Mediocre shots are buttressed by fighting and action in this thriller.
“Someone needs to teach you your place. I’ve heard that before.” This is one of the first cliche interactions that ‘The Princess’ chooses to adopt to introduce us to its female centric story line. Well, that’s what it is meant to be.
All episodes of this premiere fall into the hands of Director Le-Van Kiet, whose vision is clear Show violence, show ruthless killing, and show sheared heads to the point of it being overwhelming. If those components are present, they will unsuccessfully strive to create an ill-placed foundation of plot which exists somewhere in between the concepts of good and evil. There is none.
In the fashion of the indonesian action flick the raid, The princess has to come down from the Tower and floods through the major massacre of soldiers in order to successfully rescue her family from the evil terranity of the megalomaniac prince Julius. The part of the Princess is performed by Joey King, with Dominic Cooper and Veronica Ngo appearing in supporting roles.
Let me begin with, the opening minutes are quite entertaining. The stage for King’s princess (no pun intended) is quite thrilling along with a sense of anticipation for what is to follow. Still in chains, she takes out the two guys in intricate fight scenes which is a trend for most parts of the film.
She then goes underwater while a knight whose presence is like a mountain does what he has to do. While everything else is about vandalism and looting, and internecine, she makes her way through the passages and learns the actual designs of Julius. After that, Hulu’s ‘The Princess’ goes on a flat trajectory, Kiet hardly losing sight of the target and rather inventive ways to stage the fights. Until the very end, where the dampening appeal just crazy evaporates into thin air.
As planned, King’s intention in making this film ‘The Princess’ is to showcase all her remarkable capabilities throughout the film in performing the most complex stunts that even professional stuntmen would find difficult to accomplish. Practically, it claims to be about turning the ‘convention on their heads’ and changing the image of a princess in culture.
Screenwriters Lustig and Thornton have no room for softness or vulnerability in the archetype anger and violence stand in their place. King does not look as if she fits in, but it does not really matter. Like a ballerina, she has the grace of one, yet she is a fighter at heart. Even in her large and constricting white gown, she looks and seems to embody impenetrable defenses. The intention that the film will be a period piece with modern ideas and pacing is well captured, only for it to be delivered once. That reality never truly comes.
Its pieces can be found lingering in various parts of ‘The Princess’ but they can never quite come together to form a coherent whole. Kiet’s Hollywood debut is courtesy of the spine-snapping and bone-crushing films ‘Furie’ and ‘The Requin’.
The projects have similarities, however, it is odd that he never seems to move forward in the narrative. He is not really able to take charge of the direction his story takes but perhaps this is compensated for by the intense action that appears to have dominated the cast and crew’s efforts. I liked the sequences despite their draw backs, and they were plenty. Still, one drags oneself forward knowing what is going to happen next an all too familiar trap of boredom which ‘The Princess’ has stooped so low as to delay.
Great uses of space and men ensures our boredom to death is not achieved. Behind its action scenes the creators have definitely had some interesting concepts. They are so undeveloped, it looks like the script was only half written and Kiet instead of Tarzan completed the second part of the film alone.
The writing is not enriched with any significance and does not complement the stellar work that the stunt department masters. The Princess is so far out from what one might take for an incremental approach of smashing the foundations of history and creating new ones. Apparently, Kiet does not care about the logic and is overpowered by the spirit of the culture. For example, there is no refrence to the how the princess’ foreighn masters abducted her and brought her to the tower or how a few raised men managed to infiltrate the high castle walls.
“The Princess’ is a classic streaming media blunder. There’s too many of those now, and if things don’t change we might end up calling it an ‘epidemic’. It is at least somewhat watchable which is if you are calling your grandmother in Poland to check on the health of a family member. Joshing and fighting are all that too in minimal view for the audience. Yes, I am aware that there will be some wait who will tell me about the feminist jibes, or the gender’s potential to retaliate, they will all be presented unimaginatively and excessively.”
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