It takes a while for "Ballerina" to find its footing, but once it does, this explosive action romp proves to be a worthy extension of the "John Wick" universe.

Ana de Armas is Eve Macarro, the "Ballerina" of the title, an elite assassin who is on a mission to avenge the murder of her father. We follow her from her early years, where she's seemingly always clutching her ballerina figurine (we get it already!), through her dance and assassin training (Anjelica Huston is her merciless teacher) and eventually into a showdown with the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), the man responsible for turning her into a blunt instrument of death.

The early goings are stiff, as the script by Shay Hatten ("John Wicks" 3 and 4) struggles to find solid ground. Eve's training, her mission of revenge — we've seen

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