This sounds like a movie that deserves a Pitch Meeting.

I think my biggest loophole was, how come the dragon didn’t realise Elodie wasn’t a royal despite smelling her own fathers blood or meeting him

i kept screaming at the screen for her to shut uuuup😄 like the dragon will hear you ! wtf. haha

It also had a weird tone. Aside for the people getting horrible immolated, it has a very kid-vibe. The dialogue is very simple and often just stating the obvious. And the turn of the dragon is like the end of Never Ending Story.

I knew it was coming, but I still wasn't prepared for that joke lol

The dragon turned "good" after her life was sparred not after she heard the truth.

The injury on her body also switched at the last scene. It was so obvious that I even noticed it as someone who only semi watch the movie.

That Conan the Barbarian impression made me laugh.

Intro had me laughing out loud. Dad humor at its finest 😂

I will say that Disney should use this movie as a blueprint for the color grading for their future live action films. The colors were absolutely perfect for fantasy

I honestly didn't think the script was that bad until [SPOILER] the magic slugs completely repair the dragon's entire facial tissue and it's gouged-out eye. Apparently these slugs have the ability to regrow muscle tissue from the ground up: I bet they were how Floria's broken leg got healed as well.

I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed it because as soon as I started addressing the glaring plot holes in my mind, I decided "Nah. I'm not going to overthink it. It's fine."

Not dad jokes, Dan jokes

That was a solid Arnold impression.

I just don’t understand why she didn’t just tell the dragon as soon as she realised it could talk….

I totally, totally agree. The ending makes no sense for the storyline. I think the movie was thought of as a series of cool shots and concept art and not from a cohesive story. It irks me when movies dismiss the logic of the plot and the story just to focus on cool shots.

Hey, at least that joke slayed one person...

There was a part of the movie in which she was using a little flame from her amulet to light her way through a tunnel in a cave. It was giving me "John McClain in the air ducts" vibes, and I really wanted her to say something like... "We'll go to the kingdom, get married, be wealthy, have a few laughs" Seriously though, there were parts of it that felt like Die Hard in a fantasy setting with a young female protagonist, right down to her running around barefooted for most of the movie 🤣

Well a lot of evil things took place in that castle. Why not burn it to the ground. I like the story in that Millie Bobby Brown and the Dragon become adversaries.This movie wasn't deep or that particularly well written. I thought Damsel was a nice little charming movie. I could watch it again.

You mentioned that Elodie caused an entire kingdom to fall even though not everyone was complicit, but she did give them an opportunity to leave yet som didn’t leave. I agree that she could've at least considered relocating her people to that kingdom but that would also cause the same displacement that you mentioned that she caused the evil kingdom.

As for the ending, it think was pretty well established that the kingdom-at least all the nobility-was in on it, so I didn’t walk away thinking they had just slaughtered a bunch of innocents. Anyway, I thought the movie was fun whenever the dragon was onscreen. Otherwise, meh. Felt like they didn’t want to commit to the horror movie nature of the premise, so we got a very safe and watered-down popcorn movie when it should have been darker. (Which would have been a better fit for the ending.)

I couldn't understand why they were trying to trick us with the happy romance at the beginning, as if we hadn't seen the trailer 😂

Ehhhhh. It was OK …. Wouldn’t got into a car and went anywhere for it.

Actually kind of like the movie

Didn't Nimona do the same thing, better, last year--the kingdom in that movie is built entirely on a mythologized moment as well, with a betrayal (Nimona's young friend/love interest turning on her out of fear of being ostracized by her people) turning into the propaganda of heroism (her casting-out of Nimona is made into a grand, heroic deed).

It throw me off when her burn scar moved from the right to the left!

I am not sure how you get the idea that a whole kingdom lives in a single castle. It's just the nobility and their staff. So while the dragon burning the whole castle surely would also kill a lot of rather innocent staff, there seem to be A LOT of people involved in that sacrifice scheme, not only the three royals. Also I am sorry but the idea to bring your entire kingdom over to then all live in a castle (where already a whole kingdom supposedly lives?) is outrageous. That's not how it works...

