Ballerina (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Ballerina opens with a question: what if the style, violence, and code of John Wick were filtered through ballet? It’s a bold twist, and the film leans into that contrast—from pointe shoes to pistols, from adagio to assailant. Ana de Armas steps up as Eve Macarro, a character with grief and vengeance in her bones, and much of the film’s thrust comes from watching her inhabit both the delicate and the deadly. If you go in expecting a rehash of Wick, Ballerina wants you to know early on: this is its own dance, even if the stage is familiar.
Film
In the Shadow of Wick: Meet the New Assassin
The story of Ballerina centers on Eve Macarro, whose father was part of the Ruska Roma, a secretive society of assassin-dancers, and whose mother was entangled with a more cultish group. When Eve is young, bad things happen: her father tries to protect her, there is a raid, and she ends up orphaned. She’s rescued and raised by the Ruska Roma under their Director, who trains her in both performance (ballet) and combat. Over a dozen years she becomes lethal, disciplined, and fiercely driven by a single goal: revenge for her family.
The key players beyond Eve are many. The Chancellor (played by Gabriel Byrne) is the antagonist behind the cult that destroyed Eve’s childhood. Anjelica Huston’s Director looms large as Eve’s mentor, guiding her physical training and also embodying the moral ambiguities of raising someone to kill. Characters from the John Wick universe show up—Winston, Charon, and of course John Wick himself—tying Ballerina into the broader lore. Norman Reedus plays a wild card, grooming some of the tension between Eve’s own path and the larger world of assassins.
Story Beats & Pacing
The film is structured to spend significant time in origin-mode. There is a long build-up: childhood trauma, training, the rehearsal of physical discipline, which sets the tone but slows things early on. The first third of Ballerina feels deliberate, almost meditative, letting us absorb Eve’s loss, the rituals of the Ruska Roma, the cost of her coming of age in violence.
When the revenge arc ignites, the momentum shifts. The midsection introduces missions, betrayals, alliances, and the kind of visceral physicality John Wick fans expect—but with ballet’s poise as counterpoint. The climax is the most energetic stretch, bringing many of the threads together: Eve confronting the cult, facing moral consequences, and crossing paths with John Wick himself. The pacing here works better: action and story interweave more tightly, stakes feel higher, and the emotional pushes land with more force.
Action Sequences & Visual Stylings
One of Ballerina’s strengths is its ambition in action design. Some set pieces are spectacular: Eve wielding a flamethrower in a dim, ornate space; stealthed assaults; fights that incorporate ice, shadows, choreography that nods to ballet in the way bodies move, extend, and sometimes resist gravity. The film trials her in tight hallways, sweeping dance-halls, cold courtyards—all different types of terrain, each with their own physical demands. There are moments when the action feels both beautiful and brutal.
Visually, the film does well blending the opulent with the gritty. The Ruska Roma’s dance-performer side gives chance for balletic lighting, theatrical interiors, elegant costumes; then those contrasts offset nasty scars, weapons, blood, survival. The cinematography gives Eve room to move, to be seen in her duality. However, there are moments when the action editing slips—quick cuts, shaky angles—that reduce clarity, especially early on. Some fights feel more chaotic than choreographed. When the camera settles, Ballerina really shines; when it doesn’t, you notice the lags.
How It Stands up to the John Wick Legacy
This is the inevitable comparison. John Wick has set a very high bar for action clarity, world-building through small details, unflinching physicality, and strong yet spare emotional arcs. Ballerina borrows many of those ingredients: the Continental, the rules, the underworld codes, the sense that violence is an art as well as destruction.
Where Ballerina succeeds is in injecting a new flavor—ballet, performance, discipline, the contrast between elegance and brutality. Eve is a protagonist you want to root for because she carries both grace and trauma. It expands the Wick universe in meaningful ways rather than simply repeating it. The inclusion of familiar characters helps it feel tied in without being slavish.
