The John Wick films have always felt like an action ballet, refined with the most creative and wonderous of brutal choreography. Ballerina continues that dance, but, much like Mad Max spun off into Furiosa, it explores a more nuanced arc for the protagonist than a grand ambition to slaughter. Keanu Reeves entered the John Wick world as a fully formed killer primed for his revolution. Ana de Armas becomes more compelling as someone just stepping into it and choosing her place amid all the vengeance and violence, defying fate while preserving innocence.

The titular Ballerina is Eve Macarro (de Armas), and her origins are revealed, detailing how she came to be part of the ballet-boasting assassin organization Ruska Roma. Headed by the shrew Director (Anjelica Huston), Eve trains in everything from punching till she bleeds to performing ballet routines until the floor is painted with toe blood. We watch her progression into the world of the killer, accepting missions that showcase how well she can wield weapons and brutalize men’s genitals.

Eventually, she happens upon clues that could lead to the killer of her father, a cult leader known as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Although the Chancellor is portrayed as another faction leader with his minions, his evil nature is not as bound by the orderly as he believes himself to be outside the Table of killer factions. While not as compelling as the antagonist leaders Wick faced, his cult is thematically on point for keeping the focus on the loss of innocence and family. The short of it is that in addition to getting revenge, Eve must also rescue a little girl from her vicious captors.

On paper, the plot of Ballerina is a rather routine tale of revenge, even for cleverly roping in familiar Wick characters of Continental owner Winston Scott (Ian McShane) and the prolific John Wick himself, serving more than a passive cameo for Eve’s tale. But let’s be honest, the height of the John Wick saga is not the nature of revenge but the bloody path towards it. Director Len Wiseman doesn’t disappoint in this department one bit, and it’s a testament to how well exciting action sequences can go a long way to improve a simplistic action scenario.

Wiseman’s action maintains a certain allure for slapstick that never tumbles too far into comedy to distract from weighty brutality. The best scene to showcase this aspect is when Eve is attacked inside a hotel room, where her scuffle leads to the television being switched on to the Three Stooges and Steamboat Bill, Jr. The nostalgic nod is kept more in the background than becoming a punchline. The cleverness comes naturally, as in a kitchen fight, where the battle for a sharp knife involves constant smashing plates over heads. I also admire the use of elements for the fights, where there didn’t need to be an explanation for why a club has ice; it’s just cool to watch her skid across the ice and smash her enemies into cold sheets. And then there’s the centerpiece duel of flamethrowers, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in an action film, with the bar set incredibly high for the next film that attempts a flame-based showdown.

Ballerina still has all the action ballet brilliance of John Wick, holding strong amid a solid revenge story. It’s not dependent on the John Wick story, but it greatly adds to the world where it seems like the most common profession is that of an assassin. While not harboring the same mystique of John Wick’s fight for dogs, Eve’s battle for daughters has a more distinct level of humanity in how de Armas can take a lot of punches and fight more efficiently. The result is a film that feels like a solid addition to this saga, rather than a lesser spin-off or a gender-swapped Wick. Any doubt of the film’s brilliance melts away when the flamethrowers start swirling in the fiery action that blazes the screen.