Damsel, directed by Juan Carlos (28 Weeks Later) Fresnadillo and written by Dan (Wrath of the Titans) Mazeau, is Netflix's spirited reply to Matthew Robbins/Hal Barwood's exalted Dragonslayer and Robin Hart/Charles Pogue/Read Johnson's regal Dragonheart, as well as Ryan Little's Moby Dick retelling, Age of Dragons, Scott Beck/Bryan Woods' explorative 65 and Giuseppe Maria Scotese/Juliane Koepcke's survivalist jewel, Miracles Still Happen.
Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown plays the lead (in addition to acting as co-producer). Her Fair Lady Elodie inhabits an impoverished village, and her well-meaning father, Ray (Beowulf) Winstone's Lord Bayford, receives an offer from a distant kingdom, requesting the lass to wed Nick (Jurassic World) Robinson's Prince Henry, thus granting Bayford's township sustaining wealth. Bayford agrees to the union, as does his somewhat reluctant daughter, who along with her merry sister, Brooke Carter's Floria, and their nurturing stepmother, Angela (Wakanda Forever) Bassett's Lady Bayford, voyage to majestic Aurea to seal the pact.
On the surface, all seems satisfactory, with the Bayford clan welcomed by Robin (Wonder Woman) Wright's Queen Isabelle and her dashing son. A romance seems destined, except there's a catch. The queen and prince have something up their sleeves, and it pertains to a vindictive, fire-breathing dragon, voiced with bodacious brio by Shohreh (Renfield) Aghdashloo.
The dragon's three offspring were killed centuries prior by Aurea descendants. Now the beast insists on the recurring sacrifice of three members of royalty for reparation. Elodie is one such case in point, who's tossed into the dragon's cavernous realm, where she engages in a hair-raising, cat-and-mouse melee, scooting among oversized fireflies and jagged, crystalized formations.
Wounded and distressed throughout the ordeal, Elodie envisions the ghosts of sacrificed maidens, who give the fable an ominous, Shakespearean feel, as her guilt-ridden father ventures to find her. The task proves horrific, doused in missteps, disappointment and tragedy.
Elodie's quest for survival insinuates the feminist anthology, Don't Bet on the Prince, but the movie never clobbers one over the head with a preachy agenda, instead bucking the Mary Sue grain to forge a character who's accepting of her femininity, but also up to the virile task. Along the way, she learns the dragon's secret, but refuses to accept her fate in the name of others' past deeds, battling the behemoth to save her own hide and perhaps, if luck should grant it, her family's.
The culmination is inspirational in its design and grittiness, enough so that the movie should have secured big-screen distribution. Nonetheless, even when viewed in a smaller format, its practical determination mounts a suspenseful experience, in what may be the best submission of its kind since Dragonslayer, and that's the best compliment I could possibly give.
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