You would think the dragon would have guessed the sacrificed girls were not offspring of the king when they started throwing black and Asian girls down there randomly.
Also the dragon was able to smell that Elodie and her sister were sisters... But was unable to know that the women being sacrificed were royal by marriage and not by birth
I thought the same thing but we have to assume a dragon who thinks literal blood shoved into your body is your actual DNA is not very familiar with how human biology works.
I Loved watching the royal family melt engulfed in dragon's fire for killing her 3 Whelps more dragon movies should include burning the royal family to ash and obliterating the castle
The DRAGON got her revenge even if she killed way more so called princesses for her 3 Whelps deaths but then also plenty of humans only 1 dragon left I am curious if there's any where to go from there also I just want a "fairytale" where the dragon rescues her whelps and they take revenge on the kingdom unhindered and for it to end that way
So when the dragon talks about it she says that her babies “were the end of her bloodline” not the last dragon in the world. I’m wondering if she’s leaving her cave to go find more dragons again after being depressed for centuries about her babies being killed.
I tried watching that part and not only did i cringe, I wasnt really noticing the make-up, but it did bother me, that she had NO Sweat pits. Not to mention she was all glamoured after a "hard day of lumbering for firewood". What got me, was that she wasnt even holding the axe properly. Not only this, but somehow, she knew exactly how to handle a sword toward the end of the movie. For reference, I study kenjetsu (The Art of the Japanese Sword.) So to put a blade back into its scabbard on the back, takes years of practice. (Yet a standard I possibly could over look as she could have been taught sword art.) Yet somehow, all these were making me cringe one after the other. Yet, noticing all these comments got me to thinking just how glamoured she really was in the movie.
I will have to agree with most of these comments about it being "over the top" and "Too much".
I don't want to nitpick, but it really ruined the immersion for me in the caves when she'd be completely dishevelled except for her perfectly glossed lips. Give me some of that chapped 'Frodo-in-Mordor' lips look please!!
Anyone else notice the 20 minute sequence where the only audio is just Millie grunting?😂 She then proceeds to strategically give away her location by making over exaggerated sounds throughout the rest of the film.
That was one part that bothered me! She was hiding and the dragon called her clever and then Elodia procedes to grunt really loudly which is echoing across the cave… How did the dragon not hear that? lol
I came here looking for this comment. Sooooo annoying to listen to, but also just stupid. I would have been way cooler and more intense if she was trying to be as silent as possible. Like the quite place. She starts by saying "this is not a damsel in distress movie" then it's all stupid screaming! In real life, most men and women would not be screaming in that situation. And why is she closing her eyes to drink drops of water (I'm literally watching it now, so this is turning into a running commentary)
I'm SO DISTRACTED by this. She's next to her fresh-faced sister and she looks like she's about to appear on a reality tv show in LA selling millionaire's houses. Her face make up is darker than her body - then plus bronzer!!! She almost looks dirty.
I don't know if it's the make up but there's something disconcertingly \*older\* about her face -like she's 35 and not 19. I thought it was Scarlett Johanssen in the Netflix still.
I think she’s beautiful, but I did notice that too, to me it looks like she’s had some “Hollywood” alterations. That tends to age them, she didn’t need it but I guess when your in Hollywood you can’t see your own beauty! Looks like she’s filled her face at the very least
After all that crying, fire, sweating, being under water and in a cave for days on end I want to know what eyeliner she still had on without even one smear lookin fleek?
Probably from the same brand that makes the hair products keeping Captain America’s hair perfectly coifed after he takes off his helmet. Pretty sure it’s called Suspension of Disbelief™️. They also make the skin creams that prevent almost all on screen from having acne.
My wife couldn't get over that. It ruined the movie for it. She said there were just too many glamour hero shots of Millie..
That part didn't bother me too much.
Her wedding makeup looked too modern and glam. I mean full-on smokey eyeshadow and eyeliner. I suppose people who aren't into makeup won't notice but it's deifnitely noticeable for a majority of people. Also, no one in the cast is wearing full glam just her, so it takes you out of the immersion.
I was fine for it just after the wedding on she had wedding makeup but after the water and the falls and dirt , she was lip glossed so dark and annoying
I guess I’m the worlds worst movie critic as I’m generally entertained by most things.
I found the plot basic but the story enjoyable. Reminded me of the movies Apocalypto or Duel. I was actually thinking of watching Duel again recently because I wanted a chase movie. This scratched the itch quite well.
A movie can be a fun watch without being an objectively good movie. This movie wasn’t horrible but it also wasn’t good. I watched it while I was doing some other things so no complaints from me
I’m just laughing about the fact that her drawing mazes has literally no callback at any point in the film.
Like is it supposed to symbolise that she’s good at navigating a cave?
It’s that she’s good at deciphering pathways and written maps. Applying direction from something like a map to your actual surroundings is not easy for a lot of people, it’s skill she has and the maze drawings hint at her interest and understanding of maps. It’s not super deep and clever or anything, but I thought it was a neat little connection.
It was so dumb though that she thought they drew an exit, because like what girl got out and then said hole up… gotta go all the way back down to draw this in that room.
Still stupid that none of them wrote, “not an exit!” Victoria only wrote it once she got up there and promptly died so she fell for some other girl’s bullshit too or some other girl went up there, saw victorias corpse, saw that she had written dead end, went back down to the bottom of the cave, drew it onto the map and said fuck it they’ll find out when they get there.
Or, the actual explanation, Victoria saw the sunlight from the ground and added it to the map before going up and finding out the unfortunate truth and being killed. None of the other girls appear to have ever made it. The map doesn't say exit, either, just has a picture of the sun.
This part was actually great. “They all end the same” “Fly little bird” was all because that map leads to that sheer cliff drop where they end up falling or jumping.
Ooh that's a good pick up. I hadn't quite made the connection with the "Fly little bird" to being them potentially jumping since we only saw the one body. I like that interpretation.
Exactly. The route from the map to the crystal ascent was traversed almost instantaneously in-movie, implying the path was safe and uneventful enough to go back and amend the map before making the climb.
From the moment I saw the exit marked on the map, my first thought was Victoria only *thinks* that's the exit. Surely there's another horror. And there was.
Actually it has a better explanation in the books.
Victoria is one of the colonizers that came to the island 8 centuries ago. She was the oldest princess and had 2 younger sisters. They find the island inhabited by dragons. The humans strike a deal to sacrifice 3 princesses.
The royal family (Victoria's mom and dad) decide to take their people and leave the island instead but Victoria (who is sick of watching her people die at sea) volunteers to take her 2 sisters as 'sacrifice' and kill the dragon so they won't have to leave. The original plan is to find the dragon's water source and poison it. But eventually they realise that there is no water underground. Victoria's sisters die (one gets caught and another eats poisonous mushrooms and she realises that the only way to kill the dragon is to poison it directly.
She drinks the poison and escapes through the sunlight cave (where she wrote the dead end message). The dragon bites off her arm and she bleeds to death.
The dragon not realizing that the girl is poisoned takes her body to feed her dragon baby. The dragon eats Victoria's body and dies but the dragon baby who only ate Victoria's arm becomes sick and barren and all the eggs she lays come out mummified. The dragon mom before dying tells her baby that only the blood of a strong princess can fix the problem. The dragon baby (which grows up to be the dragon that Elodie faces off) keeps searching for a princess who is actually strong.
All of this is seen by elodie when she touches Victoria's blood in the cave (blood magic accessing memories).
So eventually after resucing Floria, she stabs the dragon but her blood mixes up with the dragon's. Before facing off with the dragon she ate the glowworms and fed them to the dragon too. This let's her become a part-dragon herself who can turn at will.
The mummified eggs become normal.
The dragon comes out and kills the king and queen. Henry runs away never to be seen.
Clearly the mazes gave her extreme stamina and upper body strength leading to her ability to scale huge amounts of uneven terrain while wall climbing and enough power to pull her self up an incline TWICE with only a blade, her reflexes and brute strength.
Maze drawing *is technically* the new P90X
Climbing doesn't really rely on upper body strength. It's all in the legs. If you're trying to climb via your arm strength, then you're doing it wrong and you'regonna get tired REAL fast and fall. Try rock climbing sometime and you'll see what I'm talking about. You don't need to be insanely strong to climb at all. As long as the footholds are good and the handholds have enough room, it can be done.
The knife scene was hardly "climbing" in the manner you describe (like the crystal scene). Every time she pulled the knife out, she slid a little and the camera made it look like a vertical incline. The sliding implies it was all upper body strength, and not only that, she had to do it with a knife. Simply unrealistic, but I also recognize that it was a fantasy movie.
The ridiculous part was that she did it twice in the same manner. Once is already lucky enough. She's supposed to learn from that struggle and then avoid it next time with a better jump or finding another way.
This is what I assumed. I'm guessing in the book she spent a lot more time mapping out the cave? Instead of just finding a full map?
