Damsel

EarthAndGravity 3/19/2024 4:42:17 PM 8.4

I totally DISAGREE with the first review by thorian93. Yes, it is a simple storyline. Typical if you must say but it is a story that is NOT complicated and hard to understand. The story is not tangled that you need to connect the dots from past, future and the now kind of movie. It's simple but super. CGI is amazing especially the dragon. Eat your heart out thorian93! This is by far the best movie that I've watched this month of March.

Per Gunnar Jonsson 6/15/2024 4:53:58 PM 8.4

Although far from a masterpiece this is a simple, straightforward and entertaining fantasy movie. The story is predictable to say the least but I do not really care. I rather have a good, solid but predictable story than one filled with the usual illogical twists that the Hollywood hacks are so good at coming up with. Fantasy is about magic, fantastic creatures and thus about special effects. This movie is pretty solid in that area. The special effects are overall good, not fantastic but good. Occasionally the dragon fire looked a wee bit wonky but overall they were fine. The movie moves at a decent pace. Not too fast and not too slow. The story and the past is revealed at a rate and in a way that makes things fit together nicely. The main protagonist is quite right as well. The right amount of panic and cluelessness at the start which gradually turns into a capable and unafraid heroin seeking revenge. It is also a story with a happy ending which I like. Well not for the evil queen of course but you cannot please everyone. So, this was a pleasant surprise from Netflix. Their production has been a bit uneven to say the least but I guess the agenda pushers did not get their grubby hands on this one.

thorian93 3/9/2024 3:07:54 AM 8.4

Today I enjoyed: Damsel. Damsel is a Netflix Original, that was released just a few days ago. Starring a strong cast with Millie Bobby Brown, Robin Wright, Angela Bassett and the voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo it follows the odyssey of Elodie. I am not going to spoil the plot for you, but I bet you can foresee most developments, dear reader. Overall I have mixed feelings. The story is nothing new, most elements are well known for this kind of movie. Some decisions of characters (including the dragon) feel dumb, and sometimes our main character gets very lucky, so the rest of the plot can happen. The CGI ranges from poor to pretty good, poor more in the begging, with huge landscapes and castles, but later, when the dragon makes an appearance, it looks pretty decent. But I was watching on a rather small screen and Netflix is punishing me with mediocre quality for some time now. So take my visual rating with a grain of salt. Now one thing I will say about the dragon: It has an interesting spin to it. For one thing, half of the time, we do not really see it and only hear Shohreh Aghdashloo's deep, rasping voice, bringing it to life. And when we actually see the dragon, it has a slight horror touch if you will. It looks like a hybrid between your average majestic and broadly loved dragon and something more dark and slimy. A muskrat comes to mind. I liked that (sort of). One remark towards the title: While it is obviously a play the well known 'Damsel in distress' and obviously Elodie fights instead of needing to be rescued, she screams a lot and actually seems in distress half of the film. Until she suddenly becomes the hero and single-handedly fights the dragon. It is a bit much and hard to believe. This is in all honesty an average movie. It is neither terrible nor great. If you are in the mood for some imagery, gold and jewels, dragons, princesses, and a few swords, then go for it. There are worse ways to spend roughly 109 minutes. But there are also better ways. _Originally posted on my blog: https://robingierse.de/blog/tie-damsel._