Damsel

For a fantasy film, this is incredibly straightforward. No complex plot twists or deep thinking required. Instead of marrying a prince, Millie Bobby Brown's character is thrown to a dragon and has to do everything she can to survive the encounter. It's a must-watch for fantasy fans and a potential entry point for those new to the genre. In any case, it's a visually stunning fairy tale with a fresh premise. (04.04.2024)

A nice little surprise from Netflix and from the director of 28 Weeks Later. It's a fantasy survival adventure that's unexpectedly dark, suspenseful and slightly brutal in places, and with some bits of scape room. Millie Bobby Brown goes from eleven to sexy twenty and grows into a big babe, there's also a visually very pretty to horror dragon, it's got great pacing, plenty of tension, a working soundtrack and it doesn't matter that the story is a simple "Sacrifice a princess to an evil dragon to secure a kingdom" when it all works and entertains. 75% (12.03.2024)

Dracarys. An enjoyable and mainly imaginative TV fairy tale about a dragon, which turns into a survival thriller where everything is saved by glow worms. Millie Bobby Brown plays the princess in distress brilliantly and manages to convince you that she's a damsel in distress under all that makeup. The visual effects are pretty average, but it is saved by the awesome atmospheric music, which adds that extra star. (10.03.2024)

While not particularly exceptional, still a fine fantasy adventure that has a climax, a likeable heroine, and a totally, totally, totally great dragon by Patrick Tatopoulos. Among other monsters, he once designed, for example, Emmerich's Godzilla, and it's clear he still knows his craft, this dragon is no B-movie monster, but a real character with a very scary face. (10.03.2024)

To be honest, given the lukewarm reviews here (but also on Imdb), I thought Damsel would be a generic film, but after watching it, I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise for me personally. Damsel has a nice visual design and its atmosphere (but also partly the story) reminded me more than once to Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Robin Wright looks like Michelle Pfeiffer) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . The terrifying looks of the dragoness were very good, and so was the voice acting, and the backstory she added to the gloomy atmosphere of this seemingly fairy-tale film, which was more of a fantastic survival drama, with more than one person being burned alive. As a result, I would have given the film three and a half stars, but since enjoyed it, I'll give it a weaker four. (01.04.2024)

Damsel is an incredibly naive and at times silly fantasy film, but it makes up for it with its inventiveness, unusual idea and above all very watchable choice of subject matter. Yeah, sacrificing young girls to a dragon to keep a centuries-long peace is something we haven't seen here before, and when you throw in some really nifty details, the fun of the whole cave, and even the inoffensive ending, I don't think I've seen many more audience-appealing things in a while. Unfortunately this is all a little brought down to average by the fact that the characters behave a little too stupidly in places and also by the overall predictability, but I still have to give the film some praise, because for a classic Netflix movie, I found it utterly engaging, I even broke a sweat in places and unexpectedly got one very good, heart-attack attack inducing scare. (10.03.2024)

Netflix's latest surprise left me with mixed feelings. It's evident now that fairy tales can't be approached the same way as in the old days when the world was binary and only men toted swords and wore armor. Nope, in today's progressive era, every princess is expected to save herself, even if the way she holds an axe makes it obvious that she wouldn't survive the winter. I kinda hoped our main heroine would develop a thing for the muscular blacksmith's daughter, but no such luck. The CGI was hit or miss, the psychopathic mother felt more like a manticore, and the plot didn't keep me hooked. It was just another tale of Girl Power, with occasional moments of interest but mostly a bit dull, sometimes unintentionally funny (that burnt dragon!), and not as fun as I'd hoped. The logic holes were monstrous at times; I couldn't wrap my head around how the abyss didn't spell doom for anyone. Plus, the lead actress didn't exactly light up the screen, so the slow striptease didn't do much for me. But hey, it could've been worse, like in The Princess. / Lesson learned: If you're stuck in a dark cave, keep an eye out for multipurpose worms. (10.05.2024)

I expected Damsel to be a typical, absolutely terrible Netflix woke agitprop. But fortunately, the result wasn’t that disastrous... Millie Bobby Brown has grown into a beauty. And thankfully, she doesn’t rely just on that. Her acting is among the better of the young Hollywood generation. Visually, it’s decent. Occasionally, the CGI is weak, but the main attraction, the dragon, works perfectly. Its design is excellent; I haven’t seen such an original dragon in a film for a long time... I’m a bit disappointed that the initial trailer revealed the main spoiler. If the creators had kept that as a surprise for the audience, it would have been better, in my opinion. Otherwise, the ending is predictably fairy tale-like (unfortunately). For me, it’s a passable light watch that manages to entertain. It offers a few genuinely top-notch scenes. 6/10. (25.03.2024)