Red Sonja
review by Bobby Blakey
Since her debut in comics in 1973, Red Sonja has been fighting her way off the pages and into novels, movies and TV. Now for the first time since the 1985 film Red Sonja is finally making her way back onto the big screen starring Robert Sheehan, Wallis Day, Martyn Ford, Michael Bisping, Phillip Winchester, Trevor Eve and Matilda Lutz taking on the role of Sonja. Could this film bring the sword wielding heroin to life and do her honor or will she fail to be able to lift the sword?
Red Sonja follows Red Sonja who must battle her way through the blood-soaked pits of a tyrant’s empire and rally an army of outcasts to reclaim her freedom and take down Dragan and his ruthless bride, Dark Annisia.
As someone who was not a fan of the comics and loved the original movie more for Schwarzenegger and Ernie Reyes Jr., I didn’t have high expectations for this film. At the same time, I do love these kinds of sword and sorcery themes when done right so I was eager to see what they could pull off especially knowing this wasn’t going to be a big budget spectacle that fans had hoped. To my surprise it works fine for the most part but is a mixed bag of success and issues.
The film’s story is simple and kind of weak, serving as an origin for Sonja. It plays it safe and never really gets deep enough to get all that invested in Sonja or really anyone else. The entire tone of the film felt like one of these films from the 80s which I was all here for, but it’s all too familiar story fails to help it stand out all that much. The story could have worked had it had better dialogue which was just a mess. There are high points and moments where it seemed to be digging itself out of the bad direction, but it always fell back in on the dialogue front to just off-putting and silly.
Thankfully it is filled with tons of sword wielding action and some creatures to
keep you entertained. The action is the highlight of the film with most of it well choreographed and executed. The CGI is a little off at times but helps to lean it into that old school vibe whether they meant to or not. I love that they leaned into the look of the character even poking fun of the iconic chain mail bikini before adding more armor even though it is still a decision that makes no sense for battle.
Outside of the action star Matilda Lutz does a good job in the role. She isn’t the Amazonian size warrior I would have envisioned, but she carries it and the action good enough to buy into her in the part. She is all in and I fully invested in her take on the roll and by the end saw Red Sonja shining through and would be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to see her return to the role. The same can’t be said for the main villain played by Robert Sheehan. I guess he did ok with the dialogue he was working with but just found him annoying and never as menacing as he was clearly hoping to come across.
I know it sounds like I hated it, but that isn’t the case. I thought it was fine and with a bigger budget could have been epic. They pulled off some great action and interesting visuals with a strong lead that could easily carry more of these films on her shoulders. It just never stands out and gets lost on that bad dialogue and sometimes uneven nature of some of the characters. I wanted to love it but instead just walked away enjoying the nostalgia aspect of what they put off and hoping if they get to return to the world, they are able to hit the mark that Red Sonja deserves.
Decide for yourself and check out Red Sonja available now in theaters and then on digital and On Demand on August 29th from Samuel Goldwyn Films.