Red Sonja Movie Review
This past weekend, I sat down and watched Red Sonja, the feature length adaptation of the sword and sorcery comic heroine. I’ve written a lot about Red Sonja over the past few months, which is shocking since I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of the character. She is just Conan adjacent and, in a world where sword and sorcery is not all that popular, I feel compelled to keep up with her adventures.
I was excited to see what this latest film had to offer. I went into it knowing it was low budget and relied on CGI to create the fantasy world, but I can be forgiving in a situation where the budget does not allow for the best CGI. I’m less tolerant when it comes to Marvel’s cutting of corners.
Director MJ Bassett did a wonderful job with Solomon Kane, another low-budget sword and sorcery flick, so I knew she understood the genre and how to tell a story within these strange worlds. While not as good as Solomon Kane, I enjoyed watching Red Sonja although I wouldn’t say it’s a great movie by any stretch.
What I Liked About It: -The cinematography was great. The film is well framed and even beautiful in a few spots. I appreciated the extra attention to detail with the live action shots, as it helped offset the less appealing CGI scenes.
-The casting was solid. Melinda Lutz was wonderful. Sure, she didn’t look like the traditional Red Sonja, (I mean, unless you shot this in the 90s with Julie Strain, I’m not sure that would be possible) but I thought she brought a youthful energy and an athletic build to the role. She was able to get tough and grimy, and I appreciated that.
Wallis Day was the other star, in the role of the villainess Annisia. If I had any complaint its that we just didn’t see enough of her. I’ve been a fan of Luca Pasqualino since his time on BBC’s The Three Musketeers, but he was not utilized nearly enough. I have a feeling the budget scaled down his role.
Michael Bisping was solid in his role as Hawk and Danica Davis was very good in the short time we got to see her. I had mixed feelings about our main villain Draygan, played by Robert Sheehan, but I’m not sure my issue was with his acting or the script.
-The fight scenes, while short, were good. The movie was sorely missing a montage to show Red Sonja becoming a better fighter, but I appreciated her MMA skills and her brutal knife attacks.
-I’ll probably be the only person in the world to put the CGI in the “like” column, but I was actually impressed with what they were able to accomplish with the CGI. Maybe I shouldn’t look at it from a production standpoint, but I thought it was quite serviceable and gave the film a much grander scale than it was.
What I Didn’t Like: -The music was clearly inspired at times by Basil Poledouris' Conan score, but it always felt a bit out of place. The music felt almost too aggressive for most of the scenes, and while I enjoyed the music, I’m not sure it was right for this film.
-The script needed several more passes. There were tons of plot holes, and the viewer has to accept that this is a popcorn flick to get by some of the sheer stupidity at times ::Mild Vague Spoilers:: (How did Red Sonja improve after like one day with the gladiators where she didn’t even practice? Why didn’t they just give him the other half of the book if it was useless? And what was with the power source providing electricity in a sword and sorcery film?) ::End Spoilers::
-The film could have been fifteen minutes shorter for sure.
Final Thoughts: Red Sonja is like a slightly less cheesy and more graphic episode of Xena. The costumes are fun, the script is a bit stupid, the women are beautiful, and there is enough to look at to make for an enjoyable time.
If someone goes into this expecting a big budget Game of Thrones style epic, they are going to be sorely disappointed. This is a small film, that plays it a bit safe (There is a scene where Red Sonja takes a bath with her clothes on) and seems to struggle with what it is trying to say. I almost wonder if the original script was more of a “girl boss” story with an environmental slant? The rough editing at times makes me think it was, and they made cuts to lessen those elements when they realized that the main audience that was going to watch this was going to be males age thirty to sixty. I’m not sure anyone is going to make Red Sonja into a feminist icon in today’s climate with a metal bikini.
Would I recommend Red Sonja? For fans of sword and sorcery, sure. I mean, what else do you have to watch? It’s not like sword and sorcery films have ever truly been all that good. For the average movie goer, I’d say pass. There is so much to watch that is better than this.
With that being said, if for some reason a sequel ever made its way out, I’d love to see more of Melinda Lutz in the role. In fact, I think the movie would be a fantastic jumping off point for a series on Starz or some smaller streaming service.
Side Note: While digging for some screenshots of Red Sonja I ran across several reviews from various bloggers. On multiple occasions it was mentioned that this film was a remake of the 1985 film, which it’s not. It’s also not based on a character by Robert E. Howard. It also should be mentioned that the amount of hate the film is getting definitely overkill. This is a film about an established female character, and it plays relatively true to her character when you take into consideration the budget and releasing this type of film in 2025.
Next up for sword and sorcery fans is the remake of Death Stalker which will be a very different film than Red Sonja. Featuring tons of practical effects and directed by the guy who brought us Psycho Goreman I have a feeling this is going to be a fun throwback.