The Princess Review

The Princess is a Hulu/Disney+ original, depending on the territory you live in. This action film gives a fairy tale story a violent, action twist.

Joey King is the titular princess. She wakes up in her bedchamber in a wedding dress and shackles. Fortunately for The Princess she had been training as a warrior since she was a little girl and she uses her particular set of skills to save herself, her family, and her kingdom from Julius (Dominic Cooper) who plans to marry The Princess.

The Princess was a film that didn’t waste time. It started with The Princess waking up in her unfortunate situation. There was no setup or build-up, it just started with an action scene. Action was the primary focus and it succeeded on that front. The film was produced by Derek Kolstad, writer of the John Wick films, and Neal H. Moritz, producer of the Fast and Furious films. They are men who have worked extensively in the action genre and they brought their experience to this film.

The Princess was the latest film to try and capture the John Wick magic by being a fun violence flick with a tongue-in-cheek approach. For action fans there was plenty of variety in the action. Many weapons were used like swords, clubs, whips, and even the chain from the shackles. The Princess had to fight large soldiers, one looking like he stepped off the set of a Mad Max film, to numerous soldiers at once. Joey King was clearly enjoying the role as she hit men and took blows.

The Princess had a Die Hard style story where one person happens to be trapped behind enemy lines and they need to fight their way out. There have been many entertaining films that have used this setup like Speed, Air Force One, Sudden Death, The Raid, and Dredd. The Princess’ USP was ‘what if Die Hard was set in medieval times.’

2021 saw the release of two feminist-themed action films, Gunpowder Milkshake and Kate. All of them wanted to be notable action films that showed that girls fight as well as the boys. Gunpowder Milkshake had a bright, comic book style, whilst Kate used the neon lighting of Tokyo. The Princess was a revisionist fairy tale and it took the Disney idea of a princess wanting to take control of their destiny to a violent extreme.

Whilst The Princess was fun as an action experience, the film did have a lot of issues. The most obvious was the screenplay because it was skeletal. As stated, the film just opened with The Princess chained and fighting her way out of the bedchamber. This wasn’t a cold opening to hook in audiences and then show the lead-up to these events. Die Hard and similar films do set up their characters and the motivations of villains before the action begins. The Princess didn’t have any of that. The film was just relentless action

There was a token attempt at characterisation for The Princess. She was given the lesson that to be a warrior she needs to fight for something. The Princess was fighting to protect her family and kingdom and the film tried to highlight her relationship with her younger sister, Violet (Katelyn Rose Downey), and her mentor, Linh (Veronica Ngo). But this was cookie-cutter writing, there was no depth to it.

Dominic Cooper’s character was simply an evil bastard who wanted to take over the kingdom and use marriage to The Princess to achieve this. This was a stock character and Cooper just felt like he was repeating his work in Dracula Untold. Olga Kurylenko was disappointing in her role as Julius’ main henchwoman because her performance was wooden. It’s a shame because Kurylenko was good in Quantum of Solace and was intimidating in Centurion.

The Princess did have an air of cheapness to it. The filmmakers seemed to have used a Die Hard-style story because it meant the film could be mostly in one location. The same sets could be used. When greenscreen effects where used they looked obvious like the production company paid the special effects artists the bare minimum.

The Princess storytelling and characterisation were as deep as a puddle, but as an action experience it was entertaining.