Damsel (2024 movie) The new warrior princess arrives!

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess went on to marry a handsome prince and they lived happily ever after. Errr … except this isn’t that kind of story. You are handily told this at the very beginning of the movie, in case, you know, you wouldn’t be able to work it out for yourself.

What this is instead is a feminist revision of the tale as old as time, where the prince is  jerk, his mother an evil witch (spelled with hard B), the dragon is a misunderstood, misled victim, and the princess is the kickass that saves them all (well, expect for the evildoers, who are made to really, really rue the day they crossed her.)
Sounds good, right? And it should be. It ought to have been. Instead, Damsel is the sort of movie that leaves you wondering at the end exactly where it fell short. So let’s talk about that a bit, shall we?

When we first meet Elodie, she’s chopping wood with her younger sister. It is apparent that her title-only family has fallen on hard times. Since the only way to solve such matters back then was to marry off your daughter to someone with money, that’s what her father does. Despite her stepmother’s trepidations. And can we take a moment here to shout out some kudos for a movie that was so busy turning clichés upside down, it managed to (write wonderfully) turn a stereotypically evil stepmother into a caring, loving one. (And the only one who can see through the sham of the marriage or tries to.)

It appears Elodie’s Daddy Dearest is told exactly what his baby girl is in for—becoming a dragon snack—and he’s all like, “Tragic, but sure, why not. There’s another daughter anyway, and money is needed.”
Elodie though has no idea. She’s thoroughly charmed by the fancy castle and its fancy prince. Until she is tossed intothe dragon lair, that is.  That’s where the fight for survival begins.
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After four seasons spent fighting all manner of monsters on Stranger Things, MBB can do action. But it’s only ever  so compelling, as she goes into the lair not once but twice. Of course, she emerges victorious. There was never a chance of her not doing so. After all, she has a message to bring forth. The movie is so hung up on its messaging (however excellent and commendable) that it forgets some other things, like nuance or balance.
For instance, how awesome would it be to see more of Elodie and the dragon’s revenge instead of MBB hiding behind the rocks in the cave? Because revenge when it comes is rather epic—think Khaleesi and her dragons when she rolled into town in the last season.

Though Daddy Dearest has an attack of conscience and comes back, followed by a dragon attack from which he categorically doesn’t come back, he is by and large irrelevant. Though kudos to the dude for remarrying a (remarkably well-preserved) woman his age who is kind and nice and not some evil bimbette decades younger. Also irrelevant is the floppy haired prince and his silent father, puppeteer by their queen mother, Princess Buttercup has matured into quite the evil queen!
This movie belongs to the ladies. Even the dragon is a lady, brought to life by the amazing voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo. It is just a bit flat all around, missing the wow factor.
It is also rather bloody and deadly for its rating, with high body count across species. Viewer beware.

Not “not fun”, just leaves you wishing for more.  Perhaps a cleverer writer would have nuanced the plot more, but let’s face it general audience and Netflix specifically aren’t exactly particular about clever, so long as they have the star power and the effects to back it up.
The cleverness here was used up on the title. Way to own damsel as a descriptive word. In distress, sure, but all too able to save herself and then some. You are so going to hear her roar. Alongside the dragon, presumably. They will both roar. Perhaps a duet. Sequel, anyone?