The Princess (2022) Joey King, Olga Kurylenko, Veronica Ngo, Dominic Cooper

[AlbertV]

Le Van Kiet's second English language film has been set for a July 1, 2022 release date on Hulu. The film, titled The Princess, stars Joey King as a strong-willed princess who must save her family and kingdom from a scorned, vindictive suitor intent on deposing her father. Dominic Cooper, Olga Kurylenko, and Veronica Ngo co-star in the film. When I interviewed the director about his last film, The Requin, he told me a bit about this new film. 

[AlbertV]

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by AlbertV

[DrNgor]

The review by IndieWire was quite negative.

[Drunken Monk]

I didn’t like this at all (my wife did). Firstly, it has a boring, paper thin plot. But we’re not here for the plot, right? Well, you’ve seen all the action before. For the most part it’s clunky with them giving Joey King a sword that weighs more than she does. She just doesn’t wield it all that well. Not her fault at all. It really looks like she put in the work.

The empty handed stuff isn’t exactly mind blowing either. There are a few moments of brilliance in the many fight sequences but simply not enough.

And to all this Joey King’s ropey English accent and some truly awful CGI/green screen and it’s simply a lackluster experience.

[Super Ninja]

My reason giving this a watch was Veronica Ngo. Her third collab with Le-Van Kiet is a far cry from what they've done with Furie, but at least she got some serious screen time and a chance to show off some of her skills, which is a lot more than she's been given in The Old Guard and Da 5 Bloods.

The Princess is actually perfectly watchable and even surprisingly good action wise considering what it is, which is a mainstream martial arts fairytale really, and a Hulu original at that.

It's a medieval female version of The Raid in a way, but in reverse, with a young princess having to fight through hordes of opponents, only starting at the top and fighting her way down. Which means you can forget about the plot, but can expect almost non stop action. 

Once again, Le-Van Kiet turned to Samuel Kefi Abrikh in need of a fight choreographer, who proved his worth on Furie. Being shot in Bulgaria, there are Bulgarian fight coordinators and stunt coordinators helping out. It's obvious Joey King worked for the part and she handles her action quite well. Ngo could have shown more and her duel with the whip-wielding Kurylenko is not really delivering to be honest. Still, there are solid fights, some fairly violent, and you could say some of the bigger fights even have a story. The princess is forced to find different ways to defeat bigger and stronger opponents and she does. She's tough but not untouchable.

I've seen complaints regarding producion values that I can't say I understand. True, it's not impeccable work, but it's enough to make the movie work. The CGI fire was pretty terrible though, that's true.

All in all, I got more than I asked for and the fights exceeded my expectations. No, they're not great, they're not original and they're certainly not jaw dropping, but it's a women's empowerment fairytale, what do you expect?  

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Super Ninja

[Daxtreme]

I thought this was bad but they were really trying to be honest, so I admire that about it. Like others have said, horrendous CGI all around.

A shame it didn't work out.

Things they should have done: drop the family melodrama, focus on the "Escape the Tower" spectacle only, storyboard and visualize it properly, and go to town with that.

Also, Joey King did a fine job, she was excellent and believable as a Princess, but she wasn't convincing enough as a fighter. She needs more training, especially weapons training. Also, and lastly, there are one too many completely impossible scenes in this movie that break the suspension of disbelief. Once I can live with, but when it starts happening all too often...

D

Edited July 5, 2022 by Daxtreme

[AlbertV]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:40 PM, Super Ninja said:

My reason giving this a watch was Veronica Ngo. Her second collab with Le-Van Kiet is a far cry from what they've done with Furie, but at least she got some serious screen time and a chance to show off some of her skills, which is a lot more than she's been given in The Old Guard and Da 5 Bloods.

 

I had a hoot with the film. I mean come on, it was a fantasy action film and when you have a fight scene within the first 5 minutes, then I know it's going to be fun...in a goofy unbelievable sort of way. Oh and this is actually Ngo and Le's 3rd collaboration together. Ngo starred in Le's horror film The House in the Alley in 2012 before Furie and this film.

[Daxtreme]

Glad you enjoyed it Albert, and yes I fully agree that starting a movie with a fight scene is a killer way to start! Especially that fight scene, it was great and hella creative.

Unfortunately it's mostly downhill from there.

[massa_yoda]

3 hours ago, Daxtreme said:

it's mostly downhill from there.

Since the movie is about her descending a tower, this is literally true.

[Daxtreme]

On 7/5/2022 at 8:35 PM, massa_yoda said:

Since the movie is about her descending a tower, this is literally true.

 

I wish that was the actual story for 100% of the runtime though

Would have been a lot better 

[Super Ninja]

On 7/5/2022 at 10:52 PM, AlbertV said:

I had a hoot with the film. I mean come on, it was a fantasy action film and when you have a fight scene within the first 5 minutes, then I know it's going to be fun...in a goofy unbelievable sort of way. Oh and this is actually Ngo and Le's 3rd collaboration together. Ngo starred in Le's horror film The House in the Alley in 2012 before Furie and this film.

Thanks for correcting me @AlbertV, I'll edit my post. Guess I didn't do my homework well enough. I wasn't aware they've worked together before, although I don't believe I'll bother with the movie. I will be giving Furie another watch when the sequel comes out though. 

[Drunken Monk]

If you haven’t seen The Princess yet, it (as well as a number of other films) will be removed from HULU and Disney+ on May 25th. This will result in it entirely vanishing as it has no physical media release. So, to watch it, you’ll have to pirate it.

I’m going to give it a second watch before it disappears, just to see if I like it a little more this time around.