The Princess

I really wanted to enjoy this movie. Unfortunately for me, I really did not enjoy this movie. It is really bad when all but 4 supporting characters have actual names. The lead & her parents are just called "the princess", the king, the queen. Absolutely no character development for the unnamed characters (or even the ones with names) until a quick flashback more than 30 minutes into the movie. I think the first time the main character says anything other than grunting is in that flashback. The main actress Joey King is completely miscast. A 4'8" young girl with no combat experience is hard to believe as a kung fu sword fighter who single handedly karate chops and cuts her way through hundreds of nasty men and saves the entire kingdom all while not one of her loved ones dies in the process on her very first 'real' battle outside of practice swordplay in the woods. Her acting contains grunting and fake limping and seemed to forget that she broke her finger/hand in the first five minutes of the movie and got stabbed twice (with hardly any blood) but picks up a sword and fights for the entirety of this movie. That wasn't the worst of it. The very last scene of the obese errand boy who was sent to check on her at the top of the tower comes out panting and sweaty and he has a full mouth of BRACES???? Like honestly? Pretty sure they didn't even brush their teeth in Medieval period but a dude has dental work that hasn't been invented yet. Hmmm Perhaps he was a time traveler. We'll never know because there was no character development in this entire movie, which makes it impossible to care or root for anyone in this movie.

A teenage girl on steroids trained, as a ninja, with a bad attitude and a desire to humble testosterone hyped men with her feminine prowess, quick wit and no nonsense method... this is pretty much what you have here. It's not terrible but you only need to watch the first five minutes to realise this is pretty much the sequence of events throughout the whole film. It would be a pretty good film for kids but for some of the scenes which are not so much excessively graphic, but too violently depicted for the younger viewers. It was entertaining in parts and obviously isn't a film to be taken too seriously, so I don't really understand some of the exaggerated negative reviews. These seem to come primarily from people with an axe to grind on the female lead having pseudo super powers. Well these people need to get over themselves and not transpose their feelings of patriarchy on everything that has a dominant female lead. Its a fun film for the most part and for what it offers, it's been fairly well done. Don't expect any highly choregraphed fight exchanges, this isn't a Jet Li movie. It's a lot of clever camera work, strategic positioning, and bad guys dancing around menacingly as they wait to be disposed of in an orderly fashion, so if your sceptical about some of the battle scenes, don't make a fuss, just try not to grimace too much as the ladies around you whoop and cheer as the fight scenes unfold. Though It is generally watchable, the reviews giving it top marks are as equally ridiculous as those giving it the lowest scores possible. Its an entertaining movie if your looking for a heroin feminine enough to pull of the Cinderella look whilst capable enough in her battle skills to warrant a place on the 'Mortal Kombat' line up. The acting is reasonable, the script a fairly hackneyed, and the paper thin plot does little to disguise where it's going from the onset, but at least it never attempts to hoodwink you into something your not prepared for, or sell you on a screenplay you didn't know was coming five miles out from the title. I'm only surprised the film set is so elaborate, and some good work has been done with this aspect of the movie which lends some considerable credence to the screenplay. Ultimately it's a shallow well worn tale without a lot of new substance to flesh it out save the 'Nikata' princess angle which wears a little thin after the first ten minutes. Suspend your disbelief well before seating yourself comfortably to watch this one and I'm sure you'll be fine. It's good for entertainment value if you like this sort of thing, if not you'll probably hate it. I think 4/10 is a fair score from my perspective, but I think I'd go to a 6 maybe even a7/10 at a push if its your kinda thing. That said, lets be clear, this film is no masterpiece and anyone trying to convince you it is is trying to sell you magic beans. Hope this helps.