Red Sonja 2025: sword & sorcery done right?

For years, fans have been clamoring for a Red Sonja reboot. They dared to hope and
patiently weathered every failed attempt to bring her back to the silver screen. Then, it
finally happened: Matilda Lutz strode unto the sand of the arena in Red Sonja’s
trademark iron bikini. That scene is iconic and the climax of decades of waiting for a
screen-worthy Red Sonja portrayal. Matilda Lutz is Red Sonja.
Why do sword & sorcery movies experience difficulty escaping the B-movie stigma?
While I feel it’s OK to compare the new Red Sonja movie to some of the better sword &
sorcery movies from the past, it does not deserve the uncharitable comments made
online that dumped it into the forgettable pile of B-movies that came out in the wake of
John Milius’s Conan the Barbarian.

I was really looking forward to this movie—not only because I was dying to see a Red
Sonja reboot, but also because it could herald a rebirth of the sword & sorcery genre on
the silver screen… and possibly pave the way for the return of Conan the Barbarian
AND Red Sonja movies.

So, I desperately wanted to like this movie—and I do! I didn’t know much about the film
before a few production photos were released months ago. Based on my limited info at
the time, I knew it had at least two things going for it: M. J. Bassett and Matilda Lutz.
I’ll admit, I had earlier misgivings about Matilda Lutz’s casting as Red Sonja, but I
realized she would make an awesome Red Sonja the moment I saw her performance in
Revenge.

Matilda Lutz may not have the physical attributes some Red Sonja fans expect. To be
blunt, I don’t care that the size of her muscles and her chest do not meet the objectified
standards of some fans. For decades, the image of Red Sonja has been distorted by
idealized comic book covers and glamorous cosplayers, leading to a skewed perception
of how she should look.

For years, fans have been clamoring for a Red Sonja reboot. They dared to hope and
patiently weathered every failed attempt to bring her back to the silver screen. Then, it
finally happened: Matilda Lutz strode unto the sand of the arena in Red Sonja’s
trademark iron bikini. That scene is iconic and the climax of decades of waiting for a
screen-worthy Red Sonja portrayal. Matilda Lutz is Red Sonja.
It’s not just the way Lutz looks; it’s also the way she acts. This Red Sonja is not a typical
Disney Mary Sue, effortlessly beating larger opponents. The fight scenes are intense.
You can feel the physical effort Lutz puts into every swing of her weapon. It’s also
reflected in her facial expressions and the fire in her eyes. This is the same
performance that made Lutz a standout actress in Revenge.

I also trusted M. J. Basset to deliver excellent production value based on her previous
work on Solomon Kane. Of all Robert E. Howard properties ever adapted to the screen,
Solomon Kane is arguably the one that feels closest to REH’s work in both tone and
execution. Bassett’s creativity and skills in getting the most out of a limited budget are to
thank for that. Very few directors and producers can deliver so much production value
on such a limited budget (especially in a movie that relies so heavily on costly special
effects, props, makeup, sets and costumes). Solomon Kane was a solid production.
Bassett brought the puritan swashbuckler to life in a stark world that felt real and
respectful of REH’s vision. I expected she would do the same thing with Red Sonja, and
she did not disappoint.
This is not a B-movie; Red Sonja’s cinematography, set design, costume design and
especially lighting and sound design show all the qualities of a professionally made
movie. Few B-movies I’ve ever seen featured an original symphonic soundtrack. (Sonya
Belousova’s score is hauntingly beautiful at times.) Everything Red Sonja brings to the
screen distances the movie from typical B-movie fare like The Barbarians (1987) and
Deathstalker (1983)! Add to that the work of some excellent actors, a script that delivers
more than mere “hack & slash,” and you realize that the comparisons with B-movies
need to stop.

Professional filmmakers worked on this film, giving their all to bring the Hyborian world
and Red Sonja to life. In this, they succeeded, well beyond the previous Red Sonja
movie starring Brigitte Nielson did.

The movie also shines when it comes to fight choreography. The aerial fighting
nonsense that has been a Hollywood staple since the Matrix trilogy is refreshingly
almost absent—except for a gravity-defying leap and a superhero landing “à la Black
Widow,” that are pretty badass anyway. The battle in the burning woods is particularly
visceral. Bassett, once again, shows what she can do on a limited budget. The camera
work and editing are tight. Lighting was outstanding. I have to look as far back as the
opening sequence of John Boorman’s Excalibur to recall a similar scene that was just
as engrossing.
Many filmgoers are tired of origin stories. While this Red Sonja movie could have
worked just as well without an origin story, it is reinterpreted here in a refreshing way.
While most origin stories usually take the first ten to twenty minutes of any movie before
moving on with the plot, Red Sonja’s new origin story takes an interesting twist,
becoming fully realized only near the climax of the movie in a scene that captures the
full raw emotionality of Red Sonja’s origin.

From a comic book perspective, Lutz’s Red Sonja is definitely not Frank Thorne’s vision
of the Red Goddess. She feels much closer to the Dynamite era Red Sonja, which is a
good thing because Dynamite did a great job reinterpreting Red Sonja for a new era.

