The Princess – A Mindless Period Action Romp

Not all princesses are mere damsels in distress as society has consistently pushed popular media towards female empowerment as more and more women are taking more prominent roles both in front of and behind the camera. That trajectory over the course of the last few decades has been a promising one so far but there is still plenty of work left to do. Films like The Princess are another step in the right direction, putting a woman front and center in a sometimes gruesome, fast and furious action film. Running at a relatively short running time of around the 90 minute mark, the film definitely doesn’t shy from action with some incredible fight choreography and fast-paced camerawork. However, that’s pretty much of it as the film essentially consists of a series of mindless action sequences tied together by a weak and cheesy throwaway story to justify itself. While the story is a forgettable one, the biggest takeaway should be a fearless lead performance from Joey King who certainly commits to the action. However, the lack of a story makes it all ring hollow.

The Princess follows a headstrong princess (King) who was unlike most princesses and unwilling to let herself be pawned off as a bride to a man named Julius (Cooper). Little did she know, her refusal led her to be locked in a tower in her father’s castle. With her kingdom in the balance, it was up to her to find a way to escape and stop him before it was too late. The tower presented the princess its own set of challenges and various enemies to dispatch in what felt like a video game at times. Putting her fight training to good use, she went about it in inventive ways in a series of exciting action sequences where she does a surprising amount of damage thus giving the film its R rating. That being said, getting through the tower would require a great mind just as much as great might but it was nevertheless still fairly easy against legions of comically-inept soldiers who presumably kept underestimating her because she was a princess.

Breaking up those action sequences and taking viewers outside of the tower was the aforementioned inept story that will have a large portion of them wanting to go back to the princess as soon as possible. In the end, the events in the film did have to amount to something as she needed a cause to rally behind to give her journey some meaning if anything. For that reason alone, it barely succeeds but it was just hard to care for the most part about any of it as Julius was such a forgettable and one-dimensional villain further undermined by painfully-cheesy dialog in a not even scenery-chewing camp kind of way. Meanwhile, his right-hand woman Moira (Kurylenko) was even more one-dimensional and mostly just there despite wielding an interesting chain-like weapon. While the cheesiness on each of their parts was perhaps intentional, each were also very underwhelming to say the least.

Besides the frenetic action, the best part of The Princess was King’s committed performance as the titular princess. The film may not have required much in the way of emotional depth, the few moments of it here were not its finest moments, but she proves that she can handle action. It’s a shame that the film didn’t show its elements outside of its action nearly as much care, resulting in a less well-rounded product. However, the action will more than likely be enough for a large portion of viewers in spite of its issues. Cooper and Kurylenko seemed to deliver paycheck energy and effort in terms of their performances as Julius and Moira which may have been due to the script though at least King overcame it with at least some level of charisma.

At the end of the day, The Princess is a decent yet mindless romp for better or worse that will fill the void for anyone with 90 or so minutes to spare but will be forgotten soon after.

still courtesy of 20th Century Studios

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.