Rating: **
Review Date: 8/14/25
Director: MJ Bassett
Cast: Matilda Lutz, Robert Sheehan, Wallis Day, Luca Pasqualino,
cameo by Rhona Mitra
"I do not fear seeing you, you arrogant buffoon."
Sonja of Hyrkania (Matilda Lutz) is a fierce warrior who is searching for her lost people after her village was raided and destroyed when she was a child. Unfortunately, she's captured by a conqueror named Draygan (Robert Sheehan) who is subjugating the known world through advanced technology - basically, sorcery meets steampunk. He forces Sonja to fight in his slave pits unless she agrees to help him find the other half of a magic book that he's looking for, but she obviously refuses to help, and no matter what he throws against her, she always manages to come out on top. She eventually escapes and plots to bring Draygan and his empire down once and for all.
"Red Sonja" has been floating around in production hell for nearly twenty years, with people such as Robert Rodriguez, Simon West, Bryan Singer, Rose McGowan, and Amber Heard involved in the project at various points. While it's a shame we didn't get to see Rodriguez's vision, MJ Bassett seems like a logical fit since they also directed "Solomon Kane" (2009). Unfortunately, it's a cinematic disaster of B-movie schlock, disappointing CGI, and embarrassingly awful dialog. It's a narrative and tonal mess that seems to revel in its excess while struggling to find a coherent plot. Bassett seems to suffer from the same problem as another genre filmmaker, Paul Anderson, in that they're very good at constructing individual scenes, but they're not good at telling stories, developing characters, building worlds, or creating a consistent tone. The narrative is also extremely disjointed, and it's not always clear what's happening or why.
First of all, the film rejects Sonja's original origin story and its sexual trappings, but gives no reason for her supernatural strength, vitality, and nigh invincibility. It isn't until the end of the film that she becomes the "She-Devil With A Sword" due to divine intervention, but it's not clear if that grants her any additional powers other than a change in hair color. Sorcery was always prevalent in the Hyborian Age, but in this film it's replaced with science, which leaves a bad taste. Draygan's war machines are uninteresting and anachronistic, and are just another distraction in the hodgepodge of bland and often cringe-worthy visual effects.
On the plus side, Matilda Lutz is FANTASTIC, and the film is worth watching for her alone. She looks great, has an incredibly toned body, and fully commits to the role. She brings ferocity, rage, compassion, vulnerability, courage, conviction, charisma, and sex appeal to the character in equal measure, and is utterly delightful. While Sonja's signature bikini armor is obviously exploitive, she makes sure that it's not for the audience's pleasure and totally makes it her own. Wallis Day makes a worthy adversary, despite the fact that she's reigned in by Draygan. Unfortunately, with the exception of a wonderful cameo by Rhona Mitra, the supporting cast and characters are unremarkable. Draygan is an extremely annoying and whiny little prick, and the other characters are so flat and uninteresting that you don't even bother learning their names. It really says something when the second best actor in the film is a horse.
It's easy to make fun of Brigitte Nielson's 1985 "Red Sonja" film, but at least the characters and art direction were memorable. Apart from Sonja herself, nothing is memorable about this film. A couple of fight scenes are good, but even now I'm having a hard time remembering them. There's about five minutes of excellent filmmaking in the movie, and the rest is just a tedious slog that makes you wonder why it's so difficult to make a good Red Sonja film. The same goes for "Tomb Raider" (2018). You would think these two properties would just write themselves given the amount of great source material that's available, but clearly Hollywood still has a long way to go when it comes to female action heroes.