The review of the fantasy-action dressed as a survivor movie directed by the Spanish Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Millie Bobby Brown, available on Netflix from 8 March 2024.
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| Image Credit: Netflix |
There are many tales of chivalry in which the hero on horseback saves the damsel in distress. The one brought to the screen by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo in Damsel is not one of them. The film in question in fact rewrites in its own way the unwritten rules of the traditional fairy tale, overturning one of the archetypes of the fantasy genre by giving centrality to a figure commonly relegated to the background, weak and sacrificial victim of events.
This in itself seems to have convinced Netflix subscribers quite a bit, who twenty-four hours after its release on the platform which, not by chance, took place on 8 March 2024, when International Women's Day is celebrated, immediately made it jump to the top of the list. top ten of the most viewed titles in the week of release. Enthusiasm was then followed by the loud request for a sequel to which the Spanish director and the protagonist Millie Bobby Brown have already given a favorable opinion and availability. We'll see how it ends, but without spoiling anything, the epilogue leaves ample room for future developments and therefore for one or more chapters.
The plot is not particularly original in terms of dynamics but still manages to offer an engaging and spectacular vision
In the meantime, the viewer can enjoy one of the best fantasy products currently present in the catalog of the Stars and Stripes broadcaster which, despite being based on a plot that is not particularly original in terms of dynamics and one-lines, still manages to offer an engaging and spectacular vision. A few but targeted moves during the writing phase allowed the operation to avoid the reshuffle, offering a valid alternative to the risky revision process that we usually witness when we get our hands on pre-existing materials and threads. Here the risk was quite high, but the screenwriter Dan Mazeau (already author of Wrath of the Titans and Fast Common Imagination and in the tradition of fairy tales it has never had the right prominence.
In Damsel, the protagonist unleashes girl power from every pore by not giving up in the face of a creature with devastating strength, a practically sealed fate, and pain. Her name is Elodie, a princess halfway between Rapunzel and Merida from The Brave – Rebel who, with cunning and stubbornness, manages to overturn the concept of the submissive damsel in distress by saving herself. She does so by stripping off her wedding dress to wear warrior clothes and taking up her father's sword to fight against a dragon thirsty for revenge in the bowels of a mountain where she was thrown by her husband's royal family as a sign of sacrifice to guarantee the eternal kingdom prosperity. She obviously doesn't like it and embarks on a ferocious fight against the gigantic creature that wants to reduce her to ash.
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| Image Credit: Netflix |
An adrenaline-filled showdown that alone is worth the price of the monthly subscription
From here comes another interesting and effective variant of the classic fantasy script populated with dragons, magic, and enchanted kingdoms which have come back forcefully into fashion in recent years thanks to enormously successful series such as Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, but also in everything the previous repertoire which includes, among others, Dragonheart, Dragon, The Kingdom of Fire, Eragon, Dragon Wars and Dragonslayer. To knights, enchanted swords, and sensational battles between men and fire-shooting creatures, Damsel responds with a good dose of action put at the service of a real survivor movie which sees the warrior of the moment fighting to bring home her skin safe and sound if she has to see with the dragon and with a hostile setting full of dangers.
The result is an adrenaline-filled succession of fight scenes and pyrotechnic escapes between tunnels and caves which culminate in a showdown that alone is worth the price of the monthly subscription, to which Millie Bobby Brown, known to the general public for the role of Eleven in Stranger Things made an active contribution by performing the stunts herself. The rest is taken care of by the well-made effects and the dynamic direction of Fresnadillo who from a technical point of view has demonstrated since his dazzling debut with Intacto that he knows the weapons of the trade and knows how to entertain the public.
Damsel: evaluation and conclusion
With a successful mix of fantasy, action, and survivor movie, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and screenwriter Dan Mazeau give life to a film that with a few targeted moves overturns the imagery of the genre, starting with the submissive figure of the damsel who becomes central here and warrior. By doing so, the authors earn the public's favor and offer a valid alternative to the usual and irritating reshuffle.
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