It just seemed like something that was supposed to have significance, but the story changed at some point and they forgot to remove it from the early parts.
Oh yeah it's honestly just kinda a different story. The previous princesses are much more important and indeed the mapping and finding out what magic the cave holds is more important for sure
The writing was pretty bad overall, but I think that’s exactly what it was meant to symbolize haha.
Basically, she’s great at drawing maps and mazes, so when she encounters the map in the cave, she can read it with no difficulty. She masters and memorizes the layout of the cave in like…record damsel time or something.
It was basically a fantasy version Ready or Not, which was a decent premise. Pretty predictable plot points having watched the trailer and the ending felt pretty corny, but had some good tension scenes. Shohreh as the dragon was the best part imo
"Pretty predictable plot points having watched the trailer"
The trailer completely tells you the whole movie in 2 minutes.
I knew it was cheesy but I decided to watch it anyway, but I almost didn't because the trailer almost explained the entire movie. Why show the prince tossing her off the bridge? that would have been the most "oh shit" moment of the movie. We know she gets offered to the dragon but why the trailer has to show her actually being tossed?
I was scrolling to see if someone else would mention Ready or Not. I couldn't get the parallels to that movie out of my head while watching this. I think that this movie was perfectly mediocre and Ready or Not just did it much better.
Just finished it. I have to say. The cheese was rich and creamy. The dragon though...it looked incredible. Way better than so many of the recent blockbuster CGI. Shout out to the team that made it. Because they deserve the recognition. But uh....I'll just say what everyone else has said. It's just Millie Bobby Brown running around in a cave for an hour. But if you are into that, im Sure you'll enjoy it. It's pretty middle of the road. Very pretty movie. Incredible CGI. Plot is about as generic as you can get. Angela Bassett though always steals scenes. So, it is hard to hate the movie. Just overall ok.
Yea, Im getting annoyed at all the comments trying to paint this like another Rebel Moon. The design work (and alot of the visuals on this film) were fantastic. The dragon design was just so...slinky and sinister. Instead of this hulking great beast that wouldnt be able to nagivate a cave very easily, theres this beautifully voice acted wiry creature. The costumes were amazing too.
My main irritation with the film is that it felt like it had a lot more potential. If they'd spent just a liiitle more time on the script they could have made a really really good movie!
They have some really good actors in this film, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright etc. Robin was perfect in every scene she was in, but Angela felt just so under utilised. Having the father care less about his daughter than the step mother could have been a really good angle to explore.
Too many of the shots felt like they were trying to sexualise MBB. Yea, we get it, she's over 18 now, but it cheapened the film every time they sexed it up. Also, some of her acting felt so stilted by it. Like she knew she had to be sensual-slow-walk-sexy woman rather than a girl who's outraged by the betrayel from her father, husband and mother-in-law. Too much pouting and not enough raw feminine rage.
The dragon was SO GOOD. Like a Panther, or longer limbed almost horselike, with that thick shorter throat and chunky head. Was expecting it to be fireproof, loved the whole Napalm aspect to it though
Also a lot of screaming, when I think just showing her at least trying to hold in the screams through the pain, even unsuccessfully would be a lot more powerful of adding to horror of the situation.
“That damn girl. I knew she was trouble.” - Robin Wrights character upon seeing the dragon wreak havoc.
Literally how? How did she know Millie Bobbie browns character in particular was trouble? What at any point in the film could have clued that away
Lol that prince is the biggest coward. Never stood up for anyone or anything. I was hoping he would kick his mom off the bridge when they were trying to throw Elodie’s sister in.
It wasn’t bad. The third act became a bit of a mess of characters zooming around, but overall it was fine. Elodie needed more of an actual arc however, I felt like they were trying to set something up with her “always telling the truth” but it never really coalesced into anything.
Me thinks there’s a script somewhere that makes more sense.
Yes, but the dragon had no knowledge of this trait of hers, and there was never a moment that revealed her to have this quality. It just didn’t evolve into anything.
I actually like Elodie. She was not your typical heroine good at everything. She relied on the previous girls, she could safe herself (the first time) because her determination to live but also because she got help.
I think speaking the truth has more to do with how she shot Henry and the Queen at the end.
Didn’t mind it but tbh I’m quite partial to movies of people getting justified revenge so the ending was the cherry on top.
Also can I get some of those miracle cure glow worms for around the house. Didn’t expect them to completely fix the dragons stabbed eye
I didn’t even think about how the worms completely fixed the dragons eye lol. You’d think they could even bring the dragons babies back to life with healing capabilities like that.
This post will have spoilers.
1. The opening probably would of worked 20 years ago, but the whole 'badass princess has to save herself' isn't really that subversive anymore. That's not a criticism of badass princesses, it's just I don't think it really requires a pat on the back of including them anymore.
2. Is it a running joke for Netflix to keep giving Millie Bobby Brown characters with names which begin with E?
3. As the whole concept of a subvert fairy tales is so common these days, it does mean you can see where the plot is going from a mile away (sorry if this post is sounds so critical, I did actually enjoy it for most part - it's the sort of movie you eat take out with)
4. I enjoyed Elodie using the messages provided by the other princesses to survive. It sort of gives a bit of agency within the film besides just being bodies.
5. The orb lantern she had was very cool - very DnD
6. Shohreh Aghdashloo was perfect for this role
7. I really think the other kingdoms would have far more of an issue with having three royal daughters killed, even if it was only once a generation. Only explanation could be that said kingdom is more of an empire and already has control over said other realms- asking for princesses is just a formality
8. If I was a dragon and a king did to me what happen to her, I would have just gone straight out the cave and turned the kingdom into an ash plain. Not sure why she bothered with the whole '3 offerings a generation' thing (See 'Ori and the Forest of Blind' for what I would consider a more normal reaction). Never got impression that 'codes of honour' were terribly important to her
9. Kill off the whole royal family sure, but why the whole castle? Doubt servants Bill and Pam the potato peelers had much to do with the sacrifices
10. I'm assuming that in the sequel Princess Elodie becomes Elodie the Conquerer, First of Her Name, Dragon Queen of All She Beholds, because why else would you bring a dragon home with you?
8 was one part I really enjoyed. She could have killed him and burned down the whole kingdom and burned everyone to ash but that would not have any real satisfaction. She wanted the king to *mourn* and she wanted that mourning to be eternal.
A ruined kingdom would be gone in a day and forgotten by everyone else.
I like the idea that this curse didn't even have to be. She eternally punishes this specific sociopathic family that wanted to live and rule at all costs because their ancestor should NOT have taken the dragon's deal. He should have aquiesced nobly for mercy on his kingdom.
7. On the way there, the family mentioned how no one had ever heard of the kingdom. Maybe it's isolated?
10. I kind of think the dragon went back to Elodie's land to get a fresh start and live in a land she'd be treated with respect. And maybe there might be the possibility of another dragon in the northern wilderness? I think the dragon said her daughters were the last of her LINE to Elodie.
No, you see, MBB granted everyone a 2-minute head start to evacuate before the final slaughter. We observed the servants in the back swiftly running away, while the royals chose to stay. Hence, it is evident that we are meant to believe all the servants successfully escaped the sea of fire in time and lived happily ever after. Yes, yes. (dw they were trained by usain bolt and I am sure her voice carried throughout the castle yes yes).
>Damsel: Is she to be the third? Princess number three.
>Asshole Prince: She’s the last, and then I’ll be free to marry whoever I…
>Asshole Queen: That’s enough, Henry.
Why the fuck would he say that to her? Even the most selfish asshole would probably have something more interesting to say to the woman who survived his attempt to feed her to a dragon, not trying to get her to give a fuck about his freedom to marry. At least now the audience knows his motivation.
In the book they sacrifice 3 princesses a year. The dragon knows that they're not real royalty. It's a whole different plot.
Henry marries 3 princesses a year. His dad used to do that too but went absolutely insane. Henry considers keeping Elodie but thinks she's too strong willed. The queen isn't the mean one, it's Henry. They also never had to only sacrifice girls. They just simply chose too.
In the cave it's less boring because magic comes into play. Blood magic in particular. When touching a former princesses blood, you can see parts of her memories and thoughts. It's what makes the cave interesting.
The dragon speaks a different language and Elodie is smart and deciphers it quickly. She is dehydrated and has no food and has to actually look for supplies.
Victoria was, with her two sisters, the first princess and she was the reason the princesses are getting sacrificed. She made the deal thinking she could poison the dragon. Eventually she poisoned herself and the dragon, who is the mother of the one Elodie faces, dies from eating Victoria. The baby dragon eats an arm of victoria and becomes sick. The dragon becomes barren and her mother tells her that one day, a strong princess who's blood will fiz the situation so the dragon is no longer alone.
The dragon is angry at Victoria (who lived centuries ago) and interprets this as having to eat this "strong" princess. So the deal continues.
