2025 has brought us a brand new Red Sonja film, and before I
ever got the chance to see the film I heard so much bitching about it that I
knew that it had no chance. It had been condemned sight unseen and no matter
what, it was going to become a dismissed work. I despise this kind of prejudgment
of a film before anyone has actually seen the subject, especially when it is obvious
that it is primarily the genre of the film that has the nattering scum feel
that attacking it is safe. Surely, no one thoughtful can take this type of cinema
seriously – it’s trash and therefore fair game for derisive snobbery.
I have been looking forward to a new Red Sonja film for
years. I’m a fan of the character even though I haven’t read many of the comic
books produced in the last twenty years or so. I'm a fan of the character as
created by Roy Thomas for Marvel Comics back in the 1970s as a part of their long
running Conan the Barbarian series. The
comic character of Red Sonja is not really a creation of pulp writer Robert E.
Howard but she springs from the same fertile soil.
There was a character named Red Sonya of Rogatino who was in
a single Howard called ‘The Shadow of the Vulture’, and then the comics altered
her a bit and plunked her down the Hyperborian Age. I'm a big fan of the original
Marvel version of the character, especially when Frank Thorne was drawing the
comics. And as ridiculous as it is, that's where the chainmail bikini idea
originally came from. Iconic but impractical, to say the least!
I saw the first film based on the character back in the 1985
when it first came out and I wasn't impressed at the time. But it's one of
those movies that, as time has passed, I've grown to really love. It hasn’t
changed but my ability to enjoy it has grown until I find it a complete joy.
As a matter of fact, on The Bloody Pit podcast a few years ago Cort Psyops, and I talked at length about the movie so if you want my
lengthier thoughts (much lengthier) thoughts about the previous Red Sonja film,
that's the place. So, understand, I've been hoping for a new Red Sonja film for
a very long period of time.
Before I got to watch the 2025 version I couldn’t find a
single positive comment about the movie online.
As a matter of fact, I was inundated with negative reviews before
I ever got the chance to see the thing. It seems as if this has become the latest
target for every smarter-than-thou pseudo-critic online to hone their meager typing
skills on go into great detail about how awful it is. This was never going to
stop me from seeing it, of course.
The first thing I noticed is that it was directed by M.J.
Bassett and I am a huge fan of her 2009 Solomon Kane movie. I also remember
liking the slasher effort WILDERNESS (2006) but details have faded. So, to my
mind, she was an excellent choice to take a shot at the character. She
understands the genre and handles visceral violence with style.
I’ll admit that I had lowered expectations because of the
mountain of bad online comments but I'm the perfect audience for a sword &
sorcery film. As you may have guessed, I enjoyed the hell out of it! I'm not
saying it's perfect. There are a couple of moments where I wanted some fine-tuned
clarity in the editing. An example is a scene with a character suddenly buying
it with an arrow to the eye and we then see Sonja, in the distance. She is presumably
the character who shot this person in the head from across a battlefield but she
is not holding her bow. Instead, she's charging on horseback with a sword in
her hand. I'm not sure if what was trying to be communicated was that one of
the other people who we are then shown riding in to help her fired the deadly arrow.
That is clumsy editing and while I understand why it was done it is a hiccup in
the flow of the scene. My assumption is they wanted to
immediately introduce the character in motion and headed toward the people that
she's threatening. This is a fairly minor problem considering how much I was
impressed with the surrounding sequence.
The only other real complaint I have with the film is that
in about four cases they use CGI to craft backgrounds and distant vistas which
would have have been done using matte paintings in the past. Normally, I love
those things and they usually look great rendered in CGI but these don't look
as good as I wish they did. I'm assuming that all boils down to this being a
lower budget film, which is a shame.
About the only thing that most people who are hating on the
movie can agree on is that Matilda Lutz, who plays Sonja, is fantastic and I
have to agree. She is believable throughout this story both as an actress and in
the physicality of the role. It can’t be easy to play this kind of sword
wielding action hero but she is superb. There's something about her that makes
you invested in the character from the beginning. In a better world she would
be a major star and if I could work my will upon cinema, she would play Sonja
at least a couple of more times.
THE LIST
RED SONJA (2025) – 7 (what is all the complaining about?)
CAUGHT STEALING (2025) – 8
WHEN EVIL LURKS (2023) – 9 (rewatch)
THE FLYING SAUCER (1950) – 3 (deadly dull Alaskan travelogue)
REPTILICUS (1961) – 6 (rewatch of AIP cut on Blu)
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)
PRINCE OF TERROR (1989) – 7 (Lamberto Bava chiller)
THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025) – 7
REPTILICUS (1961) – 6 (rewatch of Danish cut on Blu)
THE LONG WALK (2025) – 8
THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (1971) – 6 (rewatch on Blu)
THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957) – 5 (rewatch on Blu)
SHADOW OF ILLUSION (a.k.a. Ombre Roventi) (1970) – 5
REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES (1943) – 5 (rewatch on Blu)
AND THE BONES CAME TOGETHER (1973) – 6 (TV movie ghost story)
SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES (2025) – 7
ZORRO THE AVENGER (1962) – 5 (weaker Spanish Zorro effort)
QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)
MYSTERE (1984) – 5 (flat giallo crossed with spy tale)
OBSESSION: A TASTE OF FEAR (1988) – 7 (fascinating futuristic giallo)
HIM (2025) – 7
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1983) – 6 (rewatch)
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