NOT pjo but I just saw Ballerina in theatres for the second time and I GOTTA tell yall about this movie because i WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.
So, the whole time, they're hitting you over the head with the theme: CHOICE.
After Eve's dad dies, in the police station, the old white guy tells her she can choose to meet her dad's family. She CHOOSES to meet them.
When John and Eve meet? He says, "It's your choice" and there's literally a whole metaphor about open/closed locked/unlocked doors and how she can still choose a civilian life. She CHOOSES to become an assassin.
Tatiana leaves the Ruska Roma and Eve doesn't fault her for it, though Eve CHOOSES to stay.
Eve CHOOSES to pursue information about her dad's killers -- even after she sees that Tatiana is successful and happy living outside the Ruska Roma.
After the Director tries to dissuade her, Eve CHOOSES to keep looking for information.
When Eve next meets John, he tells her she gets to choose. He (a man) actively and explicitly gives her (a woman) a choice, and then respects that choice, even if it's not what he wanted her to choose.
The POINT is that Eve doesn't just do this for revenge. It's also because she wants to give Ella a choice. Ella's dad wanted her to have a normal life, Ella's grandfather wants her to be a killer. The point isn't that Ella SHOULD be one thing or the other. The point is that Ella should get to CHOOSE.
John, Eve, and Tatiana got to choose. And that's why the Ruska Roma is better than the Hallstatt cult.
Lena (Eve's sister), Eve's mom, and Ella's mom didn't get to choose. And that's why the Hallstatt cult is bad. That's why Eve needs to stop them.
But the movie centers the importance of a woman's right to choose. So, of course, men hate it, it's made 1/3 of the profits it needs to break even, and it will never get a sequel.
Tl;Dr, the Ballerina movie is a bare-faced allegory about female bodily autonomy that is doing terribly in theaters because men hate it when women choose their futures