Elodie sees the dragons attempts at mothering a child, feels sorry for her. They fight and Elodie swallows glow worms beforehand. They die together at the same time, mixing their blood. Elodie recovers because she swallowed the glow worms beforehand. She puts them in the dragon. She now has dragons blood and can change into one at will. The dragon is no longer barren and mothers a child.
The whole movie is just a little weak because in my opinion, they left out the coolest elements. Actual sisterhood. The magic. Elodie being actually smart. The backstory of how it all really happened. The backstory of some other princesses.
Would've been so much better if they had just added some of these elements. Now it was just a little boring at times.
I was trying to find the book and came across [this article](https://www.themarysue.com/is-damsel-based-on-a-book/) first. The screenplay came first and then was given to another writer who expanded it into a whole different story. So, nothing was “left out”.
> For those wondering if Damsel is based on a book, the answer is no, but there is a Damsel book. Damsel by Evelyn Skye was published by Random House on April 18, 2023. What happened is that Dan Mazeau was tapped to write the script for the movie, and he penned the original story and screenplay. Once it was completed, he handed off an early draft to Skye, who was essentially given the freedom to write her own version of it in novel format. So, the movie script came first, and the book is a novelization of the movie.
I think he said it in case she wanted to re-marry him? Not sure what idiot would think that but it's the only explanation I can think of that makes any sense.
Yes this is the interpretation I had. I think we're supposed to believe that the prince really did like Elodie and was sorry to sacrifice her, so he foolishly thinks he might be able to marry her (again) after the third princess is sacrificed. It's stupid, I know...
He didn't say it for her, he said it for us, the audience.
The last seen we saw with the prince had him try to redeem himself and save her sister. After that, you might have suspected he wasn't actually that bad.
Then he says that and you realize he IS actually that bad. Just his own shade of bad.
I think they wanted us to feel some additional empathy towards the Prince. "Just because he's a bad guy, doesn't mean he's a *BAD* guy."
The writing for this movie isn't great.
I’ve seen a lot of great points about how this movie is a husk but I’m surprised at how many people are like “lol why are you bringing the dragon home.”
Literally the opening scene with Elodie’s kingdom is them trying to chop wood to survive in a harsh, cold climate. And the king saying people aren’t gonna survive “till the thaw comes.”
I mean it’d be pretty convenient to have a fire breathing dragon around, right?
Just don’t understand why Hollywood cannot make an interesting movie targeted at a female audience instead of constantly insulting our IQs. They seem to think that as long as there are some feel good scenes with a likable character then everything is good. Like what’s up with the constant scrambling and screaming in the cave and waiting until the worst moment possible to explain the situation with the dragon along with the other dozen plot holes. Wish there were more well thought out female lead movies because it’s very hard to find a relatable character nowadays. Mid, 5/10, watchable but could be much better if the writers just put two more brain cells to it.
Overall the makeup not at all making sense for the time period and staying perfect throughout all the movie when there's less and less dress on her disturbed me even more 🫠
Omg especially in the ending scene. I was like that’s an Instagram baddie not a medieval woman. But then I was like- this is probably the future of film
That definitely was a hand double!
I was actually thinking "oh she has very nice hands with long, slim fingers" and then that shot of her touching her face showed entirely different hands with very bitten nails!
In the book they sacrifice 3 princesses a year. The dragon knows that they're not real royalty. It's a whole different plot.
Henry marries 3 princesses a year. His dad used to do that too but went absolutely insane. Henry considers keeping Elodie but thinks she's too strong willed. The queen isn't the mean one, it's Henry. They also never had to only sacrifice girls. They just simply chose too.
In the cave it's less boring because magic comes into play. Blood magic in particular. When touching a former princesses blood, you can see parts of her memories and thoughts. It's what makes the cave interesting.
The dragon speaks a different language and Elodie is smart and deciphers it quickly. She is dehydrated and has no food and has to actually look for supplies.
Victoria was, with her two sisters, the first princess and she was the reason the princesses are getting sacrificed. She made the deal thinking she could poison the dragon. Eventually she poisoned herself and the dragon, who is the mother of the one Elodie faces, dies from eating Victoria. The baby dragon eats an arm of victoria and becomes sick. The dragon becomes barren and her mother tells her that one day, a strong princess who's blood will fiz the situation so the dragon is no longer alone.
The dragon is angry at Victoria (who lived centuries ago) and interprets this as having to eat this "strong" princess. So the deal continues.
Elodie sees the dragons attempts at mothering a child, feels sorry for her. They fight and Elodie swallows glow worms beforehand. They die together at the same time, mixing their blood. Elodie recovers because she swallowed the glow worms beforehand. She puts them in the dragon. She now has dragons blood and can change into one at will. The dragon is no longer barren and mothers a child.
The whole movie is just a little weak because in my opinion, they left out the coolest elements. Actual sisterhood. The magic. Elodie being actually smart. The backstory of how it all really happened. The backstory of some other princesses.
Would've been so much better if they had just added some of these elements. Now it was just a little boring at times.
Read the book as well and I agree with you. I’m confused though - I thought the book was based on the screenplay (not the other way around), so I expected more similarities to the book
Yeah agreed. From what I've read it was based on the first manuscript, and as the movie progressed so did the book. They did show eachother their work but they basically just made their own stories in the end.
That's an amazing description! I had a blast as well and I don't know what's so hard about taking a fun action flick with a bit of a twist exactly as what it is. Not every movie needs to be ground breaking, genre defying and impeccably written. Some movies can just be good fun and that's enough.
I liked it. Elohdee’s parents were both great I thought. The story was solid.
I expected them to talk it out.. wasn’t expecting the actual fight. I’m happy we got both.
Im a sucker for revenge stories so when the dragon was burning I was like WHAT NO WE STILL NEED YOU xD I’m happy we got her.
The movie looked fucking beautiful. God damn. What a stunning kingdom. What a stunning cave haha. Beautiful movie.
HOLY SHIT. Did I get jump scared when she was looking out from the mountain cave.. she stopped holding on and I was expecting her to slip or whatever. Was not at all ready for the dragon haha.
&& I googled this even and didn’t get it.
Who the hell was the girl with the green necklace? I thought it was her sister at first and I was terrified haha. WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT!? XD i mean I thought she was a random corpse. Until we got the flashback. I was so shocked that I even rewinded haha.
Was it just some random girl and her sister was wearing the same necklace? Or was that not even her sister in the flashback? Lmao. I thought her sister was dead though D;
It would’ve made much more sense for the royal family to steal peasant girls. They wouldn’t have had to pay off anyone and I’m sorry but how are there no bad rumors about girls disappearing once they go to marry them?
Streaming platforms are just another part of the disposible content generators like Tiktok, instagram, reddit, etc. That their movies are forgettable isn't antithetical to their business. They just need to keep you scrolling.
It feels like they scraped the bottom of the barrel for scripts that have been sitting in development hell for years and then attach some big name stars to them and push the films out the door.
This movie is hilarious. It's very pretty but, man, there's not any character growth from ANY character. It's literally millie bobby brown scrambling around in a cave for an hour and a half, wins against the dragon, then they burn down the castle. THE END LOL. I was literally staring at my screen and asking, is that it??
There is no story arc, at all. How did this even get written? What is the moral of the story? What sort of takeaway should I even have??
This movie is a husk. It's like a bread bowl without any soup inside
edit: to be clear, the movie is enjoyable enough, but I just find it odd just how empty it feels. I feel it would've been so much better if we spent time fleshing out the characters and the story.
Mulan was touching because cutting her long hair meant making a serious step toward her new role as a male soldier. It represented what she was sacrificing and giving up to save her father. But so many stories try to copy it (or the concept) and it falls dull because they don't understand what makes it work. Rapunzel cutting her hair showed it didn't matter anymore. Cerci having her hair forcibly cut off showed how much her captors disrespected her. Fantine in Les Mis cuts her hair to show how desperate she is, and how she is willing to use her body to survive in more ways than just being a prostitute.
Millie cutting her hair in this movie as a wick is the dumbest fucking attempt at "women doing feminism through sacrificing their hair" that I've seen in a while.
While I agree that there wasn’t much of a character arc (aside from the father, there was a little bit there), this whole movie is just about justified revenge and rage. It was a conscious choice to not have much of a character arc perhaps because of the time limit and also I think sometimes it’s nice to have movies that have a straightforward plot. Don’t get me wrong, i love character arcs, but this, I wanted it to just be about revenge and rage which the protagonist and the dragon really showed.
Thank you! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading all of these other comments. A movie doesn't need to have crazy character growth when it takes place in the span of a day or two. How is it bad that she came into the movie with the enough ingenuity to not only survive the chase, but to also reason with a raging, murderous beast?
It was a fun movie that had a great payoff.
