Damsel

You get what's promised: a well produced movie centered on the struggle between a princess with a strong sense of honor and the dragon to whom she was to be sacrificed.

The timing and pace of the story is well balanced. A straight forward simple plot, basic dialogue, and surface-level only character development in keeping with the kind of fairy tale stories it is based with a little twist on the old tales in that the princess finds her own strength and makes her own choices.

Locations, sets, costuming and CGI were all well done and everyone delivered solid performances.

It's not "Reign of Fire", more like a "Snow White", so don't overthink it or expect anything groundbreaking and just watch an entertaining movie.

I'm an avid watcher of the YouTube channel The Critical Drinker. He's a film critic who gives his reviews while pretending (I think) to be drunk. He absolutely eviscerated this movie.

However, I quite enjoyed it. It took a basic principle of the damsel in distress and added a new twist. Millie Bobbie Brown is the damsel of the title, named Elodie. She is the oldest daughter of the King Bayford (Ray Winstone). Elodie has a younger sister, Floria (Brooke Carter) and her stepmother is Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett). Their kingdom is very poor, so King Bayford betroths Elodie to Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) from a rich kingdom run by Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright). The problem is, Queen Isabelle's ancestors tangled with a nearby dragon (Persian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo provides the delicious voice of the dragon) and are forced to offer a sacrifice to the dragon in the form of a princess. By having Prince Henry marry someone from another kingdom, they can sacrifice that poor girl instead of one of their own. So, naturally, Elodie gets hurled into the dragon's lair after her wedding.

However, Elodie is not your typical damsel. She is smart, resilient and resourceful. She plays a cat and mouse game with the dragon trying to stay alive. Along the way, she discovers the truth about the dragon's history.

Ms. Brown is very good as Elodie. She does not come off as a girl boss. She is determined, scared, brave and vulnerable. Angela Bassett also has a nice turn as the stepmother who is anything but evil. Another trope twisted, as she is a fierce ally. Robin Wright is elegant and vile as Queen Isabelle who is willing to offer up innocent girls to save her kingdom.

The sets are beautiful and the action is well directed. The story moves along and is very compact so we learn everything without having to have it explained to us via exposition (a very common thing with today's writers). There is no fluff in this movie and its runtime of 110 minutes moves along quickly. The one negative in this movie is the dialogue. Its not terrible, but its not great either. Some of it is corny and some of it comes off as copied from an old folk tale. It doesn't ruin the movie, but it does make you chuckle for the wrong reasons.

I gave it a 7 because of the dialogue and some of the scenes are so dark you can't tell what's happening.

Fantasy isn't my favorite genre, but I thought this one was a lot of fun. LOTR or Willow it is not. I highly doubt it will stand the test of time because it lacks the depth and complexity of great fantasy movies. Even so, it was (for me, anyway) a nail-biter and a perfect low-investment, high-velocity movie for a night when you just want pure entertainment. There are a few missteps that made me roll my eyes a bit, such as Brown's overdone makeup, but I wasn't expecting great art. My only regret is that I watched it right before bedtime, because it was so exciting that I had a hard time falling asleep and sleeping deeply.

I really didn't have very high expectations going into this, but Damsel was a blast! This was the first time I watched something starring Millie Bobby Brown since Stranger Things and she did not disappoint! She was a total badass and I hope she continues to do more sci-fi, horror, and dark fantasy roles. I thought this was going to be pretty tame as far as blood and gore goes but that too surpassed my expectation. The dragon was very well done, some great CGI throughout, and awesome cast. It had been quite some time since I last saw Ray Winstone in anything and he was great in this, as was Robin Wright. Great film, will be watching again!

You know what. I liked it. Was it a masterpiece? Nope not at all. But not every movie needs to be. Some days you just want to be entertained and this movie does the trick. Sure it was corny and predictable, but sometimes you want that in a film.

But it also held my attention for the entire run time - which is kinda impressive considering my short attention span (normally I'd be on my phone after the first 30mins or so).

Plus the dragon was brilliant. I loved everything about it. It's design and animation was cool and Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice was perfect fit for the dragon - Gravelly, but still matronly and feminine.

If you like female heroines kicking butt, dragons, fantasy and pretty special effects and just want some mindless entertainment - give it a try.