The only issue I have with Enola Holmes is that they HAD to belittle Sherlock. This is one of the issues with female lead media, I want you normies, especially Frenchies to finally get this through your thick-skulls on why men like me have grown to despise female led ANYTHING. Didn't start out that way, especially not for me. She-Hulk the straw that broke my metaphorical back on giving female led media a chance. They can't fxcking help themselves. Female media is never just a cool story with a lead that happens to be a woman and THAT'S where the "empowerment" or "encouragement" would come from like male media. It's not just simply a story of a fictional Holmes sister solving her own separate investigation with a fun cameo from her brother Sherlock. They HAD to make her better than him and basically bring down Holmes in order to make Enola look AS competent. THAT'S the biggest issue with female media. Can everyone admit that not only is that constant trend of making male characters dumb/useless/evil etc. not only sexist, but overall does have an effect on the writing of the product? Also can we not just admit how fxcked up it is how society and women view men? This goes for the self-self-flagellating male feminist cucks in top media positions green lighting/producing/directing/writing etc. this $hit too.
I GUESS the concept of Damsel is interesting, but haven't we seen the fairytale princess subversion trope a million times in culture by now? On of the biggest being Shrek which even said more on both men and women's physical insecurities about themselves and caring how people view them. I'm just so fxcking tired of the WAHMEN empowerment $hit as if they're living in 1812. A women that sad and pathetic they need ENDLESS media telling them how much they're better than men because OTHER women men them feel worse than men, but are still so attached to the sisterhood they can't bad mouth it? Is that where we are in culture now? Women bashing men because other women make them feel bad and we're just their punching bags?
Not sure how much the tale is spread among Europe and outside Europe, but many of Czech fairytales are about dragons demanding princess as a sacrifice (usually saved by a guy 🙃, sometimes by fighting, mostly by trickery). The idea of a royal family giving her to dragon and her being forced to escape on her own is very good. If her plot armor was not so big and first part was more subtle and clever...
Really? Sounds pretty bland tbh. Either the dragon acts like a dragon, and catches her. Or it’s a bunch of contrived escapes until she inevitably gets away.
@@YourBlackLocal If she can show resourcefulness resileance and fail aling the way and be vcreative. could with a good character make a fun movie. Her being resourceful and not invisible and smart and come up with stuff, could be fun.
@@marocat4749 id agree. If it wasn’t a dragon. There’s no amount of resourcefulness that can keep a literal dragon from not immediately catching you, without it being contrived.
@@-Sai I do, but it mainly because 95% of them are sitting on my self in my room where I can see them everyday but I do agree with your point- I have a good memory, and I don't remember every story I have ever consumed
@@p.a.4512 Also you shouldn't even have to remember every piece of media you have consumed. If you were sufficiently entertained when consuming said media, who cares if you never think about it again. Not every piece of media needs to leave a lasting impact on you.
Netflix found that many of their users like having shows playing in the background as they cook, clean, etc - and it looks like they've optmized their output for that purpose
A roguelite/roguelike ala Hades or Dead Cells where you play different princesses trying to escape the cave, with the capability of choosing a more sneaky approach or a more strong, fighting upfront, approach
Also, you'll be unlocking and learning the cave system with each new princess (like in the movie). When you get to ellodie you should get just *1* chance to look at the full map, and from there you just depend on your own memory. Also, I'd have loved more lore hints in each part of the cave system
Except Disney+ already did that concept with Joey King where she's a princess locked in a tower. For all the faults of the plot, it delivers decent action sequences
Elodie never actually tries to explain to the dragon that she's not an actual blood relative. Also, why even have the need for a fake marriage at all? Nobody from the village seems to think that it's remotely suspicious that the Prince keeps getting married, and all of his wives mysteriously disappeared after the wedding.
The marriage could've just been a ritual that they created to kind of juamstify it. I belive the people already knew about it and did nothing as long as it wasn't their daughters.
I think it's implied that they travel pretty faaaaaaar away to find these brides they sacrifice. It's shown through Elodie's family travel and then when she "sees all the previous brides" in the safe cave and they're all different races 😅
She does try to explain. After she figured it out, when she confronted the dragon. It didn't believe her. Then they fight, she wins, and she shows it the scar on her hand.
i know this is a weird thing to point out, but like how are you everywhere? like every single youtuber I enjoy I always find you in their comments, like this is so cool (you have great taste btw :))
I did appreciate that they wrote the Stepmother to be sympathetic, and not a clichéd Evil Stepparent. She was suspicious of the Queen, and tried to warn Elodie. Though it felt a little distracting that Elodie kept addressing her as "Stepmother", and not her actual name.
I agree. Was waiting for the "evil stepmother" trope to get used... and was pleasantly surprised that they went a different route, and that she was the only one who felt something was off, and tried to warn her. Sh*t, even her own father didn't care. So at least she had ONE parent who put her 1st. 😏💯
Righg but I let it slide when she called her "stepmother" because I thought in those times and ages they'd refer to relatives as the role they are. "Hello, Brother!", You know?
that's not a good thing, they did it cause of course they did, that's actually the trope "shes not evil just misunderstood" cause media hates making a affably evil character especially if their a woman hence the ending all women live all males dead cause patriachy bad but queen and evil dragon good
Ah yes, the tired trope of "girl/woman cutting her hair with the sharpest object she has at hand (more often than not without a mirror or even just a reflective surface) to symbolise her newfound resolve in a moment of dramatic tension, which results in a haircut that doesn't look like complete garbage". That had to have completed a row on someone's bingo card.