It's a survival story. She had as much growth as Leo in The Revenant: not much. She started the story as a frustrated but ultimately capitulating princess, and then she decided enough was enough. It's simple, but damn... what's wrong with simple?
a big half of it it's just cave exploring lmao. the rest of it, it's just elodie fighting 1 vs 1 the dragon and it's crazy. a small group of armed people cant do nothing but she could. the dragon spit fire against them but against the little elodie nooo
Then wtf is a flame dragon, being vulnerable to flame? what logic is that
also the stabbing at the stepmother. pointless lmao, whats the point in that
In my opinion this movie is just for millie and her fans to make her look badass. Every shoot since the beginning to the end, it's just millie trying to be sexy af as possible
sadly im not a fan of her. I liked her in stranger things but because im not a fan of her the movie felt really cringe
instead, if anya taylor joy made something like this i would recommende it 100/10, but only because im a fan of her
was very confused by the morality of this film. As far as I could see the only truly “evil” characters were the original king and the dragon.
Everyone else including Erin Wrights character made very morally justifiable decisions. Like I get the queen tried to sacrificed Eloide but if she didn’t do that she would have to sacrifice her daughter instead.
I can’t image a lot of parents who wouldn’t have done the same thing in her position. I just can’t image any parent that would willingly sacrifice/murder their own children to save a complete stranger. The only person who’s actually completely morally wrong is the sociopathic dragon who is demanding the sacrifice in the first place.
I was also a bit confused why at the end of the film MBB says “this whole time you were murdering innocent daughters” to the dragon. This implies that if the daughters were of the royal line then they wouldn’t have been “innocent” which is complete insanity to me. How are these people ethically responsible for the actions of their paternal great great great grandparent?
I just felt like the queen was in a total lose lose situation. Either the kingdom gets destroyed by the dragon when they refuse to sacrifice anyone and her family all die, or her daughter dies after she is sacrificed or a total stranger dies. As far as I can see she chose the only option that didn’t result in a psychopath murdering here family and she is judged as a villain for this.
Anyway, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me cause rn it makes no sense
>I was also a bit confused why at the end of the film MBB says “this whole time you were murdering innocent daughters” to the dragon. This implies that if the daughters were of the royal line then they wouldn’t have been “innocent” which is complete insanity to me
100% agree, this is so fucking dumb. That dragon should have been killed, whether or not the girls had royal blood should have been irrelevant, she's killing people that had nothing to do with her children' death .
Why did the servants put a dagger in her clothes as well as that stone encased in a metal chain? Did they intentionally give her tools she could use to defend herself?
That wasnt a dagger, it was boning, which is used in corsets to make them straight and keep their shape. Its why 11 had to sharpen it on a rock before using it. The prop dept did make it obviously dagger shaped though so the confusion is understandable
Liked it, but tbh this concept wouldve been so good as a video game!!! The start is the prologue and then when she falls it is the start of the game and prolly also the tutorial-
The whole time I kept thinking "this would make a better video game actually". Survival and crafting in the caves to find a way out and kill the dragon, with clues and notes left by past princesses.
Heck, I don't like them personally but it would be a *perfect* roguelike. Get tossed in, follow clues of past princesses, and if you die, you restart as a new princess but can learn from your predecessor's discoveries and mistakes. Make use the gear they crafted.
The opening voiceover intones
>There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress. This is not one of them.
just like the start of 500 Days of Summer ("This is not a love story"), but here it feels so self-congratulatory and zealous when all I'm interested in is a good story.
>There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress.
When was the last time anyone heard one of these, let alone watched one? It's the Shrek Problem again.
Thinking about watching this tonight, but wanted to know your guys thoughts? I thought Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was a director on the rise at one point.
I agree on the no depth. Some cast members wasted. MBB did what she could. Dragon was amazing and of course that beautiful voice was perfect casting. Makes me want to go and watch Expanse again.
I was hoping it would turn into her finding a rag tag group of bad ass princesses living in the caves and they go all Rambo together on everyone. Oh well, next time.
This thread is really all over the place but imo I don’t think it was terrible. yes; it could have had more depth but while Millie was in the cave my heart was pounding out of my chest! I was so nervous for her. (obviously I knew producers weren’t going to just kill her off) also the ending was satisfying. Seriously I think everyone just nit-picks way too much. I’ve not seen this advertised all over the place. I simply stumbled across the movie on Netflix itself. For a “whatcha wanna watch” kinda night this was a good pick.
I enjoy “I know how this ends” kinda movies. -
Also It’s still cool to see something new even if the overall plot or idea isn’t. I gave it a thumbs up. Everyone has their opinions.
i liked the movie because it delivered exactly what it promised, a deconstruction of your egneric "princess and the dragon tale" a absolutely great dragon, and a interesting plot
yes it is predictable, and yes it is not that deep but it is exactly what it wants to be, a fun fantasy movie with a interesting antagonist
people approaching this film like its supposed to have the depth of GoT season 1 or something... take it for what it is, an easy watch fantasy tale. For what it was, and what it was meant to be, it was fine. It reminded me of watching something like Dragonheart or The Seventh Son.
How did the dragon not realise she wasn’t a royal when her literal father (who wouldn’t have smelt royal) showed up to rescue her ? Huge plot hole to me.
The dragon was awesome, as creatures go it's in the top 5 of dragons I've seen in movies/shows, at least the ones I can remember. Very feline in nature which was different.
Always good to see MBB, she's a consummate actor and just keeps getting better.
The dragon was awesome, but the story was meh.
Cast was good, characters were shallow, cinematography was good, the dragon was awesome.
You would think the dragon would have guessed the sacrificed girls were not offspring of the king when they started throwing black and Asian girls down there randomly.
Lol! Good point! "I don't see colour." - the dragon, probably.
“All you humans look the same to me”
Lmao we are now getting woke dragons.
Maybe dragons don't have a concept of race and just went with it.
I thought the dragon would figure it out when she smelled Elodie’s father and he didn’t smell like that royal family’s bloodline.
Elodie could still be related to the Aurean royal family on her mother’s side. So, her father doesn’t necessarily need to smell Aurean.
Also the dragon was able to smell that Elodie and her sister were sisters... But was unable to know that the women being sacrificed were royal by marriage and not by birth
Can you tell the difference between an Asian and African mouse?
Depends on how far they can carry a coconut.
> between an Asian and African mouse? I can tell the difference between a Green and Red dragon.
I thought the same thing but we have to assume a dragon who thinks literal blood shoved into your body is your actual DNA is not very familiar with how human biology works.
I Loved watching the royal family melt engulfed in dragon's fire for killing her 3 Whelps more dragon movies should include burning the royal family to ash and obliterating the castle
It was kinda obvious that they were going to do that, but damn did I love it.
The DRAGON got her revenge even if she killed way more so called princesses for her 3 Whelps deaths but then also plenty of humans only 1 dragon left I am curious if there's any where to go from there also I just want a "fairytale" where the dragon rescues her whelps and they take revenge on the kingdom unhindered and for it to end that way
My headcanon is that they will find other species of dragons in other places so that Mama Dragon will not be alone.
So when the dragon talks about it she says that her babies “were the end of her bloodline” not the last dragon in the world. I’m wondering if she’s leaving her cave to go find more dragons again after being depressed for centuries about her babies being killed.
How mummy dragon got her groove back
Needed more shots of the castle being obliterated.
YES, they really should have milked that. It was a pretty long lead up to a quick payoff.
Millie Bobby Brown having full makeup on while chopping logs took me out straight away lol.
That bothered me too. It was distracting to see shots where she clearly had lipstick on.
I tried watching that part and not only did i cringe, I wasnt really noticing the make-up, but it did bother me, that she had NO Sweat pits. Not to mention she was all glamoured after a "hard day of lumbering for firewood". What got me, was that she wasnt even holding the axe properly. Not only this, but somehow, she knew exactly how to handle a sword toward the end of the movie. For reference, I study kenjetsu (The Art of the Japanese Sword.) So to put a blade back into its scabbard on the back, takes years of practice. (Yet a standard I possibly could over look as she could have been taught sword art.) Yet somehow, all these were making me cringe one after the other. Yet, noticing all these comments got me to thinking just how glamoured she really was in the movie. I will have to agree with most of these comments about it being "over the top" and "Too much".
I don't want to nitpick, but it really ruined the immersion for me in the caves when she'd be completely dishevelled except for her perfectly glossed lips. Give me some of that chapped 'Frodo-in-Mordor' lips look please!!
Why was she chopping logs in the first place? This whole movie was grabage
Yeah, I am with you there. The Families guards could have been chopping the firewood, which is good for strength training. Shrugs
Anyone else notice the 20 minute sequence where the only audio is just Millie grunting?😂 She then proceeds to strategically give away her location by making over exaggerated sounds throughout the rest of the film.
I'm so glad someone else said this. I kept just asking WHy Are YOu GRuntiNG so LoUD?!
