A hercegnő és a sárkány

A nice little surprise from Netflix and from the director of 28 Weeks Later. It's a fantasy survival adventure that's unexpectedly dark, suspenseful and slightly brutal in places, and with some bits of scape room. Millie Bobby Brown goes from eleven to sexy twenty and grows into a big babe, there's also a visually very pretty to horror dragon, it's got great pacing, plenty of tension, a working soundtrack and it doesn't matter that the story is a simple "Sacrifice a princess to an evil dragon to secure a kingdom" when it all works and entertains. 75% (2024.03.12)

Dracarys. An enjoyable and mainly imaginative TV fairy tale about a dragon, which turns into a survival thriller where everything is saved by glow worms. Millie Bobby Brown plays the princess in distress brilliantly and manages to convince you that she's a damsel in distress under all that makeup. The visual effects are pretty average, but it is saved by the awesome atmospheric music, which adds that extra star. (2024.03.10)

While not particularly exceptional, still a fine fantasy adventure that has a climax, a likeable heroine, and a totally, totally, totally great dragon by Patrick Tatopoulos. Among other monsters, he once designed, for example, Emmerich's Godzilla, and it's clear he still knows his craft, this dragon is no B-movie monster, but a real character with a very scary face. (2024.03.10)

To be honest, given the lukewarm reviews here (but also on Imdb), I thought Damsel would be a generic film, but after watching it, I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise for me personally. Damsel has a nice visual design and its atmosphere (but also partly the story) reminded me more than once to Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Robin Wright looks like Michelle Pfeiffer) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug . The terrifying looks of the dragoness were very good, and so was the voice acting, and the backstory she added to the gloomy atmosphere of this seemingly fairy-tale film, which was more of a fantastic survival drama, with more than one person being burned alive. As a result, I would have given the film three and a half stars, but since enjoyed it, I'll give it a weaker four. (2024.04.01)

Netflix's latest surprise left me with mixed feelings. It's evident now that fairy tales can't be approached the same way as in the old days when the world was binary and only men toted swords and wore armor. Nope, in today's progressive era, every princess is expected to save herself, even if the way she holds an axe makes it obvious that she wouldn't survive the winter. I kinda hoped our main heroine would develop a thing for the muscular blacksmith's daughter, but no such luck. The CGI was hit or miss, the psychopathic mother felt more like a manticore, and the plot didn't keep me hooked. It was just another tale of Girl Power, with occasional moments of interest but mostly a bit dull, sometimes unintentionally funny (that burnt dragon!), and not as fun as I'd hoped. The logic holes were monstrous at times; I couldn't wrap my head around how the abyss didn't spell doom for anyone. Plus, the lead actress didn't exactly light up the screen, so the slow striptease didn't do much for me. But hey, it could've been worse, like in The Princess. / Lesson learned: If you're stuck in a dark cave, keep an eye out for multipurpose worms. (2024.05.10)