My husband was really annoyed by the damsel nonstop screaming 😂😂😂 it could have been better but it was cute for what it was.

The Dad jokes are my favorite and take the most courage to deliver, great intro 😂

Elodie offered for anyone who wasn’t complicit to run. Anyone who stayed was likely part of the royal family or cult. And it wasn’t the kingdom that burnt down, just the castle and again she gave them a chance to run away.

"Though I think it should be a crime to cast Angela Bassett and give her nothing meaningful to do." Yes! This!

LOL the evil king looked like he walked off a deck of cards with that beard.

I never get tired of your clever intro puns 😂😂😂 they bring me joy

For me, it’s been happening for generations, the entire kingdom is complicit.

I really liked this movie. It wasn't the best, but it was far from the worst. This movie was honestly a breath of fresh air compared to most of the slop that Hollywood has been dishing out the last couple of years. I'd honestly say it's a solid 7/10.

Isn't the play "Iphigenia" about a girl who thinks is going to marry a handsome man only to be sacrificed in a gruesome way? That thing was written in 406 BC. So much for "originality"...

Spoiler.. As Elodie's father is bleeding to death, shouldn't the dragon have been able to sense that his blood is not royal, and then question why his daughter's is?

Dan, I love this review. I am a tiny-micro-youtuber and watched this movie yesterday and made notes. And definitely made a comparison with 'Ready or Not' in my mind. I'm so proud of myself

I think you are judging the morals of a dragón too harshly... She scorched her place out of anger when Elodie escaped, for her to be minding her power when finally going against the people she had a grudge with... Is asking a lot... The dragón might only care for Elodie, as the revelation on killing innocents wasnt enough to turn her, it was when Elodie saves Her life that closed the deal. And in that point of the story, Elodie wasnt in control of the dragon, while Daenerys was.

Ready or Not with a dragon and dialog written by chat gpt. It at least was pretty to look at. MBB is always charismatic. On the ending, I think the ppl in the kingdom and definitely the other higher ups, knew they were going through a bunch of princesses likely killing them (the marriage ceremonies were out in the open) and reaping the benefits. Now setting the kingdom on fire is still way overboard though.

Dan, you are getting better and better with each review, this was one of the most accurate, entertaining and honest review I''ve seen in a while! Way to go! Your evolution with your channel is inspiring!

Spoiler: Minute 45 : 18 in the movie (Millie/Elodie looks out the mountain and you can see the Castle on her side but then the Kingdom is on the other side of the river. Even when she first arrives they pass all the fields and town by the docks to then pass over a huge body of water/bridge to the royal castle. The castle is not near the main land where the common folk live. They live across the bridge over the river.) The kingdom isn't totally destroyed. It's just the castle with the wealthiest. She gives everyone a chance to run away. First the bride and then the people in court. Anyone who decides to stay gets burned. The entire kingdom is huge with rich fields/crops. You can still see people in the town when she is leaving to board the boat. Remember the court are there (in their masks) to watch as the King, Queen, and Prince throw innocent girls into the cave. They are just as complacent as the royals. So they only destroyed the huge castle and not the entire kingdom. I can see your point about her taking over but it caused her so much trauma and they can govern themselves. As their kingdom is in tact. She leaves with her family and the Dragon (and the money they gave her father) because she must rule her own Kingdom (as her father is dead). SO she is being responsible and taking care of her people.

That dad joke was not that bad. It made me laugh. 🤣🤣🤣

Just finished watching this movie. Maybe my expectations were just low but I had a lot of fun with it! It had some gorgeous shots and fun action sequences and it was about the right length for me. Was the plot entirely predictable with some questionable dialogue? Are there some (glaring) logical inconsistencies? Yes! But they didn’t stop me enjoying it tbh

I agree completely with your comments Dan. But I would add that even the point about the dragon coming around once she realized she was killing "innocents" was problematic for me. A dragon that has that kind of awareness would likely also realize that even so-called royal blood daughters of a guilty party are as innocent as anyone else. In other words, the children cannot be blamed for the sins of the father.

