The Millie Bobby Brown Action Movie Dominating Netflix Right Now
"Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown is once again raking in the numbers for Netflix. "Damsel," a fantasy film that follows Brown's character Elodie, a young noble whose fate is secretly tied to a tragic ritual, is currently sitting at the top of Netflix's Global Top Ten, beating out projects like Stephen Amell's "Code 8 Part II" and Adam Sandler's "Spaceman." According to the streaming platform, "Damsel," which debuted on March 8, racked up over 60 million viewing hours just a couple of days after its release.
For its main star, the film represented an important opportunity to take on a role that centered more around the theme of womanhood, which, according to Brown, was a step away from her usual characters. "When I was offered this film, for me, it was all about [how] I really am able to step into my womanhood. I didn't have access to more badass female-like woman roles. I felt like I'd always played the girl in everything," she explained during an interview with Netflix.
"Damsel," which boasts a mighty cast, with the likes of Robin Wright, Ray Winstone, and Angela Bassett joining Brown in this fantasy tale, has obviously succeeded in luring in viewers, but how did the film fare with critics?
Damsel doesn't seem to be drawing rave reviews
"Damsel," which puts Brown at the forefront as a supposed princess-to-be attempting to fight her way out of a sinister destiny drawn up for her, did not seem to hit the mark with critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film boasts a middling score of 56%. While the audience score was a little more kind, giving the fantasy flick a 66%, the general consensus surrounding "Damsel" appears to be that the movie struggles to sail past generic fantasy territory.
The Daily Beast's Nick Schager wrote that the film "Has its heart in the right place but little else, starting out competently and then slowly falling apart with each clumsy step along its 'Game of Thrones'-lite path." Mick LaSalle, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, claimed that the movie did not deserve Brown's worthy performance. "The humor here — unintentional, of course — comes from the clash between Brown's ferocious commitment and the absolute unworthiness of what she's committing to." Even with critics who appreciate "Damsel," there seems to be a shared understanding that the movie does not stray from all too familiar fantasy tropes. "This subversion of the usual knight-saves-princess narrative is long overdue, even if Damsel doesn't manage to avoid all the clichés," Mireia Mullor wrote for Digital Spy.
Meanwhile, Looper's own Audrey Fox gave the film a 4/10 in her "Damsel" review – referring to it as a "a deeply flawed feminist fairy tale."