DAMSEL | How to Ruin a Great Concept
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- Опубликовано: 18 мар 2024
- DAMSEL, premiered on Netflix, is a fantasy story that doesn't follow the traditional damsel in distress - that hasn't been a thing for a long while but oh well. Here is my HONEST review
#damsel #netflix
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Eleven, Elodie, Enola... Her next role is named Ebola
Woooooow 😂
Ebola Chan the movie.
There is definitely a pattern there 🤣
Broooooooo 😂😂😂😂😂
😂😂
I really hated that they tried to redeem the dragon, or at least the way they went with it. Sure, it was sad her babies were killed by the king so long ago, but the dragon murdering innocent young women for hundreds of years after was not justified, regardless of the women's bloodline. Also, why did the kingdom even bother with the elaborate fake weddings? Why not just kidnap a few random women from a village, cut their hands and mingle it with the prince's, and then throw them down the chasm that way? It would have been cheaper as they wouldn't need to pay off the families of the sacrificed wives.
maybe the blood wasn't enough. maybe the wedding ceremony somehow made them actually "part of the family", and the blood gave them the royal blood line, thus making them proper sacrifices. otherwise it could only be children born of the family, who have both the blood and are part of the family. idk, just a guess, but i get your point.
@@sojalemmi1515That’s what I thought too until the dragon expressed remorse and outrage for having been duped all those years by killing the wrong women. She wanted the actual children of the king, not their spouses.
No one ever noticed foreign princesses randomly going off the radar after the weddings, never writing emails or whatnot to their families abroad? LOL! Everyone was ok marrying off to that strange kingdom with a dragon problem? Because like it was possible to hide the existence of such predator, right? :)
@@sojalemmi1515 "otherwise it could only be children born of the family, who have both the blood and are part of the family"
(*.* )
Its woke logic. No one understands what they are thinking
The Dragon had more character development than Elodie did in this film…
Thank you. I never saw this but I laughed hard on this comment.
Damn right.
So true
Which was what exactly?
That’s called being a flat character
I find it absolutely hilarious. They never give the stepmother a name. They just keep calling her stepmother like she's not an actual person
Didn't most Disney movies do that?
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Well tbf ..... no you're right lol
True, but most Disney movies are based off of existing franchises. And for instance, Cinderella's stepmother is known as lady Tremayne. If you look at the original pieces, those characters usually do have names. Disney are just assholes when it comes to giving them to them@@audreyharris7643
I find it funny that the obviously intersectional feminist writers wouldn't give the most prominent woman of color in the film a name!
@@VespoLiveGamingL, OL it's occurred to me. That's where they're all pouring starving in her home and village. Because the father spent all this money going finding a bride of another race and.
That's why they have no money.
Wait, so the dragon felt fooled into killing a bunch of people who weren't related to the king who killed her young, and it's next major act is to go kill even more people who weren't related to the king who killed her young?
“Modern” morality
Kinda stupid dragon plot
Woke logic: feel sad about self then violent drag everyone into the same depression
They were literally given a choice to leave, not our fault they were dumb. 🤷♂️
@@ElradAtte
EXACTLY!!!
"man, that sure is convenient."
is NOT a phrase that audience should say, multiple times, in relation to how your plot gets resolved.
And yet we're all saying it all the goddamn time during this film...
"Super Easy,Barely an Inconvenience"🤓
@@Avi2Nyanalso in the Disney Star Wars episodes.
Heck, Episode 9 alone had me saying that when I wasn't rolling my eyes at the coincidences.
@@capnsquishy4310 episode 9 was the absolute worst, holy shit. I wish I could wipe it from my memory
It destroyed everything good 8 set up, buried it in the ground and then pissed on its grave
Only do that if you’re trying to make a parody and want to make fun of that
You would think a fire breathing dragon would be you know fire proof
Something I noticed about when the dragon’s fire is that it moves like a wave. It makes me wonder if it’s combustible stomach acid or a sprayable liquid that combusts and gains the consistency of bile/lava when it comes into contact with air. This would also make sense why it affects the dragon bc just plain fire wouldn’t hurt, but lava/extremely corrosive and flammable stomach acid would
@@elizabethweigle6146 indeed, so getting anymore than a few drops would probably mess up your body pretty bad then yea?
or even close too it as lava can burn you without touching you.
@@elizabethweigle6146they say stomach acid is pretty powerful but our stomach and lower intestines are lined against it so it would make sense that the dragons interior is protected and not her face, the poor girl
So true
to be fair, skunks can't stand the smell of their own spray either
Another plot convenience...Elodie found she could heal her wounds with those magical worms, you would think anybody in her situation when finding out something like that would use the worms to heal the cut on her hand, but she does not, only because she needs to later show the wound to the dragon to convince it that they were both tricked.
EXACTLY LOL OMG I didn't even think of that
Beat me to it. I literally screamed _"OH COM'MON!!!"_ at my TV when that scene hit.
The worms even healed her leg while she slept. Why didn't they reach her hand?
Also, how the hell did her step-mother immediately know where to find Elodie just to tell that her sister is captured right after she left that cave/mountain? Thats a fcking expansive plains/mountainous area lol
I also don't understand why she wouldn't keep her worm pouch while CLIBING A SUPER POINTY WALL
Damsel with stress
Damsel with the stress 😌
GREAT 👌 AITEORI DAMSEL REVIEW 👌 ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⛓️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️😇😇😇😇
Damsel got me depressed.
Damsel, in a dress.
This comment gave me life
Here's how I would have fixed the plot holes:
*-Make the dragon an animal:* when you give a creature a voice you humanize it more to the audience, which makes them start believing they have a sense of morality. But they don't in this case. Instead you can keep the dead babies angle, but make it seem that the dragon has learned "humans bad" and as a predatory animal, acts accordingly. Animals can be quite intelligent, so treat her like the dinos in the Jurassic franchise. And yes animals will seek revenge, elephants and tigers have been known to do so. I guess they were hoping for some stalkery taunting slasher film villain, but it just doesn't work in this case.