Besides Mulan, I can’t really think of a single fictional property that handles this well. The only times that I’ve seen the hair cutting as anything substantial was in Dunmeshi, which was a very quick thing.
@@medealkemyAt least Bev had a better reason for cutting her hair, to make herself seem less attractive to her father (barf!), which later proves to be a good thing as he says she “looks like a boy” afterwards. It’s a response to the abuse she suffers at home and a move to decrease her father’s sexual abuse towards her. Yeah it’s a tired trope, I agree, but I can forgive it if it serves some form of narrative purpose.
The woman who does the voice of the dragon is Shohreh Aghdashloo. She is an Iranian actress with this unique great smoker's voice. Her best role might be in The Expanse where she plays a foul mouthed politician. I really recommend the show.
She was also in Mass Effect 2 and 3. She only voices a side character, but her voice makes them so distinctive and recognizable that I always remember who she is.
the one real thing the movie has going for it is that the costuming is EXQUISITE. the costumers really paid attention to different layers and parts that go into a period-inspired gown. the scene where Elodie is dressed for the wedding is soooo well-done. i legit am excited for if/when someone like Bernadette Banner reviews the costuming in "Damsel".
@@Donnybrook831 just to name a few: the upcoming historical movie 'Firebrand', about Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, looks incredible just from trailers alone - the costuming looks _really_ period accurate (and dresses at the time was all about layering not entirely dissimilar to the wedding prep scene in 'Damsel'.) 'Marie Antoinette' (dir. Sofia Coppola) has been one of THE gorgeous period costume movies (AND period accurate) of all time, so i would recommend that too. 'Emma.' (dir. Autumn de Wilde) does everything about Regency costuming in a highly stylized movie perfectly right. it gets Regency detailing down to a tee and uses all the rules and fashions of the time to give the movie its own unique style, rather than using the movie's style or director's preferences to dictate (and skew) the period costuming. it came out around the same time as the first season of 'Bridgerton', a show that, while since then has decided to lean in on their fabulous historical anachronisms, had decided to show the Regency ladies wearing CORSETS in a time of the straight pillar-silhouette for some reason, so 'Emma.' was a gorgeous breath of fresh air. for more, i highly recommend Bernadette Banner's videos 'Ranking Every [year] Historical Drama on Costume Accuracy' - she's done it for 2022 and 2023, and invites experts in the other countries' period costumes to speak on historical dramas set on the respective countries. if you just want something to scratch that itch of interesting costuming and seeing how all those layers and pieces come together, i recommend the channel 'Crow's Eyes Productions'. they have a 'Getting Dressed' series featuring different time periods - their Tudor dress and Roman Empire video are my all-time favourites.
One thing I also hate about this movie is the blue bugs. They are such a cop out because they can somehow replace missing flesh and completely heal a gouged out eye. It would’ve been better if these bugs had some sort of healing property without being able to fully heal wounds. Like Elodie can walk out of this incredibly traumatic experience with barely any scrapes. So no wounds that she obtains along the way to prove the battle she had to endure really matters cause they can just use these bugs as a way to make sure their main character doesn’t have to actually suffer.
@@-Sai not every movie that netflix distributes are ''the best of crop'', it feels like they want that movie that will trend on twitter, its free marketing. A good example is cuties
@@Markunator until people know If the movie is terrible or not, they will already have paid netflix and gave their watch time but we can avoid this If the marketing is terrible
@@KperaOfficial Is it just that the really good Netflix movies are the ones that are only _distributed_ by Netflix, whereas the mediocre and bad ones are the ones _made_ by Netflix?
The saddest part to me is it seems like the CGI department really put their all into making the visuals look phenomenal for this movie to just be… well what it is. And idc what some people’s opinions are CGI truly is one of the most impressive forms of art when it’s done well.
RIGHT?! The character design on the dragon is actually REALLY clever! It seems like a perfect mesh between Western and Eastern Dragon stereotypes, with it's body mostly ressembling a western dragon, but the head and neck ressembling more of an Eastern dragon!
Oh Looooord. I remember Bright. It has the honor of being the movie that made me realize 'You know what? My life is getting more finite everyday. I don't need to sit here and burn hours suffering to finish something simply because I started it.' Now, if I find no enjoyment in a piece of media, I just put it down and no longer feel guilty. Thanks, Bright, for teaching me a valuable lesson!
Bright was when I also stopped following “hyped” movies/shows. I was like “Why is everyone watching this shוֹt? I can’t seem to get through it!” I also don't watch new series on Netflix anymore for the same reasons & if it's good 75% chance they'll cancel it.
I think thats another problem that should be pointed out. Generic, characterless charcaters that are just fill ins to do generic things for a generic plot. No identity or names needed.
I mean.. both of the do, don’t they? I’ve just watched it a couple hours ago and I think their first names were mentioned? The point obviously still stands 😅
@@Zelda00Gamer lmao I was about to reply saying their names were lord and lady bayford but then this comment made me realize I don’t remember their names being spoken and they didn’t have first names period
Yea i now understand why Netflix cancelled the 2nd season of the dark crystal.. such an interesting plot and uniquely showcased by puppets and cgi. But of course that isn't mainstream enough. 😒
It would have been good commentary on women who have been hurt in the past taking out their pain on future generations of women instead of the people who are actually responsible for their pain.
Yeah, the dragon was so sadistic at the start. Even if the girls' were royals why do they deserve to die? There great-great-however many times grandad did something wrong not them.
