The new, MGM Red Sonja, directed by M.J. (Solomon Kane) Bassett and scripted by Tasha (Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft) Huo, is a semi-remake of the 1985, Richard Fleischer exploit starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger, though in other ways, the revision returns to the character's Marvel roots and the subsequent novels by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney. (Keep in mind, Robert E. Howard's literary, Sonya [note the spelling] was not part of the Cimmerian world. In Howard's tales, she's a 16th century adventurer.)
The 2025 retelling is akin to Furiosa and the Gladiator movies, in this case with a Hyrkanian forest/animal-loving lass, played by the striking Matilida (A Classic Horror Story/Reptile) Lutz, who's mother (Veronica Ferres) was slaughtered long before. Sonja has been left to fend for herself, hoping to find her people, progressing into a warrioress, adapting red hair from a magical dye and donning skimpy chainmail because, well, it pleases the arena crowd. She's been captured, of course, to fight in the grand, bread-and-circuses, Damanti arena, but instead of the circumstances breaking her, they catapult her into a champion, one to break the political arrogance that's come to define her.
The prime antagonist is David Sheehan's Emperor Draygan the Magnificent, a former, vengeful slave with a secret past, who's joined by his "betrothed," Wallis Day's Dark Annisia, an addicted woman he keeps under his bewitching control and who's mad enough to seek Sonja's head, with marriage being the emperor's prize.
Draygan, like Sandahl Bergman's Queen Gredren in the Fleischer adaptation, draws his power from an unworldly orb, which he manipulates through the inscriptions found on a partial, Hyrkanian text, with the other portion yet to be found. To ensure he obtains it, he attempts to enlist our heroine for his quest, but proud Sonja has other plans.
However, before any of this befalls, Sonja converges with regal combatants, as well as other assorted friends and foes, all of whom are steely, sturdy and portrayed by Michael Bisping, Rhona Natasha Mitra, Luca Pasqualina, Katrina Durgan, Eliza Matengu and Martyn Ford (a general-ranked man-beast, who instills an old-school, Planet of the Apes charm).
To depict Sonja's epic landscape, there's quality CGI, which reaches a fevered pitch when Draygan puppeteers a towering, ram-horned cyclops to rattle the fighting field. The sequence's visuals, even if computerized, are sharp, unpretentious and clear, benefitted (as is the case with the entire tale) by Lorenzo Sentatore's exquisite photography and a moving, majestic score by Sonja Belousova and Gloria Ostinelli.
I've already read a heap of derision on how Lutz doesn't look formidable enough for a swordswoman and that her revealing attire is (here we go again!) sexist. One crass critic even dismissed the movie for resembling a direct-to-SyFy quickie, but all of this is balderdash, expressed by know-it-alls who don't know jack about the revisionist character's long-standing, pop lineage.
Be aware that this Sonja isn't a bland, unerring token cut from the Rey Skywalker cloth (the sort the know-it-alls seem to prefer), but a lady who's struggled every step of the way. She wields an impassioned goal, which makes her entanglement with Draygan and Annisia inviting, and that in turn, gives unprejudiced viewers the cause to root for her.
My verdict: Red Sonja 2025 isn't a world-shaker, but it's sure as hell forceful, beautiful and sexy. It would be great if it raised another chapter or even another Conan the Barbarian. I guess the odds don't favor either, but if the latest Red Sonja joins the 1985 version as another one-shot, that's still reason enough to rejoice. No matter what the myopic may want or wish, the movie exists!
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