*-Make the sacrifices a human misinterpretation rather than a dragon's command:*
Again this makes a strange form of morality for the dragon. Instead make it seem like the first king saw the dragon's attack as an "eye for an eye" thing. Maybe dragons are like snakes and don't need to eat for long periods, but when they do they gorge hard on the livestock. In desperation the king offers 3 maidens in return for killing its babies and they notice the livestock snatching stops. So they reason everything is hunkie dorie until another gorging happens a few years later. Again 3 sacrifices and it stops. The humans devise this as a pattern and every few years gets maidens for the dragon to keep it from going after livestock. They reason it as "payment" but they're just giving the dragon easy prey to keep it from coming out.
*-Make the dragon either blind, weak to light, or a total smell based predator:*
The dragon gets nerfed and loses its fearsomeness due to this. Instead give the dragon reasonable limitations that Elodie can work around (we'll get to her later) that makes sense. If the dragon only hunts by smell, there's a lot of techniques Elodie can use to confuse it, but it still a damn terrifying predator she's trapped with. It's much more adept in the dark cave than she is, and getting into small spaces or using a said technique to blind or confuse it is the only way she can survive long enough to escape.
*-Tie Elodie up and lower her down:*
The dynamic drop is cool and all, but let's be real here, from that drop, she should be unalive or extremely injured just from the fall alone. While not as cool looking, having her lowered into the abyss while tied up atleast gives good reason why she's not injured AND an obstacle that can become useful later. She manages to get away from the dragon the first time and then cuts her rope loose using a sharp rock. Now she has rope.
*-Make Elodie an archer and hunter:*
Elodie comes from a poor, cold area. It's not too far-fetched to believe she was taught hunting and archery along with etiquette and whatnot. This would give ample reasoning to her being proficient in archery and some knowledge of survival tactics, such as understanding scent trails and how a predator hunts. And how to stalk and move quietly herself. Also would give her "shedding of clothing" another practical reason (aside from obvious) as well as a way to confuse the smell based hunter rather than magical plot armor. It also gives an established knowledge of weaponry for her big battle with dragon later.
*-Make Elodie's parents not really know what's going on:*
Her dad's heel turn and attempt at rescue are kinda stupid, like honestly he should have stayed back home to keep things running while stepmom and sister delivered and helped prepare the princess. Instead why not have princey boy come to try to save her? Maybe as a form of defiance against his mother and this nasty ritual. Now BOTH of them have to escape, giving Elodie a semi-decent partner who more reasonably knows swordsmanship for the battle. This also gives a better reasoning for the next part.
*-DON'T destroy the town:*
This is basically where Elodie's character development takes a turn because while yes, 'amazing revenge using a dragon!' sounds cool, it also means Elodie just basically had a ton of innocent people murdered. The whole "run while you still can!" bit is a pretty pathetic bandaid to her becoming complicit in the destruction of the city. Instead, if you had pricey boy go to try to save her, now evil Queenie has a real reason to go to the cave area with soldiers. He's sole heir and she needs him alive to keep her power. So now when Elodie and princey escape, Queenie and the guards are there. Dragon, as an animal, is now distracted not only by light but also multiple humans, and just starts blasting. Queenie gets fireball to the face and dies as soldiers scramble to not die. Princey has a chance now to call to arms and Elodie gets access to a bow. Big battle ensues, and Elodie lands a definite strike on the dragon that helps fell it.
*-Make ending having Elodie and Princey ascend the throne:*
Basically tie up the death of the queen and dragon into a nice bow and make the ending a fair "happily ever after". Elodie is now queen and she and Princey are working to help heal the kingdom from all the pain the ritual caused (like say a very low population of women??). Bam, satisfying enough ending.
TL;DR: read the bold points and get better movie.
Agree, I feel Prince Henry should have redeemed himself and stood up to his mother. I’m growing tired of every modern fantasy film having an evil prince. Frozen, A Monster Calls, and Damsel are examples.
@@sirorliktheironcladbecause men are bad under woke law
I'd love to read a book like that. A silent thriller about escaping the blind mountain dragon, that would be so great
@@sirorliktheironcladIt's weird because they do humanize him somewhat, making him reluctant with Elodie, and refuse to sacrifice her sister, but then all they do with that for a payoff is...make him look slightly resigned when he gets burned to a crisp...
Wow you have made a far better plotline than multi million corporation! Kinda sad how much they lack imagination and logic
King tries to protect his people by ridding his land of a vicious predator.
Vicious predator forces the king to sacrifice 3 young girls to it every generation or it'll destroy his kingdom.
Rather than use peasant girls who no one will miss, they instead decide that the best way to accomplish this is by marrying neighboring princesses at great expense and then hoping that their families won't wonder why they all disappeared on the day of their wedding.
"Heroine" gets sacrificed but manages through incredible plot armor to outwit the dragon where scores of other princesses met a grisly end.
"Heroine's" father attempts to rescue her and is brutally killed by the dragon in front of her.
Through the power of Mary Sue and plot contrivances, "heroine" manages to slay the dragon where numerous trained and armored knights failed.
"Heroine" has the dragon on the ground literally begging her for death, but instead of killing it, riding the world of an extremely dangerous man-eating monster, and taking revenge for the scores of innocent girls the dragon had tortured and killed, she instead opts to heal it because they both have ovaries or whatever.
Dragon proceeds to napalm an entire kingdom, but we're not supposed to feel bad for the hundreds/thousands killed even though they were just doing what the dragon forced them to do in order to survive.
"Heroine" then sails off into the sunset while smiling at the vicious man-eating dragon she just released onto the world which had murdered her own father not 24 hours ago.
In usual current-year-Hollywood fashion, the villains end up winning in the end.
EDIT: And to anyone who says that the dragon isn't a villain because it was just "tricked" into killing the wrong princesses, would those princesses having been blood-related to the old king have somehow made them deserving of death? The "sins" of the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather would've somehow made the dragon entitled to kill scores of girls who had no part in the killing of her young? No. Those princesses would've been innocent whether they were related to the old king or not, and murdering scores of innocent people for something they didn't do makes you a villain.