@@ashleyedwards7189This, but also it could’ve been achieved by keeping the fact that she was being tricked too. Could’ve added the extra commentary on women like that who buy into a system w/o asking questions and then take out the unresolved shit they face on future generations in a similar way. Or find out but choose disillusionment. Idk that I’m explaining what I mean correctly at all, but yeah. Those themes would’ve made it into the movie if it eas just better, since the bones of those ideas were already present
@@karlijns4816 It was the king who mad that deal to save his life. Ge could have just died. Judging a dragon by human standards... maybe it is catlike and likes to play with its prey
Damsel has one of those premises that get posted on tumblr like "what if the princess saved herself from the dragon! It'd be so good" but without the addition of like the princess then riding off with her girlfriend into the sunset or whatever
@@eamk887 Knowing Hollywood nowadays they wouldn't care about writing a genuinely good strong female character you can absolutely get attached to. Sigh... Remember Sarah Connor? Remember Ripley?
That looked like a good one! It had "You're Next" vibes which I loved. I think if Elodie was like Erin from that movie in her creativity and survival instincts (obviously wouldn't have the same survival background) then the dragon encounters would've been more engaging.
I read the book that came out with this movie out of curiosity and it’s way better. It’s very reminiscent of 2014 YA fantasy. Evelyn Skye did an amazing job tying the loose ends the writers from this movie didn’t take a single minute to think about. They’re also very different. For example: 1. The map was actually in a “safe cave” that the dragon couldn’t reach and the different princesses through the centuries added parts to it whenever they came back from exploring 2. Elodie can communicate with the past princesses through blood magic, which she discovers she has inside the cave 3. Victoria wasn’t crisped like a marshmallow, the dragon ate her alive (and her death was very significant to Elodie’s character development) 4. Elodie learns how to speak with the dragon in its native tongue so they’re playing on a same level field when fucking with each other. (Which I thought was pretty cool) 5. The descriptions of Elodie’s injuries throughout the novel are actually brutal and she even dies at one point. 6. The ending is so different from the movie, you can actually tell that the author had zero communication with the screenwriters since signing the contract So yeah, if you thought the premise for the movie was interesting, go read the book
Damn that sounds promising! The movie had a cool premise but then the plot just unraveled after she escaped the cave - I might actually check out this book
in the movie the map was also in the only place that the dragon couldn't reach, but it does make more sense that multiple princesses added to it over time rather than just one
Thanks for the book recomendation and the 1st point. I was wondering how long was that Victoria in the cave that she manage to explore it all, remember how she get there, came back to the safe cave, drew the new part of the map and do it all again.
I swear Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Dragon’s VA) is the only one actually doing any acting, she’s literally the only thing I remember about this film and I only saw it a week or so ago.
Holy shit, that's who they hired to do the Dragon's voice? I didn't recognise her with the effects as I was only half listening to the video. I hope I get to hear her more in season 2 of Arcane instead, that sounds better!
The dragon knows it's Elodie's sister, as at that point she still believes the girls are princesses of the royal bloodline, therefore she has to be elodie's sister.
I came across some posts of the hair and makeup designer on Damsel...and man it was sad. She explained how intricate and historically accurate braids she was making on real actors' hair and on those wigs and it seemed she put so much thought and care behind it. Just for it to be a completely lazy and soulless movie. What's infuriating is that there is a great movie inside of "Damsel" but nobody gave a shit.
The make up was just too much. So many times, even when her face was streaked with dirt, her lip gloss was popping😂 Literally. And her eyeliner wing?? In tattered clothes?Come on now
literally everything about the hair, costume, and make-up in the movie was great..................save for whatever was going on with Millie Bobbie Brown's face. she had SO much eyeliner, eyeshadow, and lipstick even in the intro scene when she's supposed to be poor, and it's extra jarring when she's standing next to her (in-movie) sister and Angela Bassett. even Robin Wright's character, who is the queen of a rich, decadent kingdom, does not have that much make-up caked on.
@BelindaShort definitely. B Leeway was reasonably given with impeccable lip gloss still in tact in a mossy cave. The eyeliner wing thinned out the fantasy a bit more for me. But that shouldn't spoil your viewing experience if it's your thing. It didn't track in my Fantasy world, not because it's wasn't fantastic, but because even in Fantasy, they sweat and with how much crying she was doing, that eyeliner should've been wayyyyyyy non-existent 🤷♀️
"Netflix really wanted you to know this movie was coming out". Gonna be honest, I clicked on the video because I thought it was about the "damsel" trope and how it was used in Netflix movies, I didn't even know a movie called "Damsel" actually existed up until literally now. 😂😂😂😂
No idea this movie existed. But I also didn't realize that Netflix made movies, considering I only watch originals if I have been given a good reason to, eg Stranger Things.
I think the ending of this movie would've been much better if they simply made it so that the dragon never actually befriends the main character. Like, after the dragon learns she has been tricked, she flies and destroys the city, and in the mean time the main character just leaves the kingdom back to her family. It would've fit better in the story imo. Another easy thing they could've done to improve the movie is to just make the main character not say anything while she's hiding from the dragon. It was the perfect time for show don't tell, but obviously you can't do that for mainstream audiances.
Pretty much, I feel like movies don't allow for quiet intense moments anymore because they think an audience won't pay attention if something doesn't flash in their face anymore.
I think the reason why movies need to spell out everything without leaving the scene itself speak is: 1) media literacy going down in recent years + movie directors spoon feeding their audience (these two go hand in hand). The cave scene where she points at the map was easy to understand without dialog but here we are with lines like "this is where the bird cave is" when pointing out a bird in a cave in the map; 2) Netflix movies/shows are made for people who binge watch. If you are binging a movie while doing some other thing, you are going to miss the plotpoints of the scenes without dialog. This is done disregarding people who actually want to watch the movie and how spelling out everything that happens ruin their experience. This is why I watch Netflix movies when I have things to do and only want some background sound ( "watching" Damzel was amazing while I did my IPL , skincare and my hair lol).
