Ballerina, a spinoff from the , flaunts its Russian connections, particularly with Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Music from the ballet is meshed in with the franchise’s signature tune. A major action sequence is set in a snow-laden town, adding a wintry touch to a set of films that has elements of the Western. In her quest to confront her tormentor, Ballerina’s heroine Eve is both white swan and black swan.

The Swan Lake connection provides the veneer of a raison d’etre to a movie that is nearly the obverse of the first John Wick production. Len Wiseman’s film, written by Shay Hatten, weaves in events and characters from the John Wick universe.

Eve’s single-minded quest for revenge, the brutal runs-in with opponents at every turn, the comically serious rules of engagement that govern her world, the stay at the Continental hotel meant for assassins – Ballerina is John Wick reheated and re-served, with a few fresh ingredients.

Eve (Ana de Armas) is moulded by the Russian Roma woman known simply as the Director (Anjelica Huston) from orphan into fearsome assassin with additional ballet skills. Eve proves better at pointing guns than at pointe work, breaking away from the Director after she traces her father’s killer, the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).

The dull backstory out of the way, Ballerina settles...