Thank you. This movie os the product of victim mentality: where you can't blame the victim for anything wrong they do, because, victim.
@keiichi8191
Thank you! This is woke Hollywood logic, for you. Definitely made by horrible women who have a chip on their shoulder and think their bitterness and hatred (towards men, white people, society, etc.) is justified. Real-life villains writing fictional villains they perceive to be "heroes."
The dragon could smell Ellie but he didn't notice that the dad didn't smell like the Royal bloodline?
Well, Ellie's birth mom theoretically could have been royal. BUT with how apparently easy it is for the smell of blood to transfer... Yeah. Dad should have smelled too.
@@wayIess so is the dragon smelling royalty or family? I guess I assumed it was the smell of the royal family's blood, not just the blood of any ol royal. Man, this is getting dumber the more I think about it lol
It's a shame about the tired, worn out trope of girl bossery, but I give much credit to the visual effects artists who did all the hard work on the Dragon.
Agreed, her design was my favorite part of the movie! Especially when she would breathe fire and her neck would light up, and her coloring as well. Is it just me, or did the dragon resemble a lion more than just a lizard?
EXCELLENT WORK. AITEORI ❤
@@elizabethweigle6146 Yes, I see what you mean - the dragon does resemble the sorts of lions that adorned coats of arms in days past. That very well might have been intentional and if so, it was a good idea. 👍
I don't know why I thought of Predaking from Transformers Prime whenever I saw the dragon about to breath fire
I don't think that is going anywhere
31:02
someone pointed this out, how the step mother was stabbed in the stomach, then was simply allowed to leave, went out on horseback for who knows how long, just randomly happened to run right up to elodie in the middle of friggin nowhere despite her being quite far from the cave's entrance and this being an unfamiliar landscape for her family, and was like 'nah, ill live'
the sheer ridiculousness of the coincidences in this film...
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 she's an X-Men
@@AlteoriEh, we Sicilians get stabbed in the gut all the time. We evolved the ability to shift our vital organs when we hear Godfather music.
@@Alondro77 "On this, the day of my daughter-in-law's wedding"
Instead of having her beat the dragon, have her learn the dragon's story, and talk to it.
Use her brain to befriend the dragon, without a fight.
Also, make her the third false princess to be sacrificed and not hundreds of years later (makes it easier to forgive the dragon, if the Queen is the fourth daughter of the original King, and she is refusing to sacrifice her daughters).
Then Elodi comes back to the kingdom riding the dragon to exact their revenge on the royal family.
"Use her brain to befriend the dragon, without a fight. "? But then it wouldn´t be a strong brave woman (aka girlboss)TM.
To do this, they would also need to not have the intro of the movie, or make it more mysterious about why El is being brough to this kingdom and wedded to the prince, and gotten rid of the whole "blood" thing where somehow a small hand cut makes it possible to mix blood so much that the dragon can "smell" it on her this entire time. If the dragon is just expecting 3 women and just thinks they are all of the royal bloodline, that should be enough. You could even still have a 100 year gap as the deal with the dragon would be 3 women but one in each generation perhaps? (Lots of ways to do this since the dragon lives so much longer).
Either way, love the idea of El being the 3rd princess of 3, makes it even more important for the Kingdom because they are desperate to get out from under this bargain. Maybe they are hoping the dragon will leave and they just want to get this over with. It could even make them sloppy with how they do it this last time.
I love the idea of El talking to the Dragon and trying to learn and using her brain to try and talk it down. Maybe lean into the dragon being a psychopath. While it's toying with her it gives her little puzzles to solve to stave off death. It's a game for the dragon, because eventually the victim will lose and then it will eat the girl, but it likes toying with its food because of how angry it is at the kingdom. In fact the original bargain about the 3 daughters could have been a product of the psychotic dragon playing a "game" with the king, getting him to sacrifice others in his line to survive.
Really make the dragon kind of crazy and intelligent. Since the dragon already knows its stronger, faster, etc. it finds it fun to toy with the humans using mind games instead because that's more fun than just a 5 second hunt and eat. So it still does the "stalking it's prey" bit but then also throws in some deadly puzzles. It's clear the dragon is just stringing her along, at no point does El have any advantage. She is always at the dragon's mercy.
El may past the first few tests because she's smart but ultimately fails one that's impossible to pass. But then when El uncovers the truth and the Dragon finds out that it's been tricked. It just goes on a rampage. How dare these tiny insignificant humans trick her. It leaves El alive because she kind of "earned" her freedom by passing the tests so far and also uncovering / revealing the truth, but El doesn't "befriend" it, it just goes off and kills the kingdom and flies away, leaving El alone to finally escape.
Could even still keep the father trying to rescue her, but I don't like the idea that he "knew" what was going to happen. He should be oblivious to all of this until it happens, and then try to save her, but the dragon easily captures him and then offers El a trade, her life for his, but the father refuses, telling El to stay away. Dragon kills the father, and then maybe that's the trigger for the dragon that El "failed a test" because in the dragon's mind, this is yet another human who selfishly sacrificed others to save herself (like the king did by sacrificing three in his bloodline). This enrages the dragon and she decides that she's done "playing with her food" and it's only after this that El finally uncovers the truth, partially by what the dragon says cryptically, partially by uncovering the bones of the dead dragon, and maybe even partially by uncovering something left behind by the first maiden (a diary or writing on a wall, or something).
Wow, this could've been a really good movie. It's sad actually.
@@olandirthis actually sounds really cool
@@olandir That really doesn't make the dragon "redeemable," a psychopath is a psychopath. Either the dragon is a villain or not.
The dragon lost three children, asking for three equivalent sacrifices from EVERY future generation is beyond the pale.
Having the dragon actually be reasonable and never a threat to the kingdom if the king left it alone in the first place, puts all the blame on the royal family.
A movie about a devoted dragon mother giving the humans their own medicine is a good movie, unfortunately that plot was not the focus.
I actually wrote a story similar to this concept back when I was a freshman.
