The unnamed Princess of an unnamed kingdom awakens to find herself locked in the top of her castle's highest tower, there to await a forced wedding with the nobleman Julius. Since the laws of the land say that a woman cannot inherit the throne, and the king has no sons, this marriage would make Julius the heir to the throne.
With the castle in their hands, Julius and his mercenaries do not expect any further trouble, but they are about to find out why the Princess always made her father so exasperated: despite his objections, she has studied martial arts for most of her life.
The Princess kills the two mercenaries sent to guard her, then begins to make her way down the tower, using her lethal martial arts skills and knowledge of the castle's secret passageways to kill or avoid the mercenaries that are searching for her.
But the numbers of those mercenaries steadily grow, and the Princess can't get out of every single scrape unharmed. Can one young woman, no matter how skilful, prevail against such odds?
The Princess begins in media res, using flashbacks to explain how the title character came to be imprisoned as well as how she learned her deadly skills. This is a smart play since it lets the movie immediately leap into the first of its many action sequences. The film thus hits the ground at pace, dragging the audience along for a theme park style ride of ever escalating action hijinks.
And I have to say, the film's action choreography team deserve kudos for the work they have done here. The Princess has many fight and stunt sequences throughout its length, and in lazy hands those scenes could easily have become tediously repetitious. Fortunately, the choreography team have done an excellent job of keeping them varied and interesting. They have ensured that the Princess faces many different situations and many different enemies, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and complications, which helps keep the action fresh and distinctive.
The film's script also uses occasional moments of humour - often but not only slapstick or mild farce - to leaven the action and give the film a bit of variety. This is a smart decision, because even with the creative choreography, the film does maybe start to run a little out of steam in its latter stages. I think this is because it is so high octane, right from the start, that it struggles to find a real 'gear change'. That limits its ability to create a sense of escalating danger.
The Princess begins in media res, using flashbacks to explain how the title character came to be imprisoned as well as how she learned her deadly skills. This is a smart play since it lets the movie immediately leap into the first of its many action sequences. The film thus hits the ground at pace, dragging the audience along for a theme park style ride of ever escalating action hijinks.
And I have to say, the film's action choreography team deserve kudos for the work they have done here. The Princess has many fight and stunt sequences throughout its length, and in lazy hands those scenes could easily have become tediously repetitious. Fortunately, the choreography team have done an excellent job of keeping them varied and interesting. They have ensured that the Princess faces many different situations and many different enemies, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and complications, which helps keep the action fresh and distinctive.
The film's script also uses occasional moments of humour - often but not only slapstick or mild farce - to leaven the action and give the film a bit of variety. This is a smart decision, because even with the creative choreography, the film does maybe start to run a little out of steam in its latter stages. I think this is because it is so high octane, right from the start, that it struggles to find a real 'gear change'. That limits its ability to create a sense of escalating danger.
The most obvious example of this failing comes in the death of one of Julius's primary agents. This character was lots of fun and got built up really well - they are, in fact, rather more interesting and engaging than Julius himself - but their ultimate defeat doesn't feel all that much more difficult or special than that of many of the other villains.
That lack of escalating stakes aside, The Princess is a fun action romp. I certainly don't regret having seen it.
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