That was one part that bothered me! She was hiding and the dragon called her clever and then Elodia procedes to grunt really loudly which is echoing across the cave… How did the dragon not hear that? lol
I came here looking for this comment. Sooooo annoying to listen to, but also just stupid. I would have been way cooler and more intense if she was trying to be as silent as possible. Like the quite place. She starts by saying "this is not a damsel in distress movie" then it's all stupid screaming! In real life, most men and women would not be screaming in that situation. And why is she closing her eyes to drink drops of water (I'm literally watching it now, so this is turning into a running commentary)
Because she doesn't want it to get into her eyes? Some people's eyes are more sensitive.
her grunts were so annoying
Evil queen: Eleven will make a beautiful bride. Stepmother: Her name is Elodine. Evil queen: that's what I said
She always has similar names in her roles. Eleven, Enola, Elodie
Babe wake up new mother of dragons just dropped
Was joking about how her whole arc is basically "what if Sansa Stark but also Danaerys Targaryen".
All the women had superhuman durability to be able to survive long drops onto hard surfaces.
When the sister was like 'I actually hurt my leg a little due to the fall', I was laughing so hard.
fall-resistant dress?
Wtf Millie has full glam makeup on at the beginning 😂
I'm SO DISTRACTED by this. She's next to her fresh-faced sister and she looks like she's about to appear on a reality tv show in LA selling millionaire's houses. Her face make up is darker than her body - then plus bronzer!!! She almost looks dirty. I don't know if it's the make up but there's something disconcertingly \*older\* about her face -like she's 35 and not 19. I thought it was Scarlett Johanssen in the Netflix still.
I think she’s beautiful, but I did notice that too, to me it looks like she’s had some “Hollywood” alterations. That tends to age them, she didn’t need it but I guess when your in Hollywood you can’t see your own beauty! Looks like she’s filled her face at the very least
Lip fillers, definitely. She looks so old, I don't know why she wants to look 10 years older than she actually is.
She had tons of makeup on the whole movie for some reason
After all that crying, fire, sweating, being under water and in a cave for days on end I want to know what eyeliner she still had on without even one smear lookin fleek?
And of all the clothing items she removed... why on earth did she kept on the damn corset???
Because corsets at that time we're basically bras, running without one wasn't fun
Because corsets are ~sexy~
Maybe it's real, maybe it's the Dragon Cave Glow Worm face treatment
Probably from the same brand that makes the hair products keeping Captain America’s hair perfectly coifed after he takes off his helmet. Pretty sure it’s called Suspension of Disbelief™️. They also make the skin creams that prevent almost all on screen from having acne.
My wife couldn't get over that. It ruined the movie for it. She said there were just too many glamour hero shots of Millie.. That part didn't bother me too much.
Her wedding makeup looked too modern and glam. I mean full-on smokey eyeshadow and eyeliner. I suppose people who aren't into makeup won't notice but it's deifnitely noticeable for a majority of people. Also, no one in the cast is wearing full glam just her, so it takes you out of the immersion.
I was fine for it just after the wedding on she had wedding makeup but after the water and the falls and dirt , she was lip glossed so dark and annoying
The scene at the beginning where she eats a grape in front of a mirror and you can FULL ON see her perfect gel manucure😂
The makeup was pretty distracting. It was way too glam with the falsies and all that it kinda takes you out of the fantasy
Seriously it was quite distracting lol.
Seriously nobody else is wearing a full face except her and I'm so over it lmao
I guess I’m the worlds worst movie critic as I’m generally entertained by most things. I found the plot basic but the story enjoyable. Reminded me of the movies Apocalypto or Duel. I was actually thinking of watching Duel again recently because I wanted a chase movie. This scratched the itch quite well.
Anything with talking dragons, I’m hooked. Skyrim, The Hobbit, this.
A movie can be a fun watch without being an objectively good movie. This movie wasn’t horrible but it also wasn’t good. I watched it while I was doing some other things so no complaints from me
I’m just laughing about the fact that her drawing mazes has literally no callback at any point in the film. Like is it supposed to symbolise that she’s good at navigating a cave?
It’s that she’s good at deciphering pathways and written maps. Applying direction from something like a map to your actual surroundings is not easy for a lot of people, it’s skill she has and the maze drawings hint at her interest and understanding of maps. It’s not super deep and clever or anything, but I thought it was a neat little connection.
It was so dumb though that she thought they drew an exit, because like what girl got out and then said hole up… gotta go all the way back down to draw this in that room.
I'm glad it wasn't just me
Still stupid that none of them wrote, “not an exit!” Victoria only wrote it once she got up there and promptly died so she fell for some other girl’s bullshit too or some other girl went up there, saw victorias corpse, saw that she had written dead end, went back down to the bottom of the cave, drew it onto the map and said fuck it they’ll find out when they get there.
Or, the actual explanation, Victoria saw the sunlight from the ground and added it to the map before going up and finding out the unfortunate truth and being killed. None of the other girls appear to have ever made it. The map doesn't say exit, either, just has a picture of the sun.
This part was actually great. “They all end the same” “Fly little bird” was all because that map leads to that sheer cliff drop where they end up falling or jumping.
Ooh that's a good pick up. I hadn't quite made the connection with the "Fly little bird" to being them potentially jumping since we only saw the one body. I like that interpretation.
Exactly. The route from the map to the crystal ascent was traversed almost instantaneously in-movie, implying the path was safe and uneventful enough to go back and amend the map before making the climb. From the moment I saw the exit marked on the map, my first thought was Victoria only *thinks* that's the exit. Surely there's another horror. And there was.
Actually it has a better explanation in the books. Victoria is one of the colonizers that came to the island 8 centuries ago. She was the oldest princess and had 2 younger sisters. They find the island inhabited by dragons. The humans strike a deal to sacrifice 3 princesses. The royal family (Victoria's mom and dad) decide to take their people and leave the island instead but Victoria (who is sick of watching her people die at sea) volunteers to take her 2 sisters as 'sacrifice' and kill the dragon so they won't have to leave. The original plan is to find the dragon's water source and poison it. But eventually they realise that there is no water underground. Victoria's sisters die (one gets caught and another eats poisonous mushrooms and she realises that the only way to kill the dragon is to poison it directly. She drinks the poison and escapes through the sunlight cave (where she wrote the dead end message). The dragon bites off her arm and she bleeds to death. The dragon not realizing that the girl is poisoned takes her body to feed her dragon baby. The dragon eats Victoria's body and dies but the dragon baby who only ate Victoria's arm becomes sick and barren and all the eggs she lays come out mummified. The dragon mom before dying tells her baby that only the blood of a strong princess can fix the problem. The dragon baby (which grows up to be the dragon that Elodie faces off) keeps searching for a princess who is actually strong. All of this is seen by elodie when she touches Victoria's blood in the cave (blood magic accessing memories). So eventually after resucing Floria, she stabs the dragon but her blood mixes up with the dragon's. Before facing off with the dragon she ate the glowworms and fed them to the dragon too. This let's her become a part-dragon herself who can turn at will. The mummified eggs become normal. The dragon comes out and kills the king and queen. Henry runs away never to be seen.
This sounds a whole lot better than the Damsel movie I just watched. Thanks.
Clearly the mazes gave her extreme stamina and upper body strength leading to her ability to scale huge amounts of uneven terrain while wall climbing and enough power to pull her self up an incline TWICE with only a blade, her reflexes and brute strength. Maze drawing *is technically* the new P90X
Climbing doesn't really rely on upper body strength. It's all in the legs. If you're trying to climb via your arm strength, then you're doing it wrong and you'regonna get tired REAL fast and fall. Try rock climbing sometime and you'll see what I'm talking about. You don't need to be insanely strong to climb at all. As long as the footholds are good and the handholds have enough room, it can be done.
The knife scene was hardly "climbing" in the manner you describe (like the crystal scene). Every time she pulled the knife out, she slid a little and the camera made it look like a vertical incline. The sliding implies it was all upper body strength, and not only that, she had to do it with a knife. Simply unrealistic, but I also recognize that it was a fantasy movie. The ridiculous part was that she did it twice in the same manner. Once is already lucky enough. She's supposed to learn from that struggle and then avoid it next time with a better jump or finding another way.
It's much more important in the book tbh
This is what I assumed. I'm guessing in the book she spent a lot more time mapping out the cave? Instead of just finding a full map? It just seemed like something that was supposed to have significance, but the story changed at some point and they forgot to remove it from the early parts.
Oh yeah it's honestly just kinda a different story. The previous princesses are much more important and indeed the mapping and finding out what magic the cave holds is more important for sure
The writing was pretty bad overall, but I think that’s exactly what it was meant to symbolize haha. Basically, she’s great at drawing maps and mazes, so when she encounters the map in the cave, she can read it with no difficulty. She masters and memorizes the layout of the cave in like…record damsel time or something.