Basically, it was a Father Dragon who was out hunting, and returned to find his mate and children dead. There was only one child left, and the attackers didn’t even bother to put the child out of his misery, and just left him, leaving the Father Dragon to make the painful choice of killing his child.
He was depressed, and filled with so much hate that he sought out the people who killed his family, and burned down their entire kingdom.
After that, he retreated to a cave, bathing in his despair and sadness, until more people came. Time and time again, people kept coming, trying to kill him, and he eventually snapped.
He now understood that Humanity had no care for his kind, he knew they wouldn’t stop, he knew they wouldn’t care, so he went off on a rampage, going after every major Kingdom and burned them down.
The protagonist of this story was a Knight, The Dragons backstory was revealed later on.
I agree that the Dragon SHOULD have been the main focus, but I think if they did, they'd give the movie a crappy name like "Even the Scales".
The plot is literally ... Male = bad.
@@innerguardianXIIIthat's not a bad title actually...
@@danielmancilla1071sounds like the father dragon from Dragon Avenger in E.E. Knight's book. But instead it's is daughter in the story who ends up going after the dwarf who murdered her family, and ironically the exiled brother who ends up killing the human hunter who murdered their sister.
Say what you want about her acting but Milla Jovovich got in shape as Alice. She looked imposing, has trained in martial arts and weapons handling and genuinely looks like she could, for my money, hold her own in a brawl against a lot of guys. Millie Brown Bobbie on the other hand, looks like she's never done a push-up in her life; making the whole sword swinging, dragon fighting schtick even more difficult to buy into.
Those kings and knights had no chance. But those untrained princesses are on another level.
So Elodie is allied with the dragon that murdered her father and countless innocent poeple. Even though the royal family tricked the dragon the dragon still demanded the deaths of innocent people for something that happened centuries ago. So it still knowingly murdered innocent people. That's like making us feel bad for the demons in Berserk because they were sad.
To be fair, she didn't view humans as innocent, which is fair, considering how humanity is.🤷♂️
It's like Koba from Planet of the Apes. Humans hurt him and tortured him, so now he wants every human dead, and he will do anything to kill any human in his way, even if it means turning on his fellow apes.
@@dracodracarys2339 yeah you can make the argument that up until the 2nd movie Koba only experiences of humans were negative so doesn't know anything, but human cruelity so you can somewhat understand why he does it. The dragon has been around for centuries and literally saw a father is willing to sacrifice himself to save his daughter. How humans are capable of both good and evil. She still made the conscious decision to murder innocent people.
@@draconicdemigod9696and Hollywood is just "nope, we driving this Sins of the Father trope as far as it's mileage can get. If you say anything about it, you're a sexist racist homophobic transphobic Nazis!!!" I miss when tropes were actually used well...
And I'm calling it now, the moment this film's reviews come in Journalists will go that route where it's everyone else's fault for being hateful bigots in some way just to justify the shit writing.
I feel like the easiest fixes would be 1. Dont have the dragon talk, 2. Make the prince a more present character either by making him more villainous, or have him try to save her, 3. And the easiest to fix the girlboss ending, have her comment something about sword fighting while she and the prince are alone and she says something along the lines of "since our kingdom is poor, we couldnt spare any guards to protect us individually, so my father had us trained to put his worries at ease" then have the prince say they should spar later so that he can see how well she took to her training
I think they could have twisted the scene with the Dad being interrogated and Elodie "hiding".
They could have made it so She (the Dragon) already knew where Elodie was, but she wanted to add more psychological distress + toy with both the Father AND Daughter. That would show how sadistic and smart (from knowing the familial smell) she is and add to the horror > tension.
If they had removed the 'I smell her, but don't know where she is" bit, that scene would have been 10x scarier.
The dragons voice is SO fuckin cool, as is its design. Im so sad it wasn't used for a better film
the horizontally-slitted pupils are kinda weird tho. I can't unsee Kermit the Frog 😭
That's the president of earth from The Expanse. She doesn't smoke cigarettes, she eats them.
Shohreh Aghdashloo is the dragon's voice. Amazing actress.
@@buckoQuentin Also the guard captain in Arcane.
@@gloriatobias6216 "Mars has got its collective asshole puckered up so tight it's bending light." -The Dragon (Damsel), 2024.
The dragon's voice actress is Shohreh Aghdashloo.
She has had many roles but the one you are thinking of is probably from Netflix's Arcane where she was the female police chief in the first few episodes.
Why, do I look like I give a fu... when or where she had a role before? :)
shes from the expanse
@@weilam03 ah ok, The Expanse was a good one. This - is shit. :)
@@Film_Sushi I was answering Alteoris question.
I don't expect you to care this comment wasn't directed towards you.
However if you don't care then why stop to leave your comment?
It's just a pointless waste of your time mate.
@@jacobniemann4756 I´m very good at pointless but your comment will make me to course correct and shut the f... up, lol. Cheers, mate. :)
As someone who's trained in gemmology and goldsmithing my pet peeve is when movie/game makers don't know what crystals look like or think that gold would melt before someones face does.
I noticed that too, lets watch the gold crown melt down the queens face!!
cool dragon tho, whoever worked on and animated it did wicked good job.
Whoever worked on sets, cinematography, wardrobes/costumes and CGI are the real goats.
Yeah
I think it would have been cool if the dragon didn't talk until it crashed into the tower and says "there's no way out, princess
The horse riding in Monty Python looked more realistic
"You're banging two coconuts together!"
Coconuts…
@@wilberwhateley7569 ARe yOu sUgGestINg coCoNuTs MIgRatE?
@@wilberwhateley7569 carried by African or European swallow???
Damn, you had a whole TED talk explaining why the dragon is evolutionarily unviable. This is one of your best critiques, IMO.
DAMSEL is what happens when you take "X is a strong independent woman who don't need no man" to it's most logical extreme and you get a bunch of unlikable fish tacos.
Well this isn’t dripping with misogyny…
@@lilscenechick1995 The entire movie is sexist, and this is what gets your goat?