The dragon at no point befriends the main character. That's an interpretation people have just agreed on for some reason. Elodie allies with the dragon pragmatically and then they both leave the kingdom. The end.
Yeah, it's not like Millie Bobby Brown is best known for playing a role where she's able to convey loads of emotion and characterisation without any dialogue...oh wait!
It seems weird that they'd have the character talk to herself out loud while she's being hunted by a dragon, when they could deliver the same lines as internal monologue/non-diagetic speech. That way, the audience would still know what she's thinking, but she wouldn't look like an idiot.
I'm going to quote what a person who liked Damsel told me. "It's such a good movie! That girl from Stranger something is very poweful, strong and feminine! And the queen... so beautiful! I liked it, I liked it a lot." I asked her about the story. "Oh... There's a dragon and a king... They wanted something."
Dude the ENTIRE time I’m like why is she so loud in an unfamiliar place where’s she’s supposed to be hiding from flying for breathing English speaking death lizard???? Does she care for her safety or is she aware of her gold plated plot armor???
I feel like the movies in cinema are basically falling into the same trap. they're trying to make every release a blockbuster so they make it as generic as possible with the most mass appeal as possible. there's very little risk taking and they end up feeling meh
@@mischr13 Because the institutions that make them are dinosaurs who are still operating like it's the 1990s and people only want to see 1 movie during summer vacation. Everything is a blockbuster because they think all they're competing for is attention, that if you hear of a movie ofc you'll watch it. They don't realise people are holding money for quality, or even just their attention for quality because of the over-saturation. They can't move with the times because there's so many executives running everything that they disagree somewhere and just resort to "what works" even if it doesn't work anymore. This is why creatives should own creative ventures. Workers should own their workplaces and the means by which they produce whatever it is they produce (art in this case)
@@mischr13 I dont feel like thats been as true in the last two years. I feel like the steady decline of the MCU has seen a bit of a resurgeance of well thought out standalone movies.
@@bye1551 What 'creative', besides Lucas or Cameron, could actually drop their own 100 million dollars on this fantasy shlock of a movie ? Realistically, the only things a creative that isn't already famous could own would be a novel or a comic book, because those things can actually be created for thousands of dollars that a normal person might be able to have, or have the time to put in doing their own art and editing, instead of money.
I also just loved how they glossed over the fact that not only has this dragon been killing innocent young girls, she has been punishing women for the decisions of a man. Like, yeah it's not ideal to have to sacrifice your daughter, but at the end of the day, they suffer the most. And I can imagine parents of later generations just distancing themselves from their daughters so it hurts less/not at all when they get sacrificed. Obviously in the movie they got around the pain differently, but I feel like if they hadn't taken that route, they would've found another way to lessen the pain, which to the dragon is the reason to do this. So yeah, using women to punish men for their actions will always just hurt the women...
But in this way the writer(s) placed the responsibility for women's suffering on men. The villains in movies are Slavic and men are the ones to blame. To tell stories like that is trending.
It does seem rather weird for her to only want dead daughters. Especially in a mideval setting wouldn't everyone consider the sons of greater value? I can only assume the baby dragons were all daughters but that just means her species is still going to die out.
@@NikkiBudders People get more emotional when a woman is being harmed. Considering that there are frequent complaints about the number of women being killed each year (femicides), while the 4 times higher number of men killed each year hardly evokes negative emotions. Women's well-being is considered of higher value.
Dragon was voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, a super famous actress so her competence in the role makes sense. She carried a significant part of The Expanse show as well.
Literally as soon as I saw the very beginning of Bobby getting a marriage proposal, I knew everything that was going to happen, including the "betrayal" ending and how she was going to torch the kingdom😂
As soon as I heard the dragon speak I immediately went "Oh is that Shohreh Aghdashloo? Good for her to get that paycheck!" Shame that she's wasted on something like this, but if you want a badass dragon voice you can't do better than her.
What's annoying is that doing a medieval horror version of Ready or Not with a dragon is actually a really good idea and the hollywood/netflix content pipeline ruined it
Yep. I would have dropped the entire royal "curse" setup entirely and built things around the mind games with the dragon Maze Runner/Hunger Games style. I'd have also fired Millie bobby Brown out of a canon because jesus christ this woman isn't an actor. It worked with Enola Holmes because of course Sherlock's sister would be stiff and unsociable, but I've never seen her act well in any role.
@@NikkiBudders not too much on Millie. you can criticise her in other stuff but y'all aren't gonna act like she's not great in the very thing that made her famous - Stranger Things
@@NikkiBudders well then maybe you shouldn't be so quick to say 'this woman isn't an actor'. There's a reason Netflix keeps attaching her to their lazy projects. And it's because she was always one of the best actors on that show, even as a kid.
the thing I loved the most about the dragon (as a dragon nerd) is that it is intelligent and sentient, it has 4 legs so its actually a dragon and 4 legged dragons are canonically intelligent and sentient across all media. it also pisses me off that the "dragons" in game of thrones are called dragons even tho they aren't, they are wyverns
they didn’t even bother to name the kingdoms and give any type of world building. most of all though, it was so absurd that the chasm is designed as if the sacrificed girl’s are supposed to SURVIVE being thrown into the bottom of a deep pit?!?!
