Red Sonja Review: A Committed Matilda Lutz Stars in M. J. Bassett’s Decent, B-Movie Vibe of a Sword-and-Sorcery Film
The last time a big screen attempt on a Red Sonja movie resulted in a flimsy and poorly acted sword-and-sorcery film. That was forty years ago when Brigitte Nielsen made her acting debut playing the title character. The leggy Nielsen sure looked the part, but her stilted acting and flat line delivery were among the downfalls that plagued the movie. I recently rewatched the 1985 movie, and it looked just as bad as I saw it decades ago.
Red Sonja deserves a better screen treatment, only to suffer from decades-long development hell, stretching way back to 2008 when Robert Rodriguez tried but failed to get his project off the ground with Rose McGowan attached to star in the titular role. Since then, various directors from Simon West to Bryan Singer and Joey Soloway have come and gone before M. J. Bassett took over the long-gestating Red Sonja reboot.
Her name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence since I still couldn’t get over how she botched Silent Hill: Revelation, especially after Christophe Gans got off to a promising start in the creepy first movie. I was worried that she’s going to ruin another IP, but after watching the new Red Sonja, she does an overall decent job reviving the project. At least it marks an improvement over the tepid 1985 original, which shouldn’t be a hurdle after all. It’s just that it could have been better than what we have here, especially after decades of waiting to finally see a new Red Sonja movie.
So, the actress who took up the challenge is Matilda Lutz, the Italian actress who already made a lasting impression playing the vengeful protagonist in the violent action thriller, Revenge, back in 2017. Her appearance may lack the buxom appearance straight out of the comic books, but Lutz manages to compensate for that with her assured, take-charge performance as Sonja.
The story doesn’t delve deep into her origin as Bassett prefers a more forward-momentum structure to pace her movie, with occasional flashbacks taking place to reveal her past when Sonja was just a nine-year-old child (Sofia Weldon). Right from the beginning, we learn that the Hyrkanian people who live in a peaceful village community end up in a massacre, and their home is destroyed.
The now-adult Sonja has since living in the forest with her trusty horse. After witnessing the brutal slaughtering of a few warthogs, Sonja’s quest leads her to face the white-haired Annisia (Wallis Day), who served as the right-hand woman for the tyrannical Emperor Dragan the Magnificent (Robert Sheehan). Far from a typical ruthless emperor, he is also a man who believes in the power of science and technology.
Sonja is held captive, and instead of facing a direct execution, she is forced to join the rest of the warriors for the gladiatorial battle in the arena. From there, he meets fellow gladiators such as Osin the Untouched (Luca Pasqualino) and the world-weary Petra (Rhona Mitra).
Some of the supporting characters here are forgettable, save for Sheehan’s scenery-chewing antagonist role along with Wallis Day and Rhona Mitra’s respective no-nonsense performances as Annisia and Petra. Lutz pretty much carries the weight here, and Bassett even throws in a fan service by making Sonja show up in her signature chainmail bikini during her fight in the gladiatorial arena.
The action itself is fairly bloody and competently staged, even though I can’t help but notice most of these scenes are short-lived, which obviously has to do with the budget constraint. Even at a seemingly limited budget, Bassett does whatever she can here, turning Tasha Huo’s ambitious screenplay to her advantage. This is especially true in what could have been a straightforward, B-movie sword-and-sorcery film; the story manages to spice things up by subverting a few expectations as the movie progresses. The creature design, particularly the towering cyclops, is adequate for a genre movie without the luxury of a big-budget price tag.
