This review was made possible by Hulu providing an advanced screener of The Princess.
The Princess follows a princess (Joey King) who has been kidnapped and placed in a tower in her father’s castle after turning down the man (Dominic Cooper) she was arranged to marry. Now she must save her family, the kingdom, and herself.
If you’re a fan of near non-stop action, then you’ll love The Princess but if you’re looking for something with a bit more story substance, it may not be the right film for you.
Joey King Delivers as the Warrior Princess
Joey King plays The Princess and yes, that is the name they refer to her as throughout the entire film. Other than a handful of characters, no one has a real name. They are either nameless or referred to by their title. With that said, she is an absolute badass who is clever and resourceful, using her skills and wit to fight through the dozens of mercenaries crawling the castle in order to save her family and the kingdom. With her character doing a lot less talking and a lot more action, she nails this role as a believable warrior princess.
Dominic Cooper plays Julius, the man who was set to marry The Princess and become heir to the throne until she left him at the alter. Believing the throne was rightfully his, he and his men took over the kingdom and locked The Princess away in a tower so he could force her to marry him. Or so he thought. There’s truly nothing redeemable about him and that’s proven more and more as the film goes on as we see what lengths he’ll go to in order to secure the crown. Dominic Cooper plays bad so good. He’s scheming and despicable in all the right ways, making sure that even if you normally like the bad guys, you’ll want nothing to do with this one.
High-Impact Action and Killer Sound Design
I want to start off with the things I enjoyed about The Princess. The fight scenes are shot incredibly well and that’s important for a film with so many of them. They’re consistently visually interesting in both choreography and camera work to the point where you won’t want to look away for a single second. They’re mostly one-on-one or one-on-two so the scenes usually don’t fall victim to the problem I find in a lot of fight scenes where people are standing around watching until it’s their turn to strike. They are, without a doubt, the best thing about this movie.
The second best thing about this film is the soundtrack by composer Natalie Holt. Natalie Holt has been absolutely killing the game lately, composing Deadwater Fell, Loki, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you love her work, this will be no exception.
Now for what I didn’t really like. While The Princess is fun to watch, if you’re someone like me who enjoys plot-driven media, you might find the film a bit…repetitive. They set up the way it’s going to go early on and hardly deviates from the pattern. A fight scene, followed by a usually short plot scene, followed by another fight scene, short plot scene, etc., and this goes on throughout the entire movie. I was hoping for a deeper story but it never really got there.
Where ‘The Princess’ Falls Short
As for the plot, truthfully, it’s cliché. A princess who breaks the damsel in distress narrative and is her own hero, taking down every man (and one woman with a whip) who stands in her way, an evil man who wants the throne, and a ton of dumb oaf mercenaries to do his bidding. We don’t find out how she’s acquired her skills until about 20 minutes into the movie but at least it explains why she’s an incredibly skilled fighter while the rest of her family is useless in that regard.
There were also a couple negative tropes that didn’t quite sit right with me. The first was that she doesn’t have a name. I thought maybe they’d at least reveal it at the end but no, she’s just The Princess. I feel if you’re going to create this cool, fighting princess, don’t leave her unnamed. She deserves a name. I know I mentioned above that a lot of the characters don’t have names, so maybe it’s a stylistic choice but I didn’t care for it. Secondly, why are we still doing the ‘fat guy has trouble climbing stairs’ bit in 2022? It’s a running joke throughout the entire film and it just feels outdated and fatphobic. Do better.
‘The Princess’ – Final Thoughts
The Princess is fun, mindless entertainment that would be good to put on if you need to kill a little bit of time. If you’re looking for a unique story with characters you can connect to, you’ll probably want to pass on it. It does have some redeeming qualities, like the cool camera work, great acting, and an awesome soundtrack, but the clichés and negative tropes are a little too distracting for me. Overall, I thought it was just OK.
The Princess is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+ (where Hulu is not available).