On the flip side, Ballerina sometimes struggles to match the tightness of Wick’s best. The early pacing lag, the density of background lore, the sometimes over-ambitious set pieces that don’t always land—the Wick films are disciplined about what to show and when; Ballerina occasionally overshoots. Also, John Wick’s mythos works so well because the emotional grounding is often simple but powerful—dog, loss, loyalty. Ballerina aims for more layers, which is admirable, but with more moving parts comes more risk, and some of the emotional beats don’t stick as well as they could.
Video 
Encoding: HEVC/H.265
Resolution: 4K
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
HDR: Dolby Vision
Layers: BD-100
Clarity/Detail: Ballerina comes to 4K courtesy of Lionsgate with a transfer that stands up capably next to the other films in the John Wick universe. Detail is noticeably crisper next to the HD Blu-ray, with things such as fingerprints becoming evident with the added resolution. There is a wide range of color to behold as well as a layer of digital grain to make the picture seem filmic despite being a digitally filmed 4K production.
Depth: As is the case with many an action flick, there are occasional moments of disarray with camera depth, but it’s the style. When the events on screen slow down, the foregrounds and backgrounds bring much detail with plenty of texture and nuance to display.
Black Levels: Black levels teeter on the edge of crushing, but don’t go there completely.
Color Reproduction: The color spectrum is not as bold as the brother films of John Wick. The familiar purples of those 4 films is tampered down, and the primary colors in cool and warm tones all shine. Reds are warm and ruddy and blues are cool and fetching. Accuracy is spot on.
Skin Tones: Flesh tones even with plenty of bloody makeup and character tattoos look very natural overall.
Noise/Artifacts: None.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Dynamics: Dolby Atmos brings Ballerina to new heights. Subtle height movement and deep bass bring action and ambient sounds into the home with plenty of tidbits to have your ears listening for new things each time you watch the film. Dialogue is nice and clean and sound effects are top notch, from the smallest footstep to the biggest explosion.
Height: Height speakers work magic with spacing and echo in larger venues. From a nightclub sequence to quieter moments in a large hall, the height channels are more subtly used at times, but not without attention paid to the details in the height channels.
Low Frequency Extension: LFE pounds during action sequences, working hard to make its presence heard and felt, in every moment of action, piece of heavy scoring, or any bit of gunfire you hear.
Surround Sound Presentation: Surrounds bring the ambience up a notch, with clear directional movement from left to right, obviously surrounding the listener, and providing bountiful sound to bring Ballerina’s world to life.
Dialogue: Dialogue sounds excellent throughout.
Extras
Ballerina comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray in a standard edition along with a Blu-ray and Digital code. It also comes as an Amazon exclusive steelbook and a Walmart exclusive packaging as well!
Bonus Features:
- The Making of Ballerina ― Witness the rise of Eve (Ana de Armas) as the filmmakers discuss the intricate process of creating a new character in the world of John Wick.
- Building A Frozen Underworld ― Step into the bold new locations that serve as the latest hunting grounds for these talented filmmakers, eager to face and overcome fresh challenges.
- The Art of Action ― A Dance Between Fire and Ice: Discover how the teams behind the stunts, fight choreography, and weapons devised even more ruthless and creative ways to kill in some of the most intense action sequences in the entire John Wick universe.
- Deleted & Extended Scenes
Summary
Ballerina is a worthy spin-off: it’s not perfect, but it offers something fresh. Ana de Armas carries the film with both vulnerability and ferocity; the world building is interesting; the action, once it hits its stride, is thrilling. If your expectations are “John Wick, but with ballet,” you’ll find something close to that, plus a bit extra.
If anything holds it back, it’s the familiar pitfalls of spin-offs: early comparisons, pacing slack, some moments of style over substance. But in the latter half, Ballerina mostly pulls itself into its own groove.
In the end, Ballerina doesn’t out-Wick Wick, but it doesn’t need to. It adds an interesting chapter, expands the universe, and gives us an assassin who pirouettes dirty. For fans of explosive action, stylish fight choreography, and emotional weight beneath the carnage, this one earns its place.
Buy Ballerina HERE
Buy the Ballerina Steelbook HERE
Buy the Walmart Exclusive Steelbook HERE