Small thing... if the dragon is expecting the king's daughters and they sent Elodie's sister as one of the three daughters to be sacrificed and it doesn't know it's being tricked.... then the dragon would assume that the girls are related. It's expecting three daughters, three sisters.
@@MissLinguiniNoodle my favorite is the part where he demands a rational explanation for the presence of ghosts in a dragon movie. This is what Roald Dahl warned us about.
Damsel was (in my opinion) a lesser charismatic and fun version of 2019's Ready or Not. where ready or not was self aware and had a great protagonist, Damsel felt bland, as if it was the first draft of the script.
Ready or Not was such a fun movie! The second i finished watching it i asked some friends if they were up for a movie night lmao. They enjoyed it too. I haven't watched Damsel yet, but the story reminds me of The Princess (2022). That was a very good and enjoyable movie as well with the same concept of a damsel in distress having to save her own ass. Both these movies are memorable and i have them on my rewatch list.
Im surprised there weren't more obvious comparisons to ready or not because the premise is similar but I spose the difference is that's a super.fun movie
I think Victoria found the "exit" but didn't climb up there. She returned to the safe place (maybe she needed to because the dragon was after her idk). She drew the map and later returned to the "exit" to escape and died up there. Because in the map it looks like the "exit" is really an exit and a safe place. (If she knew it's not safe, then she would have drawn that to the map, right?)
But just think about that... Hey, I'm at the exit, now I'm going to go all the way back to that room in this place with a freaking dragon trying to kill me to make this map, and now I'll try and leave. Instead of, you know, just exiting, and, if she did for whatever reason want to do something other than leave the kingdom as quickly as possible, go to a freakin' village or whatever and let people know what is up there, rather than leaving a map in a cave for the next girl who gets chucked into it. Although, if she did make that incredibly dumb decision, that may well have been why she died. By going back, the dragon picked her up again, figured out where she was going, and crisped her.
@@Axterix13 Well I don't know what the writers thought. I just tried to find an excuse or reason for a plot hole. Maybe she was running from the dragon and saw that place while running. Just a short look. And she thought it looked safe. But the dragon was after her so she couldn't escape in that moment. That's just a thought. I know it's stupid but it's the only thing that would make a little sense. But it's not my business to find solutions for lazy script writing so ...
My brain wants to know how many writing credits these movies have in common. Cause honestly it feels like people send in their one page synopsis proposal to netflix hoping to make a movie and money and netflix will buy it off them and chucks the synopsis in the writers room and says expand that. Alot of these films have a unique hook/inciting incident but then doesn't do much with it at all. Like the concepts are there, but it's like they don't know what to do with it from there. Which makes me feel like they buy the ideas but not the writers
i’m pretty sure that’s exactly what they do lol. or at least they have those writers rooms who get 2 days to write every detail so it course it’s not the same as a story that was lovingly created and took as long as needed to develop properly. also by not hiring writers to be on set as it’s filmed they can’t pivot correctly when something ends up not working out in film the same way it was on paper. also resulting in disjointed choices and incomplete stories
The most realistic thing about Damsel is Angela Bassett walking off a stabbing. I can just imagine the Netflix execs going "so MBB becomes a Princess Bride, let's cast Robin Wright" and slapping themselves on the back with smug self congratulation
I feel like the only Netflix original movies that people do remember are mostly animated movies. Mitchel’s Vs the Machines, Guillermo De Toros Pinocchio, Wish Dragon(surprisingly pretty good), Orion and the Dark, Nimona, Klaus, etc.
@@pqtatochip but there are also live action Netflix shows that people do remember unlike their movies(Stranger Things, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, The Witcher, Squid Game, live action One Piece, The Umbrella Academy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Cobra Kai, etc.)
Marriage Story, The Irishman, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc. There are definitely some memorable Netflix live action movies. Its just that most of their other movies are made to be used as background noise as that is how most people consume media now.
For real, and the main character delivering out loud exposition when they already laid the puzzle pieces for the audience I felt like they thought our IQs were a single digit.
I'm so glad you brought up the make-up thing. She not only had on a full face of make up the entire time, she also had sculpted eyebrows and was wearing a lash set! It completely broke the verisimilitude
I actually really liked both Enola Holmes movies. They had an interesting storyline, good pacing, and just incredibly beautiful visuals. I really don't get why so many people hate on them. Anyways, great video, as always🩷
That is the sole movie I've seen Millie bobby brown in that I didn't hate her performance in. Though I think most of that credit goes to the awkward socially ignorant Sherlock Holmes aesthetic just placing her in the only role where awkward, rigid, and unemotive is what her character is supposed to be like.
Me, my sister, and mother liked them a lot as well. They are good movies. Maybe not oscar worthy or top tier movies, but they are entertaining and fun.
At least, Bright has some memorable and accidentally funny lines like “fairy lives don’t matter today.” To this day, I am still baffled that line made it into the movie’s final cut.
I feel like Bright is the only one of these Netflix blockbusters anyone remembers, because it was the first and the only people who liked it thought that the hate was a scheme by big corporations to get a streaming movie to flop. Simpler times.
I, personally, will never forget Damsel because when it came on recommended while my sister and I were visiting our father's house, my sister thought it was an adaptation of a different book and said "I can't believe they adapted that book. I bet it is going to be terrible and I really don't want to watch it." and then my father's 64 year old girlfriend threw a hissy fit under her breath for 20 minutes about how she gets to make her own decisions of whether she likes something and she doesn't need to listen to other people's opinions to form her own. We then watched the first half of the movie before leaving. Also. think it's pretty rich that the script is written by a man but the book was published under a woman's name.