Many writers are to thank for that, including Gail Simone, who had a lot to do with Red
Sonja’s rebirth during her run writing the Dynamite comic books (her novel, Red Sonja:
Consumed is also worth reading). Tasha Huo did the same thing when she wrote the
script for this film.

Some people don’t like change. No matter what direction the new Red Sonja was going
to go, there were going to be malcontents. So, I was not surprised when some fans
expressed their disappointment over Matilda Lutz’s casting. Regardless of how fans
voiced their disapproval, to me, it boils down to this: Original Red Sonja was a product
of the “male gaze” and, to some, she should remain that way. While the most iconic
attributes of Red Sonja should be her iron will, resilience and fiery character, decades of
male gaze comic book covers and cosplayers have served to cement a superficial
vision of the She-Devil in the minds of some fans.

The movie also features a surprisingly good cast. It’s an ensemble cast in many ways,
and the efforts made by Tasha Huo to flesh out the characters beyond stereotypical two-
dimension personas is another sign that this is not a B-movie. I felt that Robert Sheehan
was terribly miscast as the main antagonist until the climax and the conclusion, where
he delivers a believable and gripping performance. The same can be said about Wallis
Day as Annisia. Rhona Mitra and Michael Bisping are also strong additions to the cast.
Their fate brought a lot of gravitas to their relationship and the story as a whole.
Bisping’s character is particularly endearing; so is Luke Pasqualino’s character, Osin the
Untouched. I enjoyed the fact that the script did not emasculate Osin as often happens
nowadays in many movies with a female lead. He even looks the part of a Shemite
prince in the best REH tradition (or at least, in Marvel’s portrayal of Shemites). The
chemistry between Osin and Red Sonja is palpable.

This is indeed Red Sonja for a new era, where the hero doesn’t only rely on brawn and
savagery to propel the plot forward. The fight with the cyclops, where Red Sonja proves
she can also use her brains, is very refreshing. So are the final confrontations between
Red Sonja and the two main antagonists: Draygan (Robert Sheehan) and Annisia
(Wallis Day). Some will say those scenes were anti-climatic and that they robbed the
viewers of the expected violent ending, but I prefer to see this climax as something
more emotionally engaging and thought-provoking.
I want this movie to succeed because it could be the first in a series of movies or the
prequel to a TV show. I think Red Sonja’s world, as portrayed in this movie, has the grit,
richness and potential to be the next great sword & sorcery thing. Success for this
movie could mean the return of the genre in Hollywood. It is high time we get a Conan
movie on par with the first John Milius movie. I’d like to see the same thing happen to
Red Sonja.

I found that the gap of years between Sonja’s childhood and adulthood was a bit jarring.
In the opening scene, she is an infant. Her village gets attacked, and the next time we
see her, she’s in her young adulthood. Even though there is technically nothing wrong
with leaps in time in any story, this one feels disruptive to the narrative and pacing of the
movie.

In the next sequence, Sonja is now living in the Hyrkanian woods, and spends her time
looking for her people. We don’t know what happened to her during that big time gap.
Furthermore, if she has spent years searching the vast expanse of Hyrkania’s woods, it
is perplexing that she hasn’t found her people yet. This mystery only deepens when she
suddenly reunites with her people near the movie’s end.

Filmmakers often exercise creative license when adapting literary works for the silver
screen. This world doesn’t feel much like the Hyborian age I know (from REH’s stories
and the Marvel Comics Conan the Barbarian series). A character is introduced as “the
last Hyrkanian,” but in traditional REH Hyborian lore, he looks more like an Aesir. In my
mind, Hyrkanians look more like Subotai in the first Conan the Barbarian movie.
I also felt it hard to accept the breath of Draygan’s empire. He deployed armies in many
city states. It’s difficult to accept the size of his armies when he appears to only have a
small retinue of soldiers in his fortress, a group so small that a mob of gladiators and the
few fighters Osin musters are able to overcome him. I can understand that the movie
could only hire so many extras, but the narrative would not have been hurt if Draygan
had been portrayed only as a mere local warlord, holding sway over a province or
region. His empire also feels like a giant departure from Hyborian lore.

Did this reboot do Red Sonja justice? Absolutely. The VOD release within a month of
the limited theatrical release will hopefully introduce more people to the new Red Sonja,
but given the limited returns of VODs, will the movie be sufficiently profitable to
greenlight a sequel?

I don’t regret buying the movie on iTunes. I didn’t want to merely rent it. I wanted to own
it. And if it ever comes out on Blu-ray or 4K, I’ll also purchase it in that format. I want to
see this movie on my shelf, next to Milius’s Conan the Barbarian, Ladyhawk and other
great fantasy movies. I hope many other people will feel the same way.

Tags: Red Sonja

About the Author

Jules-Pierre Malartre Jules-Pierre Malartre currently lives in L’Île-Perrot, a small island west of Montreal (Quebec), which is as close to the Great White North that he will ever dare go, but still cold enough to save him from big-ass spiders, alien abductions, undead dinosaurs and tourists who find his French accent charming. In 2005, he quit a promising aerospace engineering career to go into freelance writing, which was a very, very bad idea according to his mother. Since then, he has become considerably poorer, but he has grown much happier. Along the way, