A trained assassin seeks revenge for her father’s death.

Ana de Armas, Anjelica Houston, Gabriel Byrne

R (strong graphic violence)

2:05

Area theaters

Wild stunts, grisly humor and a ferocious de Armas make for a thoroughly satisfying "John Wick" spinoff.

In "Ballerina," Ana de Armas plays Eve Macarro, a dancer who becomes a skilled assassin while searching for the man who killed her father. Set in the world of "John Wick," the Keanu Reeves franchise that raised stunt work to almost absurdly thrilling new heights, "Ballerina" faces a challenge: How to convince audiences that a willowy actor like de Armas can easily flatten multiple attackers twice her size?

The answer is: Don’t.

Early in the film, while switching between toe shoes and boxing gloves under the watchful eye of The Director (Anjelica Houston), Eve realizes she’ll never match the muscle of her male sparring partner. Her coach (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) instructs her instead to connive, surprise and cheat. "Fight like a girl!" she commands. It’s a crucial line that becomes the guiding principle of both Eve and this movie. (It also makes a handy title for the theme song, performed by the goth-rock band Evanescence.)

As a result, "Ballerina" brings a bit of bruising realism to the outlandish action fantasies we’ve come to expect from "John Wick." (Yes, Reeves makes an appearance.) Our first inkling of how this spinoff will go comes when Eve sashays into a Manhattan nightclub to watch over a pampered socialite. Remember when de Armas mowed down a bunch of bad guys in "No Time to Die," unimpeded by her slinky evening gown? That doesn’t happen here: Trapped in a thigh-hugging dress during a five-on-one fight, she’ll have to get creative. Good thing the bar has an ice pick.

All the hard work is being done by stunt teams, of course, but de Armas lends Eve a distinctive quality: outrage. Every time she’s hurled against a wall or literally stabbed in the back, she lets out a ragged cry that sounds less like "That hurts" and more like "How dare you?" In every scene, she’s bordering on (or well beyond) desperate, fighting with whatever’s at hand, from ice skates to hand grenades (which provide some truly gory sight gags).

Director Len Wiseman (the "Underworld" films) knows the action is the star, and he’s intent on capturing it. The screenplay wasn’t initially affiliated with "John Wick," but writer Shay Hatten gets into the franchise’s exotic spirit: Eve finds her father’s killer (Gabriel Byrne as a cult leader called The Chancellor) in a creepy-cute tourist town somewhere in the Alps. That becomes the frosty backdrop for the movie’s eye-popping pièce de résistance: A Mexican standoff with flamethrowers.

It was a "John Wick" creator, David Leitch (also director of last year’s "The Fall Guy"), who convinced the Oscars to create an award for Best Stunt Design, though it won’t be given out until the 2028 ceremony. Too bad — "Ballerina" would have been a shoo-in