‘Damsel’ movie review: Millie Bobby Brown’s fairytale misfire struggles to slay dragons and stereotypes
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and penned by Dan Mazeau, Millie Bobby Brown’s newest foray into life outdoors Stranger Issues presents a darkish fantasy world that guarantees a subversion of style conventions; finally although, it solely delivers a dragon-sized disappointment.
The auburn-haired Brown steps into the footwear of one more Netflix heroine with a reputation starting with ‘E’ (for those who’re preserving rating, that’s Eleven from Stranger Issues and the eponymous Enola Holmes). This time, she’s Elodie, a noblewoman with a penchant for perilous predicaments.
Damsel (English)
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Solid: Millie Bobby Brown, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Bassett, and Robin Wright.
Storyline: A dutiful, sheltered younger noblewoman agrees to marry a good-looking prince, solely to find that his household intends to sacrifice her to repay an historical debt
Runtime: 108 minutes
Elodie discovers that her impending marriage to a prince is a ploy orchestrated by his royal household to fulfil a darkish, ancestral debt. As she is forged into the depths of a cavernous lair, the narrative shortly devolves right into a predictable survival thriller, punctuated by encounters with a formidable dragon and hampered by uninspired CGI.
Whereas the dragon itself boasts a particular quadrupedal design and unleashes its awe-inspiring, lore-authentic viscous breath, its taunts change into tiresome and juvenile because it reaffirms, “This story all the time ends the identical.”
Visually, the movie impresses with its Tolkien-esque landscapes and imaginative costume design. Nonetheless, as soon as Elodie finds herself within the dragon’s lair, the story finds its wings clipped and takes a tumble for the more serious.
What follows is a mishmash of survival thriller and creature-feature tropes, with Elodie navigating caverns that appear extra paying homage to a claustrophobic theme park trip than one thing actually terrifying because the VFX wears skinny and the script loses its lustre.
Moreover, Hans Zimmer’s bombastic rating, whereas initially evocative, turns into more and more intrusive, detracting from somewhat than enhancing the viewing expertise. Moments supposed to evoke rigidity or emotion are drowned out by hovering orchestral crescendos, diminishing the affect of key scenes and contributing to the movie’s general sense of tonal inconsistency.
As Elodie’s quest wears on, so too does the movie’s reliance on drained clichés and gratuitous costume selections. Our protagonist grows more and more scantily-clad, contradictory to the movie’s genre-defying undertones, and the “Chainmail Bikini” debate over impractical fantasy apparel rears its head as Elodie’s battle-ready outfit turns into extra akin to an uncomfortable bustier than battle armour. It’s a distracting alternative that undermines the movie’s makes an attempt at subversion.
