Red Sonja Review: Strong Fights and Visuals, Weak Story and Ending

Red Sonja debuted for one night in theaters tonight. Credit to the creative team — it’s a low-budget film, but they still managed a theatrical release ahead of the Aug. 29 digital drop.

I like Matilda Lutz. She’s the best part of the movie. I like Wallis Day. It was cool to see Michael Bisping. But Robert Sheehan was severely underused. The rest of the characters are pretty generic and forgettable.

Visuals and Action

For the budget, the special effects look good. This isn’t a $200M production, but the overall visual presentation works. At times, it reminded me of Roger Corman. The fight scenes, in particular, are done really well.

Story and Pacing

The plot is standard fantasy — nothing unique, but fans of the genre and the character should be satisfied. The execution, however, dips and drags at times. It could have been tighter, and it should have hit the ground running and wrapped in 90 minutes. In fact, it might have worked better as a TV series.

There’s also too much lecturing. I came to see Sonja fight, not deliver speeches. There are moments where the music seems to echo Conan the Barbarian (likely because the producer’s father once owned Conan), but the film never reaches that epic level (it needed to).

The ending also completely falls flat — no real payoff — and that final scene is corny and eye-rolling.

Technical Issues

The camerawork is inconsistent. Some shots feel like they were done by different people, with shaky handheld moments and blurry “near unconscious” sequences that were more nauseating than immersive. Those should have been cut/redone. Maybe they were part of reshoots and/or rushed.

The Characters’ Energy

Sonja feels sexless, as does Sheehan’s villain.

Even with bikini armor and a hint of flirtation with Luca Pasqualino’s character, there is no spark.

Sheehan’s villain is introduced with promise but quickly devolves into a whiny wimp — hardly an intimidating emperor. SPOILER: His quest for a spell book ends up meaningless, making much of the plot buildup worthless. That ties into the flat ending.

Then Red Sonja lectures Draygan about destroying the forest, using machines, and so on, which is a page right out of James Cameron’s Avatar. Gimme a break (another eye roll).

Rhona Mitra, in limited screen time, exudes more sex appeal than anyone else. Too bad she’s barely in it — I would have liked to see her in the bikini armor.

Sonja’s capture is clumsy — she gets caught in a catfight with Wallis Day’s character because she takes too long breaking a lock. This conveniently sets up a gladiator subplot, which plays like a Gladiator knock-off.

The Verdict

The script needed tightening, the pacing more urgency. While the team made the most of their resources, stronger writing could have elevated this beyond “decent for what it is.”

Red Sonja gets a 5/10.