“Ballerina” Reactions Are In… And Tainted?

The first reactions are out for the “John Wick” spin-off “Ballerina,” but those reactions come with one great big caveat that may have tainted the results. The new film sees Ana de Armas take the reins as a young female assassin named Eve Macarro who is trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma and […] The post “Ballerina” Reactions Are In… And Tainted? appeared first on Dark Horizons.

May 23, 2025 - 23:30

“Ballerina” Reactions Are In… And Tainted?

The first reactions are out for the “John Wick” spin-off “Ballerina,” but those reactions come with one great big caveat that may have tainted the results.

The new film sees Ana de Armas take the reins as a young female assassin named Eve Macarro who is trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma and seeks revenge against the people who killed her family.

Though two weeks out from release, the movie has been screening early for media who are under embargo with their reviews until the Wednesday of the week of the release. Nothing unusual about that, a common practice with major studio releases.

What is unusual is that Lionsgate has seemingly instituted an unexpected restriction on what critics and influencers can post on social media. According to Slashfilm, an e-mail was sent out to outlets which read:

“We encourage spoiler-free enthusiasm across social starting May 22 at 1pm PT/4pm ET. If you are planning to review the film, critical social sentiment and formal reviews are embargoed until Wednesday, June 4 at 3pm PT/6pm ET.”

This has been interpreted as the studio allowing positive reactions (ie. ‘enthusiasm’) to go out now, but mixed or negative reactions (ie. ‘critical social sentiment’) have to be held back until the same time as reviews.

While reactions and reviews often have different embargo dates, this is one of the first times it appears the content of those reactions has an impact on when they can be released. This has drawn ire from critics and cinephiles alike, accusations flying of the distributor trying to engineer a consensus.

It got bad enough that a rep at Brigade, a PR firm working with Lionsgate, has reportedly acknowledged to former Collider writer Matt Goldberg that: “‘Enthusiasm’ was the wrong word to use for the social embargo and that they meant to stress more the ‘spoiler-free’ aspect.” No apparent comment was made about what they meant by ‘critical social sentiment’.

As Goldberg aptly puts it, separate social and review embargo dates are fine, but “studios shouldn’t get to dictate embargoes based on the content of the social post.” Sadly it has undermined reliability in these early reactions – a shame as there appear to be plenty of positive ones out there from veteran film news writers, as well as some mixed ones. Here’s a sampling:

“Ana de Armas kicks so much ass in this, it makes her performance in No Time to Die look like child’s play. The movie starts out pretty rough, but eventually settles in and becomes an entertaining back-to-basics revenge story with some of the most creative action scenes of the franchise” – Ben Pearson, Slashfilm

“It’s exactly what it needed to be and properly expands the John Wick universe. The action also upholds the standard set by the rest of the franchise, particularly the grenade and flamethrower sequences. Ana de Armas is perfectly cast.” – Brian Davids, THR

“Ballerina is so hilariously over the top, I laughed through the whole thing – for better & worse. It’s propulsive, has wild action, but also a painfully boring story that holds it back. John Wick’s inclusion hurts the movie too, which sucks, but Ana de Armas is a true action star” – Germain Lussier, io9

“It doesn’t reach the heights of @JohnWickMovie 1-4 but when it cooks it sets the screen on fire! The action’s brutal and relentless! De Armas is terrific & I can’t wait to be seeing more of Eve soon! Imperfect but worthy installment to the world of Wick” – Nerds of Color

“Ballerina: From the World of John Wick” opens in cinemas on June 6th.

The post “Ballerina” Reactions Are In… And Tainted? appeared first on Dark Horizons.