In the end however, she does ask who wants to leave before she burns down the village, which I assumed to run away and run onto her ship

I think it's implied the dragon burned the castle city after everyone who needed to run got out of dodge. She lets them go before the dragon showed up, and it's implied they let them leave then burned the place down. Imo, if neither Elodie nor the dragon want a city there anymore after all they've done, it's fine not to move in there and not keep that whole thing going, you know?

Dan's takeaway: "Life unjust? Just burn it all down."

I saw this movie and while I liked parts of it, I feel like other parts of it didn’t make sense. Spoilers below Are we really gonna believe that putting a royals blood in a regular persons palm would make them smell like a royal for multiple days? Or even multiple hours? I did like the twist of the king not coming unprovoked and murdering the baby dragons, which is why the dragon asked the king to sacrifice his 3 daughters. I also wasn’t really a fan of the dragon speaking. The cg was decent but the dragon design was kinda meh, especially the face

DAN DOWN DAN DOWN

I found the moral lesson of this movie disturbing. The dragon killed hundreds of innocents and yet somehow remained the victim. The dragon was fooled into killing women from a different family line - but what if the women were descended from the original king? Would they be less innocent? They had nothing to do with the original king’s sin. Finally, what about the villagers? Why did they deserve to die? This movie celebrates and whitewashes guilt by association. Really disturbing.

Thank you for saying exactly what I wanted people to hear. Elodie literally became the villain by the end of this movie.

I thought it was just the castle that she burnt to a crisp, and not the whole kingdom, but I did think it weird that they didn't show the rest of the kingdom.

The novelization for this movie came out about a year ago and the ending is much better than what is presented in the movie as it is more like what Dan wanted! The royal family does get its comeuppance but avoids the overall death and destruction. You can tell the screenwriter and author were given the start of the plot and then went in completely different directions.

never change dan 🤣

The worst part of the whole plot, is that the main reason that strong female protagonist even went to the foreign kingdom for, has not improved one single bit. Her home was facing famine, but she... burns the ticket to fixing all that with the dragon. Right. Very happy ending that surely resolves everything.

I thought the movie was great and you can't exactly say to the already pissed off dragon "hey can you do not kill anyone that's not a royal family member thanks".

Never apologise for doing analysis on a movie

Funny how they portrayed the king as useless and with no say in anything.

So exactly like Danerys, it ended up in a big rushed mess.

Hi Dan! Thank you for letting us know about the spoilers. I still want to give it a watch to find out more about the plot. I sat through the Game of Thrones finale, so I will watch this for the dragon alone if nothing else. I just wish it was better. I like it when a fairy tale is told differently than it usually is. Also, if she does have problems getting to her goal, then maybe I will think of it as "just fine." I will be back to see the rest after seeing the show. :)

She didnt need saving... Yet... How did she get out of the dragon's cave?! Yes... She used her Dad's rope... That he left... When he came to save her 😅

The 'Game of Thrones' vibes were all over this movie, if I'm not mistaken Elodie lived in the same castle that show used as the home of the Starks before she went to marry the prince.

All of those people in the kingdom witnesses these random girls marry the king and disappear the next day, and they are ok with it, I wouldn’t say they are innocent

For me nothing will ever come close to the Smaug thief scene in the hobbit.I literally held my breath in the cinema. My anxiety was through the roof. And Bilbo had to be really really quiet to not get caught. Cumberbatch was amazing. So I am not sure if I am able to watch this …

I rather enjoyed this movie. I'd put it solidly in the "It's Good" category. Dan, Elodie gave the servants time to evacuate the castle. We see some of them leave in the background. We don't need to see every single servant evacuate from the castle before it was set on fire to assume they left! You're also assuming the whole kingdom lives in the castle. That's not the way feudalism works.

