A Flaming Good Time
Summary
Damsel is a fun fantasy adventure with Millie Bobby Brown making for an appealing lead, fantastic dragon effects and some surprisingly decent kills considering the PG-13 rating.
Plot: A young woman agrees to marry a handsome prince — only to discover it was all a trap. She is thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon and must rely solely on her wits and will to survive.
Review: I love the fantasy genre and any movie featuring dragons immediately has my attention. I almost wish I hadn’t seen any trailers for Damsel as I would have loved to have gone in not knowing what it was about.
Damsel stars Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as Elodie, a young woman who agrees to marry a prince in order to save her impoverished homeland. Things are not what they seem however, and soon Elodie is battling for survival against a dragon.
Damsel feels like The Hobbit meets Game of Thrones and despite the PG-13 rating it has some surprisingly satisfying kills including people incinerated by dragon fire and more.
Elodie is a likeable lead and is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for the good of her people, but when she is betrayed, she doesn’t go down without a fight.
At an hour and 45 minutes Damsel is mostly well paced although there is the odd scene which slows the pacing a little. It gives us time to get to know Elodie and how she is resourceful and a survivor who will do whatever it takes to stay alive.
Robin Wright is perfect as the evil Queen Isabelle who is responsible for Elodie’s plight, but her comeuppance is one of the most satisfying I’ve seen for some time.
The visual effects are mostly impressive especially considering this is a Netflix film with the dragon looking especially good; she’s voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo who has one of the most immediately recognisable voices, but captures the creepiness and pain of the creature nicely.
In terms of action there are lots of dragon fire scenes as Elodie battles the monster however, there aren’t fight scenes or anything like that as this isn’t that kind of film. Still, it had me engaged for the runtime and the ending keeps things open for a potential sequel which I would be totally down for.
Overall, Damsel was a pleasant surprise on a Saturday night delivering an awesome new dragon who is a great character in itself and it makes for a nice escape from reality. The performances are all strong with Robin Wright wonderfully hateful as Queen Isabelle and Millie Bobby Brown proving she is one of the most versatile young actors working today.
