Game

Princess review: a different kind of princess wedding fantasy, more bloody

Fairy tale conventions dictate that a princess in distress will likely be rescued by a dashing man – except in more modern cases, she might instead hit the man she used to want to marry, rescued by a leprechaun, Start a fashion empireor any modern iteration that topples the path of misery in distress.

Real-life martial arts movie Princess could easily have been just another story about a more stubborn princess who didn’t want to wait around to be rescued. Its fairy tales can make it look like a Disney movie from afar – and Disney buying it and releasing it on Disney Plus outside of the US, doesn’t take away from that impression. But it’s actually a title from 20th Century Studios, an R-rated murder-fighting movie that lets the faceless princess at its center do serious and bloody damage. From action director Le Van Kiet, Princess play into languorous genre subversions, but actually see those subversions to gratifying effect.

[Ed. note: This review contains some slight setup spoilers for The Princess.]

Linh and the princess stand side by side, holding swords

Image: 20th Century Studios

Princess begins with the famous princess (Joey King) waking up handcuffed atop a tall tower, where she immediately knocks down her guards. A series of flashbacks reveal that she was supposed to enter an arranged marriage, but left the groom to be Julius (Dominic Cooper, a recurring MCU player as Tony Stark’s father, Howard. ), at the altar. In retaliation, Julius captures the royal family and locks the princess in a tower to force her to marry him so he can take the throne. But he didn’t realize that the princess had been trained in hand-to-hand combat since childhood. With her family imprisoned at the tip of the sword, the princess must fight her way down the tower and rescue them.

Why did Julius want the throne so much? He considers the current king to be weak. Why does he need the princess to marry him, when he has the power to just hold the throne? Because the royal family doesn’t have any sons, and this is the kind of generic fantasy kingdom that requires a male heir of the monarchy’s bloodline and can’t even weigh the options. could give women more self-determination. In a flashback, the princess enters the throne room, interrupting her father’s marriage plans and instead begs to be trained as a knight. He was horrified and disgusted at the thought of his daughter having to fight. Sequence is like a more mature version of BraveMerida’s shoot fer with her own hand.

Those flashbacks, and the motivations they introduce to the heroine and villain, are the weakest parts of the series. Princess – simple and messy inserted into the main action plot line. Thankfully, they’re only a small part of the overall experience, focusing more on the sick fight sequences. Sometimes the bloody violence the princess visits towards her captors is so great that Julius and his henchmen spend most of the film’s time assuming there’s a guardian of the scene. sense between them. They were surprised to learn that no, it was the princess! They were absolutely shocked that the idea of ​​a woman fighting as well as a man was a bit overblown, but the sheer malice she brought to her fairy tale made it intriguing. than.

princess, played by king joey, in a ragged white dress and wielding a whip

Image: 20th Century Studios

In essence, it is satisfying to see an imaginary princess in a ragged, bloody wedding dress stabbing men seeking to control her. Princesses and other wealthy women shedding tight dresses and corsets for an extra battle-ready look isn’t new: In retrospect, Merida’s dress flared at the seams as she did prepare to bow, Elizabeth trades her cape for a more practical combat outfit in Pirates of the Caribbeanor more recently, Grace battles her predatory new husbands in Ready or not?.

But because princesses are often pushed into the family-friendly movie genre, they never really look like action heroines. In this case, the princess does – and it rules. Kiet succumbs to the brutality, as the princess attacks, slamming and burning her way through her enemies. She didn’t hesitate to hurl her sword at her attackers, and she didn’t think twice about whether killing would make her as bad as her captors. She’s on a mission to save her family, and she’s allowed to be completely merciless to get there. And while she certainly struggles, the film doesn’t strangely honor her grief or show it in detail, unlike lots of other action titles focused on women.

The supporting characters – especially the princess’s mysterious trainer, Linh (Veronica Ngo, star of Kiet’s amazing 2019 movie) Furie), and Julius’ right-hand man, Moira (Olga Kurylenko) – much more interesting than the main players. Linh is a formidable warrior, a foreigner with a trainer, and his uncle is one of the king’s advisors. But because this is not her story, we never learn anything more about her past, how she acquired such a skill, or how she and her uncle arrive in a land where the king (Ed Stoppard) is the only thing standing between them and the xenophobic locals.

the princess with the bloody sword standing with her back to the spirit

Photo: Simon Varsano / 20th Century Studios

Likewise, Moira, a fat girl with a whip, is a sharp and well-armed warrior who has a romantic relationship with Julius, but cannot be with him if he wants to continue. their political ambitions. Both of those characters are more nuanced and interesting worlds than the stubborn princess who doesn’t want an arranged marriage, but they’re cast in the background roles.

Then again, the stubborn princess didn’t want an arranged marriage to be a genre element, and Princess finally allowing the catharsis to see the enemies stab the princess and push them out of the window. Every other version of the stubborn princess character feels limited in comparison, possibly because the filmmakers have aimed for family-friendly ratings. But every time repeat this horse’s move so that this princess can be brutally aggressive. ShrekFiona’s split the Merry Men so the star of Princess can cut off someone’s head. The formula is simple, and the characters are mostly just stock archetypes. This is a story that looks like it’s been done before – but not to the point of bloody glory Princess passions.

Princess currently streaming on Hulu and on Disney Plus in select non-US territories.

Source link

newsofmax

News of max: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button
Immediate Matrix Immediate Maximum