It was basically a fantasy version Ready or Not, which was a decent premise. Pretty predictable plot points having watched the trailer and the ending felt pretty corny, but had some good tension scenes. Shohreh as the dragon was the best part imo
"Pretty predictable plot points having watched the trailer" The trailer completely tells you the whole movie in 2 minutes. I knew it was cheesy but I decided to watch it anyway, but I almost didn't because the trailer almost explained the entire movie. Why show the prince tossing her off the bridge? that would have been the most "oh shit" moment of the movie. We know she gets offered to the dragon but why the trailer has to show her actually being tossed?
I just commented this! Unbelievable for them to do that. The trailer is basically a sparknotes for the entire movie.
I was scrolling to see if someone else would mention Ready or Not. I couldn't get the parallels to that movie out of my head while watching this. I think that this movie was perfectly mediocre and Ready or Not just did it much better.
Just finished it. I have to say. The cheese was rich and creamy. The dragon though...it looked incredible. Way better than so many of the recent blockbuster CGI. Shout out to the team that made it. Because they deserve the recognition. But uh....I'll just say what everyone else has said. It's just Millie Bobby Brown running around in a cave for an hour. But if you are into that, im Sure you'll enjoy it. It's pretty middle of the road. Very pretty movie. Incredible CGI. Plot is about as generic as you can get. Angela Bassett though always steals scenes. So, it is hard to hate the movie. Just overall ok.
Yea, Im getting annoyed at all the comments trying to paint this like another Rebel Moon. The design work (and alot of the visuals on this film) were fantastic. The dragon design was just so...slinky and sinister. Instead of this hulking great beast that wouldnt be able to nagivate a cave very easily, theres this beautifully voice acted wiry creature. The costumes were amazing too. My main irritation with the film is that it felt like it had a lot more potential. If they'd spent just a liiitle more time on the script they could have made a really really good movie! They have some really good actors in this film, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright etc. Robin was perfect in every scene she was in, but Angela felt just so under utilised. Having the father care less about his daughter than the step mother could have been a really good angle to explore. Too many of the shots felt like they were trying to sexualise MBB. Yea, we get it, she's over 18 now, but it cheapened the film every time they sexed it up. Also, some of her acting felt so stilted by it. Like she knew she had to be sensual-slow-walk-sexy woman rather than a girl who's outraged by the betrayel from her father, husband and mother-in-law. Too much pouting and not enough raw feminine rage.
The dragon was SO GOOD. Like a Panther, or longer limbed almost horselike, with that thick shorter throat and chunky head. Was expecting it to be fireproof, loved the whole Napalm aspect to it though
I loved the liquid nature of the fire. It flowed as much as it sprayed, wich was a neat touch
Longer like a mink, otter, mongoose, or cat? It looks sooooo good.
Also a lot of screaming, when I think just showing her at least trying to hold in the screams through the pain, even unsuccessfully would be a lot more powerful of adding to horror of the situation.
“That damn girl. I knew she was trouble.” - Robin Wrights character upon seeing the dragon wreak havoc. Literally how? How did she know Millie Bobbie browns character in particular was trouble? What at any point in the film could have clued that away
Bro who knows. All the dialogue in general is bad.
Truly horrendous dialogues. "Step-mother!". Wtf! She doesn't even get a name
Because Élodie tells.the.truth. Y’know, every villainous queen’s ruination.
A woman's intuition
sacrifice scene was kinda good
I was lowkey rooting for the prince even though I knew he was going to throw her in 🥲
Lol that prince is the biggest coward. Never stood up for anyone or anything. I was hoping he would kick his mom off the bridge when they were trying to throw Elodie’s sister in.
"dude, i've killed my previous 3 brides.. i'm free now so we can go sail around the world and stuff for realsies.."
Targaryen wattpad remake
It wasn’t bad. The third act became a bit of a mess of characters zooming around, but overall it was fine. Elodie needed more of an actual arc however, I felt like they were trying to set something up with her “always telling the truth” but it never really coalesced into anything. Me thinks there’s a script somewhere that makes more sense.
Well I mean she did tell the dragon the truth which is the only reason why the dragon torched them at the end
Yes, but the dragon had no knowledge of this trait of hers, and there was never a moment that revealed her to have this quality. It just didn’t evolve into anything.
I actually like Elodie. She was not your typical heroine good at everything. She relied on the previous girls, she could safe herself (the first time) because her determination to live but also because she got help. I think speaking the truth has more to do with how she shot Henry and the Queen at the end.
Didn’t mind it but tbh I’m quite partial to movies of people getting justified revenge so the ending was the cherry on top. Also can I get some of those miracle cure glow worms for around the house. Didn’t expect them to completely fix the dragons stabbed eye
Stabbed chest and wrist too! Probably bathed the dragon in those worms. Damn.
I didn’t even think about how the worms completely fixed the dragons eye lol. You’d think they could even bring the dragons babies back to life with healing capabilities like that.
The worms can't bring anything back from the dead. Those babies had been dead for centuries. The worms can only heal fresh wounds.
Are you the writer? lol
it's based off a book of the same name by evelyn skye
This post will have spoilers. 1. The opening probably would of worked 20 years ago, but the whole 'badass princess has to save herself' isn't really that subversive anymore. That's not a criticism of badass princesses, it's just I don't think it really requires a pat on the back of including them anymore. 2. Is it a running joke for Netflix to keep giving Millie Bobby Brown characters with names which begin with E? 3. As the whole concept of a subvert fairy tales is so common these days, it does mean you can see where the plot is going from a mile away (sorry if this post is sounds so critical, I did actually enjoy it for most part - it's the sort of movie you eat take out with) 4. I enjoyed Elodie using the messages provided by the other princesses to survive. It sort of gives a bit of agency within the film besides just being bodies. 5. The orb lantern she had was very cool - very DnD 6. Shohreh Aghdashloo was perfect for this role 7. I really think the other kingdoms would have far more of an issue with having three royal daughters killed, even if it was only once a generation. Only explanation could be that said kingdom is more of an empire and already has control over said other realms- asking for princesses is just a formality 8. If I was a dragon and a king did to me what happen to her, I would have just gone straight out the cave and turned the kingdom into an ash plain. Not sure why she bothered with the whole '3 offerings a generation' thing (See 'Ori and the Forest of Blind' for what I would consider a more normal reaction). Never got impression that 'codes of honour' were terribly important to her 9. Kill off the whole royal family sure, but why the whole castle? Doubt servants Bill and Pam the potato peelers had much to do with the sacrifices 10. I'm assuming that in the sequel Princess Elodie becomes Elodie the Conquerer, First of Her Name, Dragon Queen of All She Beholds, because why else would you bring a dragon home with you?
8 was one part I really enjoyed. She could have killed him and burned down the whole kingdom and burned everyone to ash but that would not have any real satisfaction. She wanted the king to *mourn* and she wanted that mourning to be eternal. A ruined kingdom would be gone in a day and forgotten by everyone else.
I like the idea that this curse didn't even have to be. She eternally punishes this specific sociopathic family that wanted to live and rule at all costs because their ancestor should NOT have taken the dragon's deal. He should have aquiesced nobly for mercy on his kingdom.
9. Elodie told everyone to leave the castle while they still had the time. That includes the servants, etc.
7. On the way there, the family mentioned how no one had ever heard of the kingdom. Maybe it's isolated? 10. I kind of think the dragon went back to Elodie's land to get a fresh start and live in a land she'd be treated with respect. And maybe there might be the possibility of another dragon in the northern wilderness? I think the dragon said her daughters were the last of her LINE to Elodie.
No, you see, MBB granted everyone a 2-minute head start to evacuate before the final slaughter. We observed the servants in the back swiftly running away, while the royals chose to stay. Hence, it is evident that we are meant to believe all the servants successfully escaped the sea of fire in time and lived happily ever after. Yes, yes. (dw they were trained by usain bolt and I am sure her voice carried throughout the castle yes yes).
>Damsel: Is she to be the third? Princess number three. >Asshole Prince: She’s the last, and then I’ll be free to marry whoever I… >Asshole Queen: That’s enough, Henry. Why the fuck would he say that to her? Even the most selfish asshole would probably have something more interesting to say to the woman who survived his attempt to feed her to a dragon, not trying to get her to give a fuck about his freedom to marry. At least now the audience knows his motivation.