Sorry I should have added something about it being "adapted" to novel under a woman's name but it still feels super shallow and like they thought the book would sell better with a woman's name when the basic story was written by a man. Honestly, i haven't read the book so I don't know how closely it resembles the plot of the movie.@@devonmunn5728
Man if they'd adapted the Damsel book by Elana K Arnold I would've watched it in a heartbeat. Would've been a ballsy choice to try to adapt that. It would've been either fantastic or godawful. Unfortunately that's not what this is.
@@jessip8654 I also thought it was that one XD Considering the way that book played out, it would have been a VERY interesting watch to see how they decided to try to adapt it XD
"A movie made of data"... that's so true! I think Damsel would have been better if the prince was more conflicted about the ceremony. Having them save her sister together would have been better.
Even trailers for films being released in the cinema do that. It's probably because the marketing team wants the trailer to show as much juicy, enticing details as possible and they don't feel like they can't do that without giving away some of the details to make the trailer more enticing for potential viewers
This is my biggest pet peeve. I refuse to see movies that do this, because what’s the point? I already know what happens. The crow remake movie does this, and worst of all, it seems like they reveal all the plot points IN ORDER, so there’s no way you could believe you’ve watched anything except the entire movie. I would’ve gone to see that in theaters, but now I don’t need to-I know it’s bad already, lol.
@@devonmunn5728 Nah, in todays trailers, they literally show every single plotpoint. I could have told you the whole plot from the trailer. I knew about the arranged marriage ending with her being thrown off the bridge, so the entire first 30 minutes were basically just filler. I saw the scene with the birds on fire, so the single one at the beginning was no surprise. I knew she would be hunted and had to hide. When she first got out, I knew she would go back in because she hadn't yet chopped her hair off. The even showed a scene 5 minutes from the ending. Basically the only thing I didn't know about was that the dragon's children were killed first, but that was obvious from the first "3 deaths for 3 deaths! You will pay for your ancestors sins!"-speech like 10 minutes after meeting the dragon...
@@zephyrwlf yeah if it’s going to tell me everything I’d rather have only a title. It used to not be this way, but now they’re focusing on just stuffing as much information as possible into the trailers and spoiling everything. I want to be able to guess at twists myself, not have it force fed or given away before I even sit down to watch the movie
I canceled Netflix almost a year ago and have never looked back. Everyone in my social circle still has it, but no one talks about anything they watch on it, so I never feel like I’m missing out. Just a reminder you don’t have to pay for bad content because of potential fomo!
@@FellDownTheCornHoleabsolutely. I never paid for netflix in the first place, but even the pirated shows and films I've watched from them were so bland that I can't remember anything about it. What's the point of paying then? Lol. I feel like the only reason to pay for netflix is to watch all the old good movies that they bought and aren't available anywhere else due to copyright.
"the dragon somehow knows she's elodi's sister" dude she still thinks she's getting noble daughters from the kingdom. Of course she assumes it's the main character's sister, that was the deal.
As someone who grew up watching a lof of bad fantasy telefilms , it's hilarious. We came from that being "bad tv" to streaming platforms being "better", and well......they've come full circle being just as bad, just as predictable, just as meh quality
I remember bright, because whenever I talk about Kim Harrison’s urban fantasy book series, The Hollows, people ask me “so its like bright?” And i feel agonizing pain at the comparison
We're in the era of "minimum viable library". Quality is irrelevant as long as Netflix can get you to watch _something_ every month and not drop your subscription.
I love that the narrative frames it like if the dragon had only killed the legitimate daughters than it would have been morally justified. Like yeah, those great-great-great grandchildren were totally at fault for what their ancestors did.
Once again, Netflix takes a cool premise/a beloved established story and makes something so bland you wonder if the job requirements for their screenwriters and directors are "write like AI" and "If you add any personal artistic touches you're fired"
I watched this with my parents and my dad was like, “why is she being so loud.” And after that we would both do a “would’ve died here” counter. My mother didn’t appreciate it but in the end also thought it was bad.
To be fair, I think Damsel actually fits in quite well with a number of c/b kids fantasy movies made from like 2005 onwards. They're not amazing films but they're fun enough for kids and are more fun for the parents than a lot of films. The Secret of Moonacre, Spiderwick, even Epic have similar vibes, all of which I enjoyed as a kid despite them being not amazing films. Sure it could have been great but it's decent enough for the audience
a few years ago, drew gooden covered a youtube channel that did this exact same thing. they made a bunch of shows starring popular tiktok stars at the time and would cast as many as they can and then have them market the show to their audiences to bring them in to the channel. the channel would get millions of views
Love Drew!! He also has a video about streaming services overwhelming you with too many options and how it’s about quantity and money over quality. He also recently did a really good video about the new Netflix avatar show!
To be fair on Damsel’s behalf I thought it was refreshing how gritty it was. Most fantasy movies (especially girlpower fantasy movies) try to aim for a level of violence that sits just below the Lord of the Rings, but they really didn’t hold back with the blood and gore…
I'd agree if it were more consistent. The initial burn wounds she suffers were shockingly brutal, then 5 minutes later they're healed away. For me brutality and realism go hand in hand. She shouldn't have survived most of her injuries and close calls if they were playing on the gritty field they established with that excellent burn wound scene. *le sigh*
@@NikkiBudders The initial fall reminded me of when The Hobbit broke my suspension of disbelief - Ah, yes. Now we will drop our cast down a ravine with a bridge _and_ a troll on top of them, and no one will get so much as a sprained ankle out of it.
