“From the World of John Wick: Ballerina”: Are Female Action Stars The New Movie Don’t?

The John Wick spin-off is having a disappointing theater run. Here are all the reasons why Ballerina is not working.

I say this five to ten times each week: Hollywood has no new ideas. So for the millionth time this year, we are talking about an attempt to milk money out of an existing franchise. This week’s victim is none other than our good old John Wick.

Now, some could argue that the last John Wick had no business being three hours long and that it could also be considered a shameless attempt to extend the franchise. But I know some people enjoy that movie, so to each their own. The case we have at hand today is quite different: this time they are doing a John Wick film without John Wick. Or with very little John Wick, to be precise.

What is Ballerina About?

A young Eve Macarro witnesses her father’s murder by a group of men that want to kidnap her. Not long after, she is admitted to the Ruska Roma because her dad used to be part of them. For the next twelve years she trains as a ballerina and a professional assassin, never forgetting those men but also clueless as to who they were or what they wanted. Years later, as she carries out a mission, she identifies someone belonging to that group and sets to investigate, ready to do what it takes to avenge her father.

Decent, but Generic

Let’s be clear: Ballerina does not actively harm the previous installments of the franchise, and the main character is not an insufferable girl boss. What is the problem, then, you may wonder? That the film is not special in any way: it’s not interesting enough on its own, and it’s not a great spin-off either. It’s just another project everybody will have forgotten before 2025 is even over.

Ballerina tries to replicate the same story as John Wick, but with a younger woman. Both characters are broken people who live for revenge, but where the original John Wick film was raw and violent, Ballerina is… unconvincing. I see the intention, but I don’t buy it.

For starters, the people behind the film were incapable of selling the tragic backstory in the same way John Wick did back in the day. The first minutes of the film, showing John emotionally destroyed by the loss of his wife and the subsequent loss of Daisy, make the audience empathize with him and understand why he is the way he is.

In Ballerina, Eve witnesses his dad being murdered when she is just a child—something objectively more traumatizing, but those scenes transmit zero emotion. Maybe that is partly because the actress playing young Eve is very inexpressive, but there is something else I can’t quite put my finger on. I did not get attached to the character in the least.

Fight Like a Girl, Sister!

This concept of “fighting like a girl” the film pushes, is a lie. The protagonist is told during her training that “she will always be smaller and weaker” and that she has to learn to use her strengths. I thought it meant she was going to develop more of an analytic profile, that she would be able to fight dudes three times her weight because she is smarter, a better strategist, a master manipulator. But no, the movie forgets about that, and Eve becomes a tiny John Wick.

Truth be told, the action scenes are not bad—some of them are even pretty cool. And I like the fact that Eve has to take many hits during her fighting scenes; that is, she is not sooo ridiculously indestructible—or at least, not more than John is in his own films. But Ana de Armas does not have the level of Keanu Reeves, and her action scenes could never match his. And why would people bother to watch something that is inferior to what already exists?

John Has a Cameo

Ballerina takes place between the beginning of John Wick: Parabellum and John Wick 4. In fact, the film features some moments from Parabellum from Eve’s point of view.

John plays a small part in the story, but his presence feels forced, like those scenes were added to the script so they could call the film From the World of John Wick. He has a brief conversation with Eve while she is still a trainee, and later in the movie he is sent to eliminate her. Which he doesn’t, for some reason. What makes Eve so special that John becomes so empathic all of a sudden? No idea.

Once more, the old trick of promising the audience to feature an actor or character and then showing him on screen for only fifteen minutes. We already know that trick; that is why no one is showing up for Ballerina.

Box Office Bomb

After two weeks in the theaters, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina has made a little over $100.000.000, over a budget of $90.000.000. So it’s not looking great. With Mission Impossible and Lilo & Stitch still in theaters and the new added competition of Elio, 28 Years Later, and How To Train Your Dragon, Ballerina will not last long. If it did not raise any interest two weeks ago, it won’t now.

No One Wants Female Action Stars?

I think it is a little more complex than that. We can make an easy comparison between Ballerina and another film that was released a year ago and presented similar characteristics. I’m talking about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a female-led take on a male action franchise that, despite not being bad, bombed at the box office.

What do these two have in common? Firstly, they are a clear example of Hollywood’s insistence on taking franchises that were intended for a male audience and trying to modernize them by replacing men with “powerful” female characters for no reason.

Secondly, in these two particular cases, the franchises are very actor-centric. Keanu Reeves is John Wick, as well as Mel Gibson was Mad Max. People love those characters and those actors playing them. Even if the new characters are placed in the same “universe”, it’s not the same. I expanded on these two topics in my article about Mad Max last year.

There is also the issue of character development I mentioned earlier: for a number of reasons, the new films can’t get us to like the characters. And people can’t be invested in a film—not to mention a franchise—if they don’t connect with the characters they see on screen.

Finally, and maybe more importantly, the tiredness: the audience has become so sick of the overwhelming amount of girl bosses that everybody is automatically suspicious of any action film starring women. And it has become so prevalent that films that in other times could have been, at least, a moderate success, are flopping hard.

They can blame the audience all they want, but the truth is that Hollywood did this to itself.