Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, “The Lady and the Dragon” stars Millie Bobby Brown as a princess sacrificed to a dragon. Good surprise or nanar of the year? Verdict.
What is it about ?
A devoted young girl agrees to marry an attractive prince. But she discovers that she has been chosen to be sacrificed and thus repay an old debt. Locked in a cave, she must face a fire-breathing dragon. She can now only count on her intelligence and her courage to hope to get out of this…
The Lady and the Dragon, written by Dan Mazeau and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Who is it with?
If it is still useful to present Millie Bobby Brown, she was revealed in 2016 for her character of Eleven, the heroine of the phenomenon series Stranger Things – the fifth season of which is currently being filmed. In The Lady and the Dragon, she plays Elodie, a young woman promised to a prince.
Opposite her, we find some familiar faces, like Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast, The Departed) who plays the father, Angela Bassett (Black Panther, Boyz ‘n the Hood) in the skin of a caring stepmother, Nick Robinson (Maid, Love, Simon) in the guise of a prince like no other and finally Robin Wright (House of Cards, Forrest Gump) as an unscrupulous queen.
It’s worth checking out ?
Forget the big weddings and the well-known happy endings between the prince and the princess. It’s another kind of tale that offers us The Lady and the Dragon. A tale anchored in its time which plays with archetypes to send them flying. Here, the “damsel in distress” has no choice but to roll up her sleeves to fend for herself.
At the origin of the film, there is a novel, Damsel, written by Evelyn Skye. Even before its publication, the rights were purchased by the platform for a film adaptation.
The story is part of the movement of stories for young adults with, as a result, a feminist message to remind those who are not yet up to date, that a princess is no longer confined to her role vase.
Netflix Millie Bobby Brown in “The Lady and the Dragon”.
And who better than Millie Bobby Brown, Generation Z star who became a badass figure thanks to her character in Stranger Things, to embody this modernity? Against all odds, The Lady and the Dragon is a good blockbuster made in Netflix. The film, honest and generous, does not skimp on the spectacular and has the good taste of not being locked into a too childish universe.
The feature film remains, obviously, accessible to the general public but allows itself some welcome touches of darkness. This tone, darker than we would have imagined, we owe it to its director, the Spaniard Juan Carlos Fresnadillobest known for the horror film 28 Weeks Later.
Netflix
Millie Bobby Brown in “The Lady and the Dragon”.
Millie Bobby Brown, convincing as a resilient princess, spends most of the film alone, facing a digital creature whose design is ingenious. It is created by Patrick Tatopoulos, to whom we owe many cinema monsters – from Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla to the werewolves of Underworld.
If it does not shine with its subtlety and does not reinvent anything, The Lady and the Dragon nevertheless remains a pleasant entertainment which mixes many genres – action, family drama, fantasy and horror – and is included in the list successful blockbusters from the platform.
The Lady and the Dragon is available on Netflix.