Honestly, I only remember this movie because I like the dragon so much and the massive missed potential had the story and character development been handled by those who cared. As it stands, whenever I watch a Netflix movie, my brothers and I have a Tropes Bingo card that we check off every time there is a common movie trope executed poorly. Then we complain about plot holes. Our mom hates watching movies with us sometimes.
The dragon knew she was Elodie's sister because the dragon believes Elodie is one princess of the royal family, therefore the next girl thrown down must be another princess of the family making them sisters.
yeah but it's still confusing why the dragon would then think Elodie would come to save her. From her perspective this family has been sending down sisters/daughters for centuries (inlcuding one just a few days before Elodie). Why would a member of the family suddenly switch up and want to save their sister?
But... doesn't the dragon smell the blood and recognize the relatives? So if it could get familiar with Elodie's smell it can also sense the similarities between them? Also regarding the idea that she will be back for her sister: she probably was the first one that escaped. Maybe also realized, that she didn't smell so much similarities between any other girls lately. Only "royal" part, probably also not so strong. Just my assumptions from the video, i didn't watch the film (yet?)
My first impression and thoughts of Damsel were very well summed up in your analysis. For me it all boiled down to my first thought upon reading the summary on netflix, "Isn't it a little late to be making a Princess/Knight/Dragon story where the princess rescues herself or the dragon isn't evil?" They would have had to pull some wild shit to make that dynamic interesting these days.
@@silasandfrida9920 I refuse to even watch trailers in this day and age. They spoil the whole dang movie. If your trailer is over 30 seconds long it's showing too much.
Ngl, compared to most of the other Netflix originals, this was a fun watch. I especially enjoyed the dragon's design and the look of her fire. The first third of the movie perfectly captured the tight, scary, suffocating feeling of the cave to an impressive degree and I was invested enough to feel genuinely sad for the dragon when they revealed he killed her babies. Also, spending an hour yelling "Shut up! She'll hear you!" Is more fun than it should be😂😂
While the film student in me agrees with everyone FSN is saying, I loved watching this movie and recommended it to all my friends. It was so fun & kept my attention surprisingly well
Can I at least appreciate the designer of the drake hybrid though? It’s so rare you see a drake. And yes she’s a drake/European dragon, so still pretty close to the “usual” type... But the fact the one who designed her went for a drake of all things, and had the proportions pretty damn close, with the exception of the European additions... I wanna at least appreciate the drake’s design. Like... that’s someone who knows a thing or two about dragons.
I actually liked Damsel. The scene where the women try to help each other out knowing they could possibly die and another woman would be put in their position, was really touching.
@@ramblingbb7182 I thought the film was also ok but I kind of think that's the issue. The film was forgettable, I enjoyed it but I also enjoyed some of the films he talked about at the start and I also forget they existed. Netflix has become so comfortable with their dominance over streaming that they don't have to be creative with the films they put out. I do understand from their perspective since films are a pain to make so maximizing profits is crucial, a part of me just wishes that they could use that budget to come up with a film that had some nuance to it.
I haven't seen it but my family members have, she enjoyed it. And honestly just from hearing how this film is described, the ideas actually sound very interesting. In all honesty this film sounds like it could be really compelling with better attention to the writing. It doesn't even look bad just from what I've seen, but it could've been a masterpiece with some tweaking.
32:16 well, she know she's her little sister because, by this point, the dragon still thinks that the girls that are being sent down there are the daugthers of the queen, so yeah... she knows they're sisters but for the wrong reason
After you mentioned “how did the dragon know that she was Elodie’s sister” I was like he is right another plot hole… but I was thinking that maybe the dragon assumed because the kingdom promised three daughters from every generation so if Elodie escaped and then the kingdom just sacrificed a new princess then you have to assume that they are probably sisters…I hope that made since. Btw…I love your videos
There are some gems in there burried in the dirt of background movies which Netflix refuses to market and then cancel/deletes them when it obviously doesn't perform well. Netflix is just frustrating, I cancelled it long ago.
About the drawing of the map, she must have seen the light and came back to the safe place and drew the map, and went back multiple times to climb it., failing eventually when she reached the top, where she thought the exit is...thats why in the map, the exit shows sun which just represents light
That's still extremely redundant, if she thought she already found the exit why would she go back into the place where she thinks she could die? To draw on the wall? It still makes no sense
@@leigh-anjohnson She'd help more people if she escaped and exposed what the royal family was doing. Stopping them from sacrificing girls at all in the future is more helpful than drawing a map
@@OPGardevoir The royal family's kingdom already knows this is happening. She gets out and tries telling people, she gets turned over to them. Or people think she's a mad woman because, of course, their beloved royal family wouldn't do such a thing. She's a foreign in a strange land with no help at that point. Elodie was only able to stop it because the dragon backed her up and burned them at the end. So yeah, even if Victoria would try to stop it once she got out, she can still draw the exit on the map to try to help the next girl if she fails.
@@leigh-anjohnson There's no indication that the kingdom knows at most they probably think it's sus that there are so many weddings happening. And whos to say that they definitely wouldn't help her for all we know they would
28:01 I assumed that she saw sunlight and assumed that it's the way out. She came back on the map and draw the sun, then proceeded to climb when she's done. 😅 32:26 Here, I assumed that since the dragon thinks that 'every sacrifice is a daughter of Royal blood' means that she thinks that Elodi's sister is also a daughter of Royal blood, thus making her Elodi's sister? 🧐 37:39 Same thoughts. Guards are probably enjoying the food on the side while watching the wedding. 😤
Man, I remember Bright. Watched it twice. The first time with my brothers on a projector in our living room. We were all high af and it was the best movie ever! I raved about it to my then GF and we watched it again, now sober. God...I was so embarrassed the whole time through...
