TL;DR: Pretty Lethal delivers on its ballerina-assassin premise just enough to be entertaining, thanks to inventive choreography and a committed cast, but it struggles with pacing and consistency. It’s a stylish, slightly messy action romp that feels like it’s one rewrite away from being something truly special.
Pretty Lethal
There’s a very specific kind of movie pitch that instantly hooks me. You know the type. It sounds like someone mashed together two completely different genres at 2AM and somehow convinced a studio to fund it. “What if ballerinas… were also lethal assassins?” That’s exactly the energy powering Pretty Lethal, and honestly, I was all in from the jump. It’s the kind of concept that feels like it was engineered in a lab to go viral on TikTok and Reddit simultaneously.
And yet, sitting through it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Pretty Lethal is that one friend who shows up to a party with an incredible outfit… but forgets to bring the personality to match.
Let’s get into it.
The premise is gloriously ridiculous in the best way. A group of young American ballerinas, en route to a competition in Budapest, get stranded in the middle of nowhere and end up seeking shelter in what looks like a haunted hotel straight out of a low-budget horror flick. Except instead of ghosts or demons, they stumble into a gang of criminals led by a very intense Uma Thurman. Yes, that Uma Thurman, clearly having the time of her life chewing scenery like it’s gourmet.
On paper, this setup is chef’s kiss. It’s basically Die Hard meets Black Swan, with a splash of John Wick energy for good measure. And for brief, shining moments, Pretty Lethal absolutely delivers on that promise. But getting there? That’s where things start to wobble like a pirouette gone slightly off balance.
The first act moves at a pace that feels oddly hesitant, like the film itself isn’t fully confident in how absurd it wants to be. We spend a surprising amount of time just… hanging out with the characters. Now, normally I’m all for character-building, but here the story is so thin it practically evaporates on contact. You can feel the film stalling, waiting for the action to kick in, like a DJ teasing a drop that takes way too long to land.
That said, the cast does a lot of heavy lifting. Maddie Ziegler, playing the rebelliously edgy Bones, is clearly positioned as the centerpiece. And yeah, the movie makes sure you know she’s edgy. There’s a septum piercing. There’s attitude. There’s a name like Bones, which sounds like it was picked from a Hot Topic username generator circa 2008.
But here’s the thing: Ziegler is legit.
You can tell immediately that she’s not just an actor pretending to dance. She moves like someone who has spent years training her body to do borderline impossible things. When the action finally kicks in, she becomes the film’s secret weapon. There’s a fluidity to her fight scenes that feels fundamentally different from your typical action choreography. It’s less about brute force and more about precision, rhythm, and control.
It reminded me a lot of how action choreography evolved in films like John Wick, where movement itself becomes storytelling. Here, ballet isn’t just aesthetic window dressing; it’s integrated into the combat in a way that actually feels intentional. Spins become attacks. Kicks become lethal. At one point, a ballet shoe becomes a weapon in a way that’s so absurd it loops back around to being genius.
And when that first major action sequence hits, about halfway through the film, it’s like the movie suddenly remembers what it’s supposed to be. It’s chaotic, stylish, and just the right amount of ridiculous. For a few glorious minutes, Pretty Lethal becomes the movie I wanted it to be all along.
The rest of the cast holds their own too. Lana Condor and Avantika bring a natural charm and comedic timing that helps smooth over some of the script’s rough edges. There’s a sense of camaraderie that feels genuine, even if the characters themselves aren’t particularly deep. Millicent Simmonds adds a quieter presence to the group, and the ensemble dynamic is strong enough to keep things watchable even when the plot starts to sag.
Then there’s Uma Thurman.
Look, anytime Uma Thurman steps into a villain role, there’s an expectation. This is Kill Bill royalty we’re talking about. And while Pretty Lethal doesn’t give her nearly enough to work with, she still manages to inject a kind of theatrical menace into her scenes. Her character’s backstory, which ties into the ballet world, feels like it should be more impactful than it is, but Thurman commits hard enough that you almost don’t mind the missed potential.
Almost.
Because that’s really the recurring theme here: missed potential.
Even in the second half, where the film undeniably improves, the momentum comes in bursts rather than a steady flow. You’ll get a great action beat, followed by a lull that feels like the movie is catching its breath for a bit too long. It never quite finds that sustained rhythm that the best action films thrive on.
And then there’s the ending.
Without spoiling anything, it lands with a bit of a shrug. After all the buildup, all the stylistic flourishes, all the opportunities to go full chaos mode, the film pulls back right when it should be going all in. It’s like watching a fireworks show that ends one explosion too early. You’re left thinking, “Wait, that’s it?”
From a technical standpoint, though, there’s a lot to appreciate. The choreography, when it’s allowed to shine, is genuinely inventive. You can see the influence of stunt-focused production houses like 87North, which specialize in turning unconventional protagonists into action heroes. The camera work does a decent job of letting the action breathe, avoiding the overly shaky, cut-heavy style that plagues so many modern action films.
But again, it’s inconsistent.
Some sequences feel meticulously crafted, while others feel like they were assembled in a rush. The tonal balance is also a bit all over the place. The film wants to be funny, edgy, and intense all at once, but it doesn’t always know how to blend those elements seamlessly. You’ll get a genuinely clever one-liner followed by a moment that feels tonally out of sync, like the script couldn’t decide which version of itself it wanted to commit to.
And yet… I didn’t hate it.
In fact, I kind of enjoyed it.
There’s something undeniably charming about a movie that swings this hard, even if it doesn’t always connect. Pretty Lethal knows it’s a little ridiculous, and when it leans into that, it works. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a popcorn snack. Not particularly filling, not especially memorable, but enjoyable enough in the moment.
And honestly, it feels like a proof of concept for something bigger. Maddie Ziegler, in particular, comes out of this looking like someone who could genuinely carve out a space in the action genre. There’s a world where she ends up in a full-blown superhero or assassin franchise, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
At the end of the day, Pretty Lethal is exactly what it sounds like: a fun idea that doesn’t fully realize its potential but still manages to entertain in bursts. It’s uneven, occasionally frustrating, but never boring enough to completely check out from.
And sometimes, that’s enough.