Just saw it with the wife. I have never agreed more with a movie review before. I get her wanting to protect her sister. But she went from a literal screaming damsel to a badass warrior that sets up traps and can kill dragons...completely unearned

Just like many others, I was under the impression that the innocents ran away before the castle was burt, granted it seemed to happen quickly after I warning but assume that was to save time and rescources of filming all the people running away... I thought the movie was pretty good, I am someone who is pretty easy to please though when it comes to movies. It wasn't the most amazing movie ever but, it was pretty and it had a good message: Stop perpetuating evils and show mercy/forgiveness (aside from the justice that was rightfully enacted on the evil royals). I was actually really glad they had it end where she spared the poor dragon momma. I mean, she did terrible things too but that was because she never learned to let go of her grudges until the end of the movie I guess. There were a few decently noticable plot-holes but for one of her first movies I feel like Millie did quite well with this one. Quite a lot of raw emotion and gorgeous scenery paired with a light (predictable) easy to follow story that felt somewhat like a proverb I guess is what I'd compare it to? Just overall I found it to be a nice watch and it didn't make me angry in the end so that was a bonus. One thing I didn't understand specifically is the flaming birds scene though... Like, why would the birds even be down in the dragon's cave? Birds are pretty smart at times and I don't think that a huge flock like that would be going anywhere near a huge ass dragon but ey, I guess they wanted the cool and traumatic scene. Also, poor horse as well? Yeah. Actors all did very well, I liked her little sister Floria, she was someone I'd never seen but I thought she did pretty well too. Cute.

The plot holes didn’t bother me. I enjoyed it a lot. Although predictable at times it definitely kept me engaged. People need to just chill and enjoy a movie bro

I thought Elodi would bring the shiny slug to her home and use it to make money. It's just such a miraculous thing to be abandoned. I thought this because in the cave where she found them, there was ice, and her home is cold. They would start producing it to make their land prosperous, and people would travel from faraway places to be healed. On a side note, please never use Game of Thrones as a comparison for a good script. Killing Daenerys set the Dothraki free in Westeros, and the Unsullied just accepted whatever the Westerosi sentenced for Jon is. Daenerys is dead; they have nothing to lose. And don't even get me started on them choosing Bran to become king, Bronn becoming Lord Paramount of the Reach, and many other things.

The end made perfect since. The royal court watched girl after girl get tossed down the pit to the dragon and she gave them an out and they chose their fate pretty much agree with everything else he said tho

- It had so much potential, could've went on par with The Hobbit movies. The CGI was okay, the score was good, its just the story felt generic and there was too much drag on Elodie being in the caves trying to escape, like 70% of the movie. - The dragon action sequence was the only exciting thing that had to offer, but there was no character development whatsoever. - My problem is that Elodie felt from that bridge but no broken parts, she was cut and burned with no food or water for couple days at least somehow she magically survives, and then when the moment came to face the dragon, she turned 180 and acquired skills to be a dragon slayer in short amount of time, and the intelligence to do so. - I had nothing against the dragon, but to me its behavior felt more like a human than a real dragon in some parts. - All in all, i think this narrative felt like a direct opposite of what The Snow White were trying to do. Until, the glorious quote "She's not gonna be saved by the prince" becoming apparent, If you know, you know. 😂😅

If the Dragon only wanted 3 sacrifices, how come there were sooooo many more than 3 names on the rock in the safe area?

100% agree - I almost didn’t finish because it dragged and Angela Bassett wasn’t given enough

She gave the residents a chance to leave. So most of them left, so the people who stayed (probably knowing what they are getting themselves into) died i n the fire

YOU'RE opener is 100% better than DAMSEL opener which made my eyes roll so hard they clanked. I love a girl power movie but not when it starts with a dig at the opposite sex. You're not being too deep at all.

Your thoughts of the ending mirror my own. She’s so very smart in the movie, only to undercut that with the short sighted decision at the end.

It sounds like the screenwriter played the free trial for Final Fantasy XIV and got through the critically acclaimed expansion Heavensward. That's a lot of similarities.

You're right. However, it was different from what I've seen before. I thought the glow-worms were cool as well. Your ending does make much more sense. Also, Elodie was of royal blood, just not that royal family's blood, so a bit of a plot hole there. Also, I don't see how Elodie can put aside that the dragon killed her father. I know her father did bad, but still, running off to the end of the film as buddies with the one who killed her father? Still, it was a fun watch for me.

This movie needed a few more drafts of the screenplay. The premise was interesting, but the overall movie was just poorly executed. When they open with, "This is not a Damsel in distress story." It lost me. Why? Why do you have to say that out loud? Just let the actions of character speak for themselves.