I need to defend a bit the execution of the movie Damsel: the story is a original fairytale, so they used the narrative structure, archetype exploration and methapor construction of the fairy tales and to me it shows they DID they homework and i loved it. Thing is.... There's a reason people dont use fairy tale narrative structure in movies- fantastic things happen with little explanation, characters are more like narrative objects instead of characters and don't have names or very simple personalities, etc... Basically all the things that marks this type of structure is considered a defect when applied to a movie. It was more like an artistic experiment of a movie and you can get HEAVILY disappointed if you watch it expecting it to be something else, and i think Netflix did exactly that with the trailers.
A big factor that you inadvertently pointed out is that films with very little plot that you can watch on mute are easier to sell to non english speaking markets
@@kiwi-xe5be Films that are incredibly generic and simple as this was translate much better than films with more nuance and reliance on dialogue So you can translate it easily at little cost and to as many markets as possible
then why is U.S Netflix also flooded with foreign made content that is almost always never in English but gets very popular here one example is squid game, you don't have dumb down stuff for people to follow it
@@irishspagetti6565 easy - they're more willing to shell out cash to translate TO English rather than FROM English as it's such a widely spoken language and English speaking regions are their primary demographic. Keeping the script and dialogue simple means that often times people who don't speak much English can still watch it, and I would assume makes any translation they do choose to commission quicker and possibly cheaper.
The only thing this movie did right was hire Shohreh Agdashloo to voice act the dragon. Truly an inspired choice. I LOVE her as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse, and her voice is just so husky and delicious that it really suits playing a dragon.
Okay, to be fair, I must say that Enola Holmes (1&2) and Damsel may have fallen flat to adult audiences; but my preteen daughters LOVE those movies. (And not just because MBB). The stronger female leads, the lack of damsel in distress formats, the grittier plot lines and aesthetics of these films have provided MY girls with something outside of the brightly colored, mundane Disney female lead films. To us, they may be boring or underwhelming, but not every bit of media is, or should be, made for adults. Hell, my youngest daughter (since she was 4 years old) has been begging for a movie where the princess saves the prince! Now, Damsel didn’t exactly provide that for her, but it came damn close and she loved it.
I heard it had good costumes and was looking for a fantasy movie reminiscent of something geared toward ya. I really liked the movie. Could their be improvements? Sure. But the visuals were amazing and the costuming was fantastic. Plus it's not another Disney remake of an existing movie and is more gritty and traditionally fantasy than something like desendants or the school of good and evil.
May I recommend your daughter check out "The Princess" (2019) - it was really well made and the themes of empowerment and saving the people you care about were really solid. A real confidence boost I think 😊
I think we forget those movies because they're so many of them and we watch them sitting at home, not in a special place, or a special environment, maybe tired after a day of work and things like that. We're not focused on them
Yes but you bought it in a store, had to wait to go home and watch it. It was something special, you didn't go out and buy a new movies everyday or even 2 movies a day. Now with Netflix and streaming platforms every movies are at your disposition and none of them are that special
Littwrly this how manny bad movies i watched on amazon disney hbo and don't remember shit😭😭😭 cuz its just as stupid as youtube video's i remember it but i don't know what the movie was about
40:00 This is just a pet peeve of mine. People don’t give enough credit to voice actors, so it’s really annoying that FSN complimented the dragon’s voice actress’s performance without saying who she even is. He named all the other actors but not her. Could anyone let me know who voiced the dragon? She deserves credit even for terrible movies like this
Ok I found her. It’s Shohreh Aghdashloo. She also played the Oracle in the awful second Percy Jackson movie funnily enough. But she’s had a pretty successful career despite that
The one thing that makes me grateful for this movies. Is the opportunity to hear ninja scream “kill her, kill her, torch her, kill her” for 5 minutes straight, loved it!
These steps are literally Illuminations standard procedure 😂. Im convinced The Adam project only picked up alot of steam a second time because Walker Scobell got casted as Percy Jackson and everyone got excited to see what he could do as an actor before the show dropped. Enola Holmes 1 and 2 are fire tho. I wouldn't say they are completely personality less
I just wanted to be the first person on the internet to say that I love the Enola Holmes movies, they're not perfect but thought and care is put into them and the characters are very charming. Its easy to understand and just simple fun. I remember all of the plot points.
Ok, your description of netflix's formula to make movies actually explains why I watch netflix movies. I haven't had netflix in a while because I frefuse to keep giving them money for pure crap, BUT when I had it, I watched those movies when I wanted to listen to something without actually commiting to the plot. More often than not I wasn't even watching the movie, I had them as background noise while I scrolled through Instagram, I didn't have to think, I didn't need to understand the plot because those stories are SO cliché and predictible you already know how it's going to end by the first 15 minutes of the movie. And from the point of view of marketing, what netflix does is absolutely genius
I only remember Bright because Lindsay Ellis did a video about it, but that's it. I still didn't watch it, but that's how I know it exists. Edit: Hold up, they gave the dragon HORIZONTAL pupils?? Like goats, sheep, and horses? PREY ANIMALS!!! NO!!!
More or less diagonal, depending on the tilt of the head. Night active lizards have them, but it was still a stupid choice. Horizontal looks better on a dragon and give more depth perception IRL, and a dragon flying through the cave would like some depth perception...
