-violent and unhinged, and the movie amps up its action and pace running headlong into a ridiculously entertaining and extreme finale.

As I may have mentioned, Ballerina is From the World of John Wick and being set between Chapter 3 Parabellum and Chapter 4, it includes cameos from key characters from the series including Lance Reddick and Ian McShane, and most importantly of all Keanu Reeves, whose inclusion does not disappoint.

Ana de Armas is excellent and almost as slick and impressive as Reeves himself, while co-starts Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Moreno and the malevolent Gabriel Byrne give the film some added emotional weight.

Perfectly shot and paced, you are never too far away from someone being shot, punched or stabbed and Ballerina ups the ante when it comes to bonkers battles. Eve uses everything from ice skates to dinner plates and flamethrowers to dispatch her enemies in the goriest ways possible.

Although many will be drawn to Ballerina because of the world it comes from, there are plenty of reasons to stay for what this film has on offer. And action fans will be over joyed by the impressive and insane set pieces on screen.

Movie Rating:

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina trailer

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