Elodie tells people to run... Just before the fear speech... I think most ran off into the forest.

Anyone who is trying to defend this movie: "Lol, so the dragon is able to sniff out a couple of drops of blood and determine that "this is my target" yet it was too dumb to question: Hm I wonder why all these women smell so polar opposite of each other despite the fact that supposedly they are all sisters from the same house...

That groan you gave after your joke 😂

I absolutely loved this movie. I was invested the entire time

The script and director didn't do the cast justice. If someone never saw Stranger Things and saw Millie for the first time in this movie, they would think she is a terrible actress.

It’s the modern version of a straight to DVD release. Nothing wrong with that. I suspect tweens will enjoy it for what it is - silly fun.

I was bored and because of dialogue the dragon could've killed her many a time just for the lame set up to take the dragon down.

I definitely wouldn’t say this is a perfect movie, but I didn’t feel like the burning of the castle undercut the message/motivations of the characters. The difference between ready or not and this movies ending is the fact that it’s been centuries in between the dragon babies murder and the castle’s burning. Everyone of the nobles who showed up to the ancient ceremony I assumed were descendants of the royal family and knew the full story. Why else would they all stand around and watch 3 foreign girls get thrown in a pit every generation? She also gave everyone like 5 minutes to get out of the castle, which was obviously there to spare the ‘innocents’ (servants) from the dragons revenge. It’s meant to be wish fullfillment in the sense of having survived the scapegoating and suffering these ‘rich privileged ppl’ have subjected so many girls before you to, to turn what they’ve done back on them. Like an old fairytale the ending is to get revenge and vindication, not to be a better person. In terms of her leaving this country behind without a governing apparatus, she never expressed care for them and compared to her ppl, they will at least have a climate to grow food in. She cared about her ppl because they were her responsibility, it doesn’t make sense that she would tell them all to move away from their home and join this island community, there’s no guarantee there would be enough land to support her ppl and the rest of the kingdom anyway. That would also smack of being a conquering/colonising force, I think it was definitely a smarter thematic choice to return home rather than bring home to this new land. She also was self-aware in the beginning of the movie that she has never seen riches like this, she wouldn’t know how to govern a country this rich anyway. I also don’t think revealing the royal families fake sacrifices would have made a difference. At least the whole capital town knows that every generation foreign girls are brought in, married to the royal family and then disappear. And if we assume that only the nobles know the real reason for the dragons revenge, as far as the commoners are concerned the dragon is a monster that they have no empathy for. To anyone living near the mountain it’s definitely a good thing to kill the dragon babies because more dragons = more of them/ their livestock being eaten. Frankly the best thing she did for the ppl of the country was somehow convincing the dragon to leave and follow her home to the freezing cold?

I liked it. The dragon was epic and scary.

And I guess everyone forgot that she became friends with someone after that someone did something horrible to another person that she should care very much about... I'm convinced that these writers have a very short term memory and are unable to remember what it was that they wrote 10 to 15 min before... Such low quality material... just sad.

I was looking forward to this when I first read about it. I will still check it out. Just watched 'Stop Motion' today. Discussions to be had.

People are so damn critical. It wasn’t that bad. Not great but not horrible

this movie was fun. yeah she screamed a lot, but she was injured and exerting herself, people make noises when that happens. not a spectacular movie, but entertaining for what it was

I was very put off by the idea the dragon killing innocent descendants (who are children themselves) was okay, but it’s not okay as long as they’re not biologically related to the king who killed her babies? Bizarre

I had a feeling the dragon was going to be her friend at the end.......I just wanted a big boss fight with a dragon to be honest

I loved the world they created, not a major fan of some of the plot points, but i adore the gold dragon, the worms and the blood trickery/magic.

I thought the same thing when the castle went down. Did all the servants get out safe?!

Love the Arnie impression 😂

Reminds me the 80's film Dragonslayer which I've never seen it however I seen the trailer and it looks magnificent and the dragon design looks unbelievable real

I agree with your take on the ending and regarding the castle. The castle scene at the end just felt wrong.