The Princess

To describe The Princess as Die Hard with a Princess wouldn’t be doing it justice.

In a kingdom without a heir, a sociopath named Julius (Dominic Cooper) plans on taking the crown by forcing The Princess (Joey King) to marry him. He locks her in a room at the top of a tower to hold her before their wedding, unbeknownst to him she is a strong willed individual who fights back with ferocity.

With The Princess, Joey King shows that she can be an action hero. She is convincing in the movie and shows her athleticism. Veronica Ngo is similarly a badass in the movie as The Princess’ mentor, trainer and partner in the fight. Dominic Cooper and Olga Kurylenko are both slimy and easy to hate.

This movie is bloody fun with some very well choreographed action. Le-Van Kiet’s direction keeps a nice balance between fun and action. The film score by Naalie Holt (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Loki) helps to perfectly match and set the mood of each scene – much like the action on screen, the score is playful.

I love that this movie turns the damsel-in-distress trope on its head. The Princes faces off against larger men who try to overpower her. She uses her tenacity, smarts, smaller size and agility to her advantage and to kick their asses. Flipping the damsel-in-distress trope on its head is about all that makes the script by Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton special. Otherwise, the script is rather generic and thin. That is acceptable because the film moves at such a quick pace and with speed that a deep story is not really necessary. There is enough background story provided by the flashbacks that we get a sense of how this head strong princess became so tough and uncompromising.

What is even better is that The Princess is indirectly a Disney princess – Disney owns the 20th Century Studios which produced The Princess and The Princess is being presented on Hulu which is also owned by Disney.

The Princess is similar to movies such as Nobody and John Wick. It has a simple story, not much in character development and the weight of the movie is carried by the action sequences. Thank goodness The Princess has a good amount of action. That made The Princess a quick and very enjoyable watch. The Princess will not win any awards, but it will definitely entertain.

Watched at home, streamed on Hulu.