section_path: Reception/Critical response
section_name: Critical response
paragraph_text: Critical response
  
  Ballerina received a generally positive critical response. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 270 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Equipping a steely Ana de Armas with creatively brutal action choreography and a pleasingly kooky origin story, Ballerina pirouettes gracefully onto the Wickverse's centerstage." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 87% positive score, with 79% saying they would definitely recommend it.
  
  Alison Willmore of Vulture gave a positive review and wrote, "It's absurd, and thrilling, and gorgeous, and I don't know what got us there, but while Ballerina doesn't start off as a real John Wick movie, it sure ends as one." Clint Gage of IGN wrote, "It's a spinoff that knows why the John Wick series has been so successful, and both effectively follows the rules while adding to the ever expanding world. While it takes a good portion of its screentime to find confident footing, when the second half gets moving, the energy is undeniable as Ballerina becomes one funny, bloody and creative fight scene after another."
  
  Justin Clark of Slant Magazine was more critical of the film, stating, "Sans a mythology of its own, or any substantive ties into where the John Wick films go chronologically after this, Ballerina is just another 87Eleven joint."
  
  Ballerina received a generally positive critical response. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 270 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Equipping a steely Ana de Armas with creatively brutal action choreography and a pleasingly kooky origin story, Ballerina pirouettes gracefully onto the Wickverse's centerstage." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 87% positive score, with 79% saying they would definitely recommend it.
  
  Alison Willmore of Vulture gave a positive review and wrote, "It's absurd, and thrilling, and gorgeous, and I don't know what got us there, but while Ballerina doesn't start off as a real John Wick movie, it sure ends as one." Clint Gage of IGN wrote, "It's a spinoff that knows why the John Wick series has been so successful, and both effectively follows the rules while adding to the ever expanding world. While it takes a good portion of its screentime to find confident footing, when the second half gets moving, the energy is undeniable as Ballerina becomes one funny, bloody and creative fight scene after another."
  
  Justin Clark of Slant Magazine was more critical of the film, stating, "Sans a mythology of its own, or any substantive ties into where the John Wick films go chronologically after this, Ballerina is just another 87Eleven joint."