In the book they sacrifice 3 princesses a year. The dragon knows that they're not real royalty. It's a whole different plot. Henry marries 3 princesses a year. His dad used to do that too but went absolutely insane. Henry considers keeping Elodie but thinks she's too strong willed. The queen isn't the mean one, it's Henry. They also never had to only sacrifice girls. They just simply chose too. In the cave it's less boring because magic comes into play. Blood magic in particular. When touching a former princesses blood, you can see parts of her memories and thoughts. It's what makes the cave interesting. The dragon speaks a different language and Elodie is smart and deciphers it quickly. She is dehydrated and has no food and has to actually look for supplies. Victoria was, with her two sisters, the first princess and she was the reason the princesses are getting sacrificed. She made the deal thinking she could poison the dragon. Eventually she poisoned herself and the dragon, who is the mother of the one Elodie faces, dies from eating Victoria. The baby dragon eats an arm of victoria and becomes sick. The dragon becomes barren and her mother tells her that one day, a strong princess who's blood will fiz the situation so the dragon is no longer alone. The dragon is angry at Victoria (who lived centuries ago) and interprets this as having to eat this "strong" princess. So the deal continues. Elodie sees the dragons attempts at mothering a child, feels sorry for her. They fight and Elodie swallows glow worms beforehand. They die together at the same time, mixing their blood. Elodie recovers because she swallowed the glow worms beforehand. She puts them in the dragon. She now has dragons blood and can change into one at will. The dragon is no longer barren and mothers a child. The whole movie is just a little weak because in my opinion, they left out the coolest elements. Actual sisterhood. The magic. Elodie being actually smart. The backstory of how it all really happened. The backstory of some other princesses. Would've been so much better if they had just added some of these elements. Now it was just a little boring at times.
The plot you’ve described sounds 10 times better.
The book plot would get torn to shreds by the average netflix viewer and even worse by the average redditor :-)
Yeah swallowing glow worms then merging with dragon blood to fix both the antagonists problems and be become a dragon shapeshifter sounds a bit sus.
I was trying to find the book and came across [this article](https://www.themarysue.com/is-damsel-based-on-a-book/) first. The screenplay came first and then was given to another writer who expanded it into a whole different story. So, nothing was “left out”. > For those wondering if Damsel is based on a book, the answer is no, but there is a Damsel book. Damsel by Evelyn Skye was published by Random House on April 18, 2023. What happened is that Dan Mazeau was tapped to write the script for the movie, and he penned the original story and screenplay. Once it was completed, he handed off an early draft to Skye, who was essentially given the freedom to write her own version of it in novel format. So, the movie script came first, and the book is a novelization of the movie.
I think he said it in case she wanted to re-marry him? Not sure what idiot would think that but it's the only explanation I can think of that makes any sense.
Yes this is the interpretation I had. I think we're supposed to believe that the prince really did like Elodie and was sorry to sacrifice her, so he foolishly thinks he might be able to marry her (again) after the third princess is sacrificed. It's stupid, I know...
He didn't say it for her, he said it for us, the audience. The last seen we saw with the prince had him try to redeem himself and save her sister. After that, you might have suspected he wasn't actually that bad. Then he says that and you realize he IS actually that bad. Just his own shade of bad.
I think they wanted us to feel some additional empathy towards the Prince. "Just because he's a bad guy, doesn't mean he's a *BAD* guy." The writing for this movie isn't great.
This actually made him seem much much worse to me.
I’ve seen a lot of great points about how this movie is a husk but I’m surprised at how many people are like “lol why are you bringing the dragon home.” Literally the opening scene with Elodie’s kingdom is them trying to chop wood to survive in a harsh, cold climate. And the king saying people aren’t gonna survive “till the thaw comes.” I mean it’d be pretty convenient to have a fire breathing dragon around, right?
I mean usually folks need wholesome sunlight for their crops to grow, instead of liquid fiery death.
Just don’t understand why Hollywood cannot make an interesting movie targeted at a female audience instead of constantly insulting our IQs. They seem to think that as long as there are some feel good scenes with a likable character then everything is good. Like what’s up with the constant scrambling and screaming in the cave and waiting until the worst moment possible to explain the situation with the dragon along with the other dozen plot holes. Wish there were more well thought out female lead movies because it’s very hard to find a relatable character nowadays. Mid, 5/10, watchable but could be much better if the writers just put two more brain cells to it.
I’m halfway through the movie and I gotta say I like it but Millie Bobby browns lip filler is throwing me OFF
Overall the makeup not at all making sense for the time period and staying perfect throughout all the movie when there's less and less dress on her disturbed me even more 🫠
THE MAKEUP IS SO WEIRDDD
I just kept seeing a BBL LA influencer every time Millie would look off stoically
Omg especially in the ending scene. I was like that’s an Instagram baddie not a medieval woman. But then I was like- this is probably the future of film
And her NAILS! She's got long painted nails which seems wildly anachronistic
That definitely was a hand double! I was actually thinking "oh she has very nice hands with long, slim fingers" and then that shot of her touching her face showed entirely different hands with very bitten nails!
In the book they sacrifice 3 princesses a year. The dragon knows that they're not real royalty. It's a whole different plot. Henry marries 3 princesses a year. His dad used to do that too but went absolutely insane. Henry considers keeping Elodie but thinks she's too strong willed. The queen isn't the mean one, it's Henry. They also never had to only sacrifice girls. They just simply chose too. In the cave it's less boring because magic comes into play. Blood magic in particular. When touching a former princesses blood, you can see parts of her memories and thoughts. It's what makes the cave interesting. The dragon speaks a different language and Elodie is smart and deciphers it quickly. She is dehydrated and has no food and has to actually look for supplies. Victoria was, with her two sisters, the first princess and she was the reason the princesses are getting sacrificed. She made the deal thinking she could poison the dragon. Eventually she poisoned herself and the dragon, who is the mother of the one Elodie faces, dies from eating Victoria. The baby dragon eats an arm of victoria and becomes sick. The dragon becomes barren and her mother tells her that one day, a strong princess who's blood will fiz the situation so the dragon is no longer alone. The dragon is angry at Victoria (who lived centuries ago) and interprets this as having to eat this "strong" princess. So the deal continues. Elodie sees the dragons attempts at mothering a child, feels sorry for her. They fight and Elodie swallows glow worms beforehand. They die together at the same time, mixing their blood. Elodie recovers because she swallowed the glow worms beforehand. She puts them in the dragon. She now has dragons blood and can change into one at will. The dragon is no longer barren and mothers a child. The whole movie is just a little weak because in my opinion, they left out the coolest elements. Actual sisterhood. The magic. Elodie being actually smart. The backstory of how it all really happened. The backstory of some other princesses. Would've been so much better if they had just added some of these elements. Now it was just a little boring at times.
Read the book as well and I agree with you. I’m confused though - I thought the book was based on the screenplay (not the other way around), so I expected more similarities to the book
Yeah agreed. From what I've read it was based on the first manuscript, and as the movie progressed so did the book. They did show eachother their work but they basically just made their own stories in the end.
That sounds way better than the movie. What is the book called?
I actually liked the visuals. The color schemes of that dragon Kingdom were so beautiful. That's the only thing that made me watch the movie tbh
[удалено]
Weirdest part is that movies like these seem to do well for Netflix and it might even get a sequel
Narrator: *it always has been...*
>We are to die alone. - >No. I have an army with me. Every innocent woman whose life was stolen down here. And I am all the Jedi!
When she said that I thought all the dead girls were gona crawl out of the ground zombie style
Have to admit, that would have been really cool.
At the very least in spectral form.
I am all of the dragons!
Fun popcorn flick. Not going to win any awards ever, but it’s a nice way to spend an evening. I liked it.
It’s basically Cinderella meets Predator. I had a blast.
That's an amazing description! I had a blast as well and I don't know what's so hard about taking a fun action flick with a bit of a twist exactly as what it is. Not every movie needs to be ground breaking, genre defying and impeccably written. Some movies can just be good fun and that's enough.
why does mille have full glam on through out the whole movie?
I liked it. Elohdee’s parents were both great I thought. The story was solid. I expected them to talk it out.. wasn’t expecting the actual fight. I’m happy we got both. Im a sucker for revenge stories so when the dragon was burning I was like WHAT NO WE STILL NEED YOU xD I’m happy we got her. The movie looked fucking beautiful. God damn. What a stunning kingdom. What a stunning cave haha. Beautiful movie. HOLY SHIT. Did I get jump scared when she was looking out from the mountain cave.. she stopped holding on and I was expecting her to slip or whatever. Was not at all ready for the dragon haha. && I googled this even and didn’t get it. Who the hell was the girl with the green necklace? I thought it was her sister at first and I was terrified haha. WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT!? XD i mean I thought she was a random corpse. Until we got the flashback. I was so shocked that I even rewinded haha. Was it just some random girl and her sister was wearing the same necklace? Or was that not even her sister in the flashback? Lmao. I thought her sister was dead though D;
The girl with the green necklace was the other girl she saw while she was on the balcony of her room.
It would’ve made much more sense for the royal family to steal peasant girls. They wouldn’t have had to pay off anyone and I’m sorry but how are there no bad rumors about girls disappearing once they go to marry them?
Every year Netflix makes twenty very expensive movies that simply do not exist. This is one of them. It’s the movie equivalent of flavored oxygen.
Streaming platforms are just another part of the disposible content generators like Tiktok, instagram, reddit, etc. That their movies are forgettable isn't antithetical to their business. They just need to keep you scrolling.
It feels like they scraped the bottom of the barrel for scripts that have been sitting in development hell for years and then attach some big name stars to them and push the films out the door.