Usually I give a zero to a movie that was made solely to be woke but damn that dragon and Shohreh Aghdashloo voicing her made me give it at least three out of 10.
indeed much like Kate Mulgrew, 'Avaserala'(not even going to try to spell/pronounce her real name for fear of butchering) has that kind of recognizable voice that is really good as a VA
What I’d like to see is something like Dragonheart, have a con artist Dragon/Damsel duo. Have the damsel pretend to be in distress so she can be “saved” by knights, get married, and then divorce them for alimony or something like that.
Yeah I don't want to see that, too much IRL already.
@@sirellyn Could still make for a good comedy about a couple of asshats scamming people.
The real knights are always the ones that end up dragon chow in these stories though, the ones that succeed are always penniless commoners.
@@nvfury13 If the story is contrived crap then sure. Real knights can certainly die, but if a knight couldn't stab a dragon, there's no way in hell that woman would have been able to.
@@sirellyn In those stories (when they are done well) the knights are doomed for simple reasons; being inside lots of metal is bad when fire comes and cooks you, knights focus on melee combat when ranged combat or traps is much smarter against flying giant creature, they tend to announce themselves and openly challenge instead of being sneaky (hard with the metal shell that will soon act as a roasting pan).
She was such a strong and independent woman that she managed to survive a fall, a dragon and also turn said dragon (spoiler female dragon) into helping her burn the castle full of innocents from servants, maids, guardsmen and nobles with princesses that just arrived
Shouldn't the deception have become unraveled when Elodie's father descended into the caverns? He's Elodie's father. The Dragon demands the *kingdom* to send *their* daughters. To the Dragon, Elodie's father would have to be the king of the kingdom, or at least part of its royalty. But the King doesn't have the smell of royal blood on him - scent that was planted on his daughter. Shouldn't the Dragon have realized something's not right when the King and the Princess are seemingly not related?
Thats exactly i was wondering about
In the scene with Elodie's father and the Dragon telling him to call her, I think you have the premise of that scene wrong, Alteori. From where I stand, that dragon KNEW Elodie was right there, and she was telling the father to call Elodie out not just to taunt Elodie, but also to test what Elodie would do. She was basically forcing Elodie to choose between either coming out and getting roasted alive, or to sacrifice her father the same way her father sacrificed her.
I was more blown away by back-facing Alteori :O
🤣
I believe that if the movie kept itself as a fantasy survival story, of a damsel trying to escape a dragon, that would have been more memorable. But because the writers wanted to empower the protagonist more, it ended up backfiring and the story became less engaging. Too bad, it had the potential, but they couldn't handle it.
6:01 THATS ZACH FROM JURASSIC WORLD WHAT?!?! (I NEVER noticed how creepy and rude he was)
It's the first thing I noticed when I watched it. 😂
@@Alteori yeah he was looking at those girls with a the creepy stalker stare. If we find years after the film he was a mass murderer who prey on women i would not be surprise.
Yeah. I hated ZACH too. There was Just so Much to dislike about him, and it wasn’t helped that he had a Kid Brother who was actually Likeable and Endearing.
Hell! I Took My own Kid Brother to See this Movie! And it Upset me that he wasn’t as into Dinosaurs when Visiting Jurassic Park! He had such a Crap Personality that I Literally wished they Just made him into a Dorky Anime Love with a Goku T-Shirt rather than some Jackoff Teen trying to get his Dick wet! Won’t lie I missed the part with him at the beginning where he was Leaving his Girlfriend after she came to visit!
Just Seeing Trying to play the Ladies man in this film told alot that the People in Modern Hollywood Just run out of ideas for Writing Quirks for bland characters!
@@Marverynthat would be a great continuation of the story so on top of women being lost or stranded in a forest, they also have to worry about a serial killer.
Why didn't make Elodie a real royal blood of the kingdom who is betrayed by her own family and that's her canon to make an allience with the dragon in order to end centuries of this curse? Seriosly the cut in the hand was so stupid, besides she bleeds a lot in the movie, wouldn't the dragon smeel her real blood?!
This movie perfectly highlights why people have hated so many movies over the last few years that have featured female protagonists. They turn all of the men into either puppets or villains, and the protagonist is this invincible heroine that can do anything whenever it's convenient to the story.
Girl just put a sword on her back... shad is gonna rip his hair out.
Depends on the sheathe He did make a usable back sheathe.
@@kazekamiha true don't think they're using his build tho. Lol
@@dragonhitman1071 Too true.
I mean... that would require thought.
What's the funniest thing about this is that they legit thought they were doing a Daenerys Targaryen ending with that slow walk, thinking they made a hero, when they actually made her a straight up villain.
You know this is why I really love your channel, it's too easy for all the other channels to throw shade at this movie but you gave it props where it was due. Nobody talked about any of these points and I've seen quite a few videos on Damsel. Yours just has more to nibble on for sure.
Good point
If you want a good movie with a somewhat similar premise, you should watch "Dragonslayer" (1981), The dragon is called Vermithrax Perjorative, and she was brought to life with puppetry and stop motion. Also, if you really want a good (and funny) subversion of the damsel in distress, just watch the classic Looney Tunes short "The Dover Boys" (1942).
@@bluespirit5112 "Hark! The Dover Boys. Drat them. Double drat them. They are escorting Dora Standpipe. Dear, rich, Dora Standpipe! How I love her! ...father's money."
@@bluespirit5112 "Help, Tom! Help, Dick! Help, Larry!"
Even with dated effects (the greenscreens are very noticable) - Dragonslayer holds up *very* well today mostly for its story (which Damsel rips ideas from) and from the way it builds suspense and tension. Great film, complete with a rare cameo by Emperor Palpatine.
Considering that Elodie used an ax in the beggining of the film to split wood, wouldn't it make more sense for her to use an Ax to fight the Dragon? I know that is still rather conveninet, but at least she woud be wielding an tool she has actual experience and proficience with.
In fact, If Memory doesn't fail me, RUclipsr Shadversity once discussed hypothetically what kinds of weapons would be most effective against dragons in a more "realistic" scenerio, and he commented if you were to fight them close, an ax would be more effective than a sword to cut throght their scales. Soooo....
