As fans eagerly await for more news about the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown has returned in her latest feature film role.
Netflix’s Damsel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), stars the British actor alongside Nick Robinson (Jurassic World, Love, Simon) Robin Wright (House Of Cards, Wonder Woman), Ray Winstone (The Gentlemen, Sexy Beast), Angela Bassett (Black Panther, American Horror Story), and follows a damsel who agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find out that the royal family intends to use her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt.
The fantasy adventure film subverts the damsel in distress trope and is currently the number one film on Netflix in the UK – but the anti-fairytale has left many critics unimpressed.
Here’s a selection of the reviews so far…
The Telegraph (1/5)
“If a straight-to-landfill quality is synonymous with the worst of Netflix, Damsel sums this up by having the tackiness of a plastic wedding cake. Rather than being any particular person’s bright idea for a girlboss fantasy revenge caper, this lousy romp was obviously hatched by an algorithm, and might just as well have been directed by AI.”
The Independent (2/5)
“We’re more than two decades into a post-‘Shrek’ world, and the concept of an anti-fairytale where the women can kick butt is no longer fresh – someone should have told Netflix.”
Empire (2/5)
“Too childish and shallow for adults, yet too brutal and gory for kids, this is one Damsel that really does need saving, after all.”
The Guardian (3/5)
“If Damsel doesn’t exactly rewrite the storybook, it makes for a competent rework of it – a rousing revenge saga that provides a thin yet encouraging message for its younger female audience and a balm for those older viewers who grew up being spoon-fed the same old gendered cliches. This time, there’s some salt to go with that sugar.”
Roger Ebert (3/5)
“It’s too bad this is not on a big screen, because the settings are filled with enticing details that bolster some of the weakness of the screenplay. Even on the smaller screen, though, the fresh, female-led take on the traditional tale, including a bit of a sisterhood-is-powerful twist near the end, makes it worth a watch.”
IndieWire (C+)
“Of course women can slay dragons, but can we get another pass on the script before they head out to do battle? It will only make that lady — and her very own fairy tale — that much stronger.”
Collider (5/10)
“Even as Millie Bobby Brown is an endearing lead, Netflix’s Damsel is a movie that tries too hard to prove it’s not like the other girls.”
“As for the always-talented Brown, one does wish at times that she had brought some of the playfulness of her Enola Holmes character to Elodie, whose breathless sincerity can at times feel one-note. But this is a new, grown-up challenge for the actress, and she mostly delivers a game, physical performance. More than a fantasy adventure, Damsel is a grisly and at times even touching tale of endurance and survival. It’s sweaty, snarly fun.”
“And as with the Enola Holmes movies, Brown is the best part of this feminist spin on what’s usually a boys’ adventure narrative involving slashing swords and slaying beasts. You can feel Netflix pushing their chips toward her as an infinitely usable, in-house action hero, in the same way that the producer-star is utilising the streamer/studio to self-generate her career into a more mature phase.”