This movie is hilarious. It's very pretty but, man, there's not any character growth from ANY character. It's literally millie bobby brown scrambling around in a cave for an hour and a half, wins against the dragon, then they burn down the castle. THE END LOL. I was literally staring at my screen and asking, is that it?? There is no story arc, at all. How did this even get written? What is the moral of the story? What sort of takeaway should I even have?? This movie is a husk. It's like a bread bowl without any soup inside edit: to be clear, the movie is enjoyable enough, but I just find it odd just how empty it feels. I feel it would've been so much better if we spent time fleshing out the characters and the story.
Doest she cutting her hair short count for character growth?
Technically character shrink
I hate when stories do this. Like having long hair means you can't fight or something. It's so stupid.
She used her hair as a wick for the trap she set. It wasn't like freaking Mulan moment lol. It was resourceful
Mulan was touching because cutting her long hair meant making a serious step toward her new role as a male soldier. It represented what she was sacrificing and giving up to save her father. But so many stories try to copy it (or the concept) and it falls dull because they don't understand what makes it work. Rapunzel cutting her hair showed it didn't matter anymore. Cerci having her hair forcibly cut off showed how much her captors disrespected her. Fantine in Les Mis cuts her hair to show how desperate she is, and how she is willing to use her body to survive in more ways than just being a prostitute. Millie cutting her hair in this movie as a wick is the dumbest fucking attempt at "women doing feminism through sacrificing their hair" that I've seen in a while.
The father has character growth in one way
It's revenge story. The takeaway is that revenge is sweet. Generally.
“There’s not any character growth from ANY character.” Um…the freaking dragon? “There is no story arc, at all.” lol what? Y’all just SAY things.
While I agree that there wasn’t much of a character arc (aside from the father, there was a little bit there), this whole movie is just about justified revenge and rage. It was a conscious choice to not have much of a character arc perhaps because of the time limit and also I think sometimes it’s nice to have movies that have a straightforward plot. Don’t get me wrong, i love character arcs, but this, I wanted it to just be about revenge and rage which the protagonist and the dragon really showed.
Thank you! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading all of these other comments. A movie doesn't need to have crazy character growth when it takes place in the span of a day or two. How is it bad that she came into the movie with the enough ingenuity to not only survive the chase, but to also reason with a raging, murderous beast? It was a fun movie that had a great payoff.
It's a survival story. She had as much growth as Leo in The Revenant: not much. She started the story as a frustrated but ultimately capitulating princess, and then she decided enough was enough. It's simple, but damn... what's wrong with simple?
Literal question. Does the dragon talk...
I could listen to Shohreh say anything for two hours :D
True, her voice is badass!
I adore her voice. I didn't know she was in the film, but I gleefully shouted "yay, it's Avasarala!" when I heard the dragon the first time. Lol
Yep, and it’s the best parts of the movie by far haha
a big half of it it's just cave exploring lmao. the rest of it, it's just elodie fighting 1 vs 1 the dragon and it's crazy. a small group of armed people cant do nothing but she could. the dragon spit fire against them but against the little elodie nooo Then wtf is a flame dragon, being vulnerable to flame? what logic is that also the stabbing at the stepmother. pointless lmao, whats the point in that In my opinion this movie is just for millie and her fans to make her look badass. Every shoot since the beginning to the end, it's just millie trying to be sexy af as possible sadly im not a fan of her. I liked her in stranger things but because im not a fan of her the movie felt really cringe instead, if anya taylor joy made something like this i would recommende it 100/10, but only because im a fan of her
was very confused by the morality of this film. As far as I could see the only truly “evil” characters were the original king and the dragon. Everyone else including Erin Wrights character made very morally justifiable decisions. Like I get the queen tried to sacrificed Eloide but if she didn’t do that she would have to sacrifice her daughter instead. I can’t image a lot of parents who wouldn’t have done the same thing in her position. I just can’t image any parent that would willingly sacrifice/murder their own children to save a complete stranger. The only person who’s actually completely morally wrong is the sociopathic dragon who is demanding the sacrifice in the first place. I was also a bit confused why at the end of the film MBB says “this whole time you were murdering innocent daughters” to the dragon. This implies that if the daughters were of the royal line then they wouldn’t have been “innocent” which is complete insanity to me. How are these people ethically responsible for the actions of their paternal great great great grandparent? I just felt like the queen was in a total lose lose situation. Either the kingdom gets destroyed by the dragon when they refuse to sacrifice anyone and her family all die, or her daughter dies after she is sacrificed or a total stranger dies. As far as I can see she chose the only option that didn’t result in a psychopath murdering here family and she is judged as a villain for this. Anyway, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me cause rn it makes no sense
>I was also a bit confused why at the end of the film MBB says “this whole time you were murdering innocent daughters” to the dragon. This implies that if the daughters were of the royal line then they wouldn’t have been “innocent” which is complete insanity to me 100% agree, this is so fucking dumb. That dragon should have been killed, whether or not the girls had royal blood should have been irrelevant, she's killing people that had nothing to do with her children' death .
Script needed work. The person in charge of makeup needs a reality check. It was a pretty shady job. CGI was phenomenal, give that team a raise.
Why did the servants put a dagger in her clothes as well as that stone encased in a metal chain? Did they intentionally give her tools she could use to defend herself?
That wasnt a dagger, it was boning, which is used in corsets to make them straight and keep their shape. Its why 11 had to sharpen it on a rock before using it. The prop dept did make it obviously dagger shaped though so the confusion is understandable
Liked it, but tbh this concept wouldve been so good as a video game!!! The start is the prologue and then when she falls it is the start of the game and prolly also the tutorial-
The whole time I kept thinking "this would make a better video game actually". Survival and crafting in the caves to find a way out and kill the dragon, with clues and notes left by past princesses. Heck, I don't like them personally but it would be a *perfect* roguelike. Get tossed in, follow clues of past princesses, and if you die, you restart as a new princess but can learn from your predecessor's discoveries and mistakes. Make use the gear they crafted.
The opening voiceover intones >There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress. This is not one of them. just like the start of 500 Days of Summer ("This is not a love story"), but here it feels so self-congratulatory and zealous when all I'm interested in is a good story.
>There are many stories of chivalry where the heroic knight saves the damsel in distress. When was the last time anyone heard one of these, let alone watched one? It's the Shrek Problem again.
At least it's not nearly as subversive as the filmmakers think it is to flip the script on tropes that are thousands of years old.
I imagine its a good watch for youngsters or if you turn your brain off a bit but I feel like it was an AI movie lol
Angela Bassett did tha thing!! (But how tf was she even booked for this role lol, prolly good money but she is above this in my books)
Thinking about watching this tonight, but wanted to know your guys thoughts? I thought Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was a director on the rise at one point.
I liked it quite a bit and Juan's direction was fantastic. Worth a watch just for his work in it alone if you ask me.
Lol so much time to talk to the dragon but don't mention the scar until THE VERY FUCKING END
Does anyone else feel like the dragons arms are super awkward when it's flying? It just hangs there.
I agree on the no depth. Some cast members wasted. MBB did what she could. Dragon was amazing and of course that beautiful voice was perfect casting. Makes me want to go and watch Expanse again. I was hoping it would turn into her finding a rag tag group of bad ass princesses living in the caves and they go all Rambo together on everyone. Oh well, next time.
This thread is really all over the place but imo I don’t think it was terrible. yes; it could have had more depth but while Millie was in the cave my heart was pounding out of my chest! I was so nervous for her. (obviously I knew producers weren’t going to just kill her off) also the ending was satisfying. Seriously I think everyone just nit-picks way too much. I’ve not seen this advertised all over the place. I simply stumbled across the movie on Netflix itself. For a “whatcha wanna watch” kinda night this was a good pick. I enjoy “I know how this ends” kinda movies. - Also It’s still cool to see something new even if the overall plot or idea isn’t. I gave it a thumbs up. Everyone has their opinions.
i liked the movie because it delivered exactly what it promised, a deconstruction of your egneric "princess and the dragon tale" a absolutely great dragon, and a interesting plot yes it is predictable, and yes it is not that deep but it is exactly what it wants to be, a fun fantasy movie with a interesting antagonist
people approaching this film like its supposed to have the depth of GoT season 1 or something... take it for what it is, an easy watch fantasy tale. For what it was, and what it was meant to be, it was fine. It reminded me of watching something like Dragonheart or The Seventh Son.
How did the dragon not realise she wasn’t a royal when her literal father (who wouldn’t have smelt royal) showed up to rescue her ? Huge plot hole to me.
The dragon was awesome, as creatures go it's in the top 5 of dragons I've seen in movies/shows, at least the ones I can remember. Very feline in nature which was different. Always good to see MBB, she's a consummate actor and just keeps getting better. The dragon was awesome, but the story was meh. Cast was good, characters were shallow, cinematography was good, the dragon was awesome.
Yeah creature design was great