So after everything Elodie and the dragon are friends? Elodie who stabbed the dragons eyeball and hand and the dragon who killed her father and brought her pain are FRIENDS?! Not only that but they both nearly killed each other (I get they have the same enemy but the movie made it seem like they're gonna be by each other sides from now on)
The moment I saw the first trailer I was like "Wow this is super interesting...how are they going to make it weird...?" Like just instantly a bit hyped before I reigned myself back in to avoid heartache.
Honestly a fair reaction to most movie trailers now days
I also find it a bit strange that somebody from a completely different geographical location than the prince would not only speak the same language but has the same accent. World building at its finest.
i mean you can claim they came from the same region at some point. Kind of like the danes being in england, iceland and so on. of coruse after a few centuries their should be a language shift but early on a colony from a kindom do share the same tongue for a while.
@@Marveryn Ironically that explanation took a lot more creativity than what went in to creating this bland fantasy world. Amazon should hire you.
Oh boy, a subversion of my expectations.
The last 10 years didn't prepare me for this at all. I'm shocked.
I have already seen the trailer, and my partner hasn't. So, I put the film on for us. As soon as the prince threw Elodie off the bridge, I said "YEEEET" aloud and my partner was in fits for ages.
They could have at least made her do what Arnold Schwarzenegger did in predator and covered herself in mud to mask her scent. Or shown her tinkering in the blacksmith's shop when she was at her home kingdom like Hiccup. Speaking of How To Train Your Dragon, they could have established that the dragon has a limited number of shots to it's fire breath. Just one little change like eater of those would have made the movie so much better.
She did cover herself in cave mud tho
One thing no one is pointing out is how Elodie’s sister is used as another Damsel in distress which undoes the whole point of subverting the trope! 🤦
The Dragon knew Elodie was in the room the whole time she just wanted to toy with the father
The Dragon was voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, who was in The Expanse and voiced Grayson in Arcane. She also turned up in a couple of episodes of Elementary.
Not only do the men, Once again, fail or do nothing, but they even made the dragon female so that the murderous dragon could become 'good' (after CENTURIES of killing innocent women).
Hollywood morals.
Robert Pattinson is a fantastic actor and I'm glad he didn't let his role in twilight define him. I would never had any idea if I hadn't seen him in The Lighthouse
Guys what if woman
But strong
😂
the sacrifices were three each generation. It was mentioned by the Prince during the last wedding..
The movie concept was great but I don't care who you are, when you fall down a cave that far in front of a dragon you sure don't survive after. The dragon takes out a whole squad of knights but can't kill one person? And just have to love her ability to climb hand over hand up those ropes.
And why even have a marriage, all they needed was the blood exchange and there is no reason that even had to be voluntary!! Might just have to watch madame web again now to watch a better movie
The whole point of the movie is to create the most girl bossiest girl boss possible. It was meant to subvert the "damsel in distress" trope. They explain that in the opening. Her becoming sueish wasn't a failing, it was the entire point of the movie.
I just realized the dragon never said the daughters had to be adults the royal family could sacrifice their daughters when they were children or babies but maybe they made a deal with the dragon to sacrifice their daughters once they reached maturity so they could bond and developed connection before she takes their lives or maybe unlike the humans the dragon has more integrity and doesn't want to kill newborns like the humans did to her daughters. but that whole waiting, until they're adults (or at last teenagers), gave the royal family a loophole to find unrelated women to sacrifice instead
The best part was when Ellidy (butchering it, don't care) absorbed the Dragons soul, mastered all the shouts and Fus-Ra-Don'tquestionit the kingdom to the ground and then revived the Dragon and her babies because of the power of "The Message".
I was expecting Elodie to cut herself on the crystal catacomb climb and show a drop of her blood fall into the dragons mouth.
I FRWAKING KNEW IT! The dragon is voiced by shohreh aghdashloo! She’s the voice actor for lakshmi-2 from destiny!
And Admiral Raan from Mass Effect 2 & 3😊
And Grayson from Arcane!
A dowry was historically paid by the bride's father to the groom. Such a bride-price was given as compensation for the cost of her care being transferred from dad to groom as a customary compensation. Dependents were much increased cost, back then, notably for nobility and their high status living. The head of the household was, of course, expected to keep their daughters/wives in the appropriate standard of living for the specific social status. If the money goes the other direction for a wedding, an odd thing to happen, it's a poorly disguised bribe.
Whenever I see a talking dragon all I can think about is the dragon heart movies
When it comes to things I see about this movie Elodie seems like someone who wants to stay a princess just not have to deal with the responsibility of being one. Her kingdom dying and she is chopping firewood with what little there is left... instead of you know trying to helping her family figure things out be it to move or find a way to make things grow, even to gain more wealth for their land. And when the marriage thing comes along to solve the problem of their dying land Elodie comes off as being largely against it being all "I want to do that for love", which makes her character come off as more of a brat than a good person. Cause this is her placing herself higher than the people she rules over, because it's not like she can't feel that way but it's clear what things she values. It's not "For the sake of the people" but rather "Ugh, I guess I have to" kind of attitude which makes her more of a bad guy than anything good.
Plus it being three daughters is strange than just three children in general. Considering how genetics work had the kingdom tried to deliver three of their own princesses every time it wouldn't work. On the biological side this is a 50/50 and it's not going to be in some order all the time. Cause you got cases like my mom's family where she has 2 sisters, but then with my dad's side... well he is one of 5 siblings and only the youngest was a girl with the others being boys. That's even to take into account that this was something as a generational thing than something that happened every year. So to have the dragon being "tricked" is dumb as it should have known something was up or it should have been fine with three girls not from the royal family. Feels like this "trick" was just some way to make the dragon out to be good instead of it being a murdering monster from the get go.
I love how you pick apart the dragon's eyes design cause you pointed out something that others haven't and I just love science ❤
The fact that both the book as well as this movie was *BASED ON* the idea that "women don't need no man", makes it terribly depressing. Are we really *that* divided nowadays?
Apart from that, the plot, the dragon (eyes in particular), the DEI inserts and all the various "Mary Sue" characters, makes it really frustrating to see how this movie has *MIXED REVIEWS* still.
I’m confused that she is supposed to be a commoner, since the footage seems to show her father being the one in charge at that fort…which would make him at least landed gentry, but most likely minor nobility.
Edit: Definitely not commoner, once dad shows up at the head of a bunch of soldiers.
Alteori, no, this is exactly what I'd expect from the last ten years. More girl bossing, dont need no man, gonna save myself, strong powerful blah blah blah. Thats all we've gotten these last years from the west.
One would think that all the criticism this trope has had, the writing would have improved by now.
A novel idea nowadays would be to actually make a damsel in distress being saved by the prince 😂
This movie's premise is giving me flashbacks to a book I heard about when I was younger... What was it called.... Dragon's Bait! Village accuses a girl of being a witch and sacrifices her to the local dragon. All the girl wants now is revenge and the dragon "might" become the perfect ally to help her get it.
I don't think I actually read that as a kid I kinda want to now. Maybe it'll be good and wash the taste of this movie out of my brain
Positives:
- I LOVED the costuming and utilization of historical pieces like the Metal Stay! (this ornately designed shank she uses is a classic version of a corset stay -which helps keep the front shape of a corset rigid. Materials commonly used: whale "bone", wood, bamboo, metal)
- There was wonderful moments of tension in the second act of the movie! The bird cave, the glow worm cave, the false escape crystal cave? SO GOOD! I do wish though, that this is how the false escape scene played out:
**** after flying up and scaring Elodie then hearing the calls for her name - the dragon should hesitate - realize it was someone coming to save her - and ask while turned "Do you think they will be able to hear your screams?" - Turning back Elodie had taken that chance to dangerously fall down the crystal well - cutting herself terrible on the way down. She manages to defensive roll and takes her bag of worms to heal the cuts while run-limping away.****
I think establishing more backstory would have been very helpful. Things like:
- Elodie's ...country? being a knighthood/military state. Elodie's father being too old to do sword fighting & maybe Elodie secretly watched his lessons before the famine.
- Allude to the father being old and injured to explain why he failed against the dragon but Elodie didn't.
- Expansion on the time frame between girls & the "bond" the prince & Elodie form
- more emphasis that Elodie's country & Auria(?) are different countries
- more emphasis that this is a generational sacrifice
Things to improve the general flow of the story:
- instead of giving her a glowing orb - make her tinker together a light source of fire.
- Subtracting the knee skid and instead copying the tail sweep, then have Elodie slice the tail off or stab it, leading then to the dragon grabbing her.
- Having the dragon smell Elodie from him, and question why he doesn't smell like royalty - leading to a mixing of scents in the room
- Elodie - having lasted longer than any other girl, should have been rid of a small amount of royal blood by now - adding to confusion.
- More thought out explanation of the royal sacrifice, less cheesy line than "I have an army with me"
- Place the distraction machine scene during the dad rescue attempt scene. But rework it. Cut her hair and set it on fire far away while they are screaming.
- - build the little tower while they are being attacked - guide distracts dragon - she starts climbing rope - armor tower falls - Elodie is MUCH closer to exit when dragon approaches.
- When the sister is thrown in have her get into the little nook where Elodie had her leg burned. Flora is smaller and not in that huge dress. Have Elodie NOT hear her sister because the smarts RUN in the FAMILY. Elodie descends and finds Flora, the dragon spits fire so they can't go back the way they came.
- Find a different route to escape with Flora based on Elodie's maze knowledge & the map - cuz i dont believe she crawled thru that pit fall again
I also notice a LOT of people saying they would have preferred the dragon to not speak. If it didn't speak I think as an audience we would question a lot of the logic.
- how the king was able to negotiate 3 royal daughters every generation for sacrifice,
- why it wasn't taking the kill each time Eoldie was open
- why it hadn't eaten the last girl's body.
I think adding speech to the dragon allows some logic to be bypassed. But to add to the terror I think extremely simple sentences and single words would have been better.
- Only using the "El-O-Dy" & "Mother" echo type of lines.
- Reducing lines to "My Children" "Revenge" "Royalty" "Pay the price" "No escape" "I smell you".
- I did think the pupils were weird - it felt like an attempt to be unique rather than a well thought out decision.
The dragon was also designed by Patrick Tatopoulos, the one who designed Godzilla in the 1998 film.. I'm worried that him designing creatures for movies that end up doing poorly is starting to become a pattern. I also heard the novel adaptation is better than the film.
The dragon's voice actor is Shohreh Aghdashloo, she voice acted a side character in Arcane aswell as Roshan from Assassins creed mirage. She plays Chrisjen Avaserala in the expanse serie :3
*checks IMDB*
Oh, she played Grayson, the Enforcer that worked with Vander to keep the peace and also trained Caitlyn.
Alices biggest power in the Resident Evil Franchise was the "Either I'm super badass or the director will sleep on the couch for the forseeable future." power.
Was hoping the Dragon was toying with Elodie using her father. That Dragon knew she was in the room and was pretending not to know just to test her and toy with her.
There is nothing that makes me grim more than hearing Alteori laughing when some nonsense tickles her into that high pitched "just lost my ish" laugh. Better than a cup o' joe i tells ya.
No. Princess Buttercup will ALWAYS BE GOOD...NEVER EVIL. *Fixes glasses*
What I want to know is how the dragon can smell the "Royal blood" from the tiny cut on her hand, but every time she bleeds (like when she got hurt at the beginning) that should reveal her actual bloodline, but this dragon that can smell the "Royal blood" can't smell the blood that Elodie actually has when she is bleeding right in front of the dragon.
Came here for movie review, instead got a biology lesson. Fascinating stuff about eyes of prey and predators! Thanks Alteori!
In the cave I thought the dragon may have been blinded by the royal family and that the "safe" spots were set up by them as well. I thought it was all set up to make her drop her guard. It seemed clever....but then it wasn't true.
An animal that hunts with a ranged attack like this....that fires from it's face holes.....yeah, this would basically be a winged, fire breathing cat....Asian and European style dragons are thought to be a hybrid of lizard and feline body types. There's D+D books that discuss this for paragraphs.
Also, Tolkien's dragons have darkvision and see in darkness as if it's broad daylight.
I am usually with you AL... not sure where this is going for almost an hour
Let's see... I like the dragon too
😅
Loved the eye type breakdown! Also, the dragon actress has such a great voice, I'm assuming it's the cop lady from Arcane.
Yes, and also Avasarela from The Expanse.
The only damsels needing rescuing were my braincells taken by this movie.
The dragon acts like it has to play by the rules of the killers in dbd 😂
Shohreh Aghdashloo was in The Expanse, among other things.
I wonder if it would made more sense if the dragon was actually trapped in the cavern itself (idk maybe a magical chain or force field or somethinl) due to the royalties and only having the yearly sacrifices as a means of food. And the royalties still sends out sacrifices knowingly because they are actually trying complete centuries worth ritual or something for power (I know cliche, but writers could def experiment on that).
In a sense that setting could also give a more equal grounds between Elodie and the mother dragon, where both are kind of trapped victims that could lead to a certain bond between the two as they unexpectedly began to "spend time together" (Elodie running about but conversing with the dragon). Maybe to a point where Elodie stikes a deal with the dragon, to instead of killing her, she will hunt food for them both instead, which in a way forces our heroine to learn how to scavenge and hunt to survive the dragon's wrath. But doesn't she just run away after this you ask? She wanted to keep her promise. A promise that maybe has some ties to her own past (deceased mother maybe?) which cause her to sympathise with the creature, when the dragon albeit still trying to kill her, tells her about how her offsprings were killed in the midst of trapping her the mother by the royalties. Elodie not being able to fully run away may also depend on the location design itself, maybe that certain cave has a full woking forest attached to it but still isolated from the rest of the kingdom's land. But why would the dragon accept the deal you ask, after years of mistrust towards human? Maybe she is slowly loosing hope herself and I feel like over the centuries of imprisonment, the dragon maybe mentally exhausted and actually doesn't mind loosing her life through starvation. This is definitely the part where they could explore the story of the creature itself, as to not just portray them as another simple breed of predatory animal that they just slapped a mythical creature look on. Heck maybe Elodie isn't the only victim she let go. Maybe she would be her last victim as she fades to death through self-starvation.
Also I feel like it would have been more interesting if they have the dragon speak much later than right off the bat when Elodie met it, in a way to show the slow understanding towards the creature in Elodie's point of view;
Beginning - Aggressive roars
Mid - Aggressive language/tone
Final - Softer tone (atleast towards Elodie)
Plot holes are not on the audience to solve but the dragon has lived in the cave for centuries. It might have problems seeing in bright daylight or at the least the a quick change from dark to light slowed it.
To answer your question regarding the dragon's voice. The voice actress for that role is Shohreh Aghdashloo. You may recognize her voice in the netflix series Arcane. She played the female cheriff enforcer, titled Enforcer Grayson.
Also, it'd be hella funny if, after all that girl-boss plot-convenience bingo, that when the dragon roars, we instead here the dragon say "YAAAS!" 51:40
Damsel was just "Ready or not" but set in medieval era,with a dragon and a lot of convenient things
Now watch...anyone criticizing this movie will be called sexist, based or even patriarchal, so they don't have to admit the writing is so full of plot holes. It's the literal equivalent of "My writing doesn't suck, you suck!" 😜
To be kinda fair, at the part Elodi went to save her sister there was a scene that showed elodi using the smelly water from the cave to try to mask her scent. So there's at least something to explain how she snuck behind the dragon. Of course all the other times don't make sense.
As for Elodi stabbing the dragon in the chest, that's somewhat believable, cause keep in mind that losing an eye is gonna mess up your depth perception, so the dragon missing the bite on her makes sense. Now the skill that Elodi showed in being able to properly stab the dragon between its plates is sus for sure, but it's always possible she just got lucky when thrusting the sword upward.
Other then that your video made some good points. Overall I still enjoyed the film, problems and all. Xd
Besides the eyes, the Dragon looked AWESOME.
I mean the other time there was like four other people in cave to it might have be kinda confused
Thanks for that eye trivia! It's good to learn and something I can now watch out for when doing creature design. I didn't ask but you answered! outro - nothing by damtaro
Just so you are aware, verticle pupils are only beneficial for smaller predators it helps with depth perception when looking through tall verticle grass which is why a cats pupils get blown out just before pouncing! This is also why big cats do not have vertical pupils!
Upvote for the dragon eye science lesson!
13:40 i tend to put my self inthe animals place and the first thing i thought it how pissed id be if i was sleeping and suddenly pushed into freezing water
Also i cant imagine how terrifying that would be
The trailer for this was pretty good because it made me invent an entirely different movie and then be disappointed by the reality.
I thought she was trapped with a dragon, who was just enjoying her struggles as entertainment, in an enclosed cave. Where the dragon couldn’t use the best of its abilities and also wasn’t really trying because it having fun but she was still out matched, and the previous women wrote down what they figured out about the dragon so she used their knowledge and her own intelligence to survive and escape.
I would do a story involving after a prince saves a princess, another dragon a dragoness decides to kidnap the prince forcing the princess on a quest to save him as he saved her
Now this would be a fun watch!
maybe that's one reason they hate anime: because in most anime, the protags need to spend great effort or endure hellish experiences to gain power. like the training montage in rocky movies.
what they want is power that comes naturally because they are [insert identity or ideology etc]. training, hardwork, etc are bigot, either patriarchy or capitalism lol
the cragon voice actor is the preidnet of earth from the expanse
She's amazing in everything I swear
Alteori's moment of cackling was easily the best part of this video 🤣🤣
Watched it an was mainly amazed when the dragon was being seen or heard. An amazing voice used for her.
No one's gonna talk about German Spongebob from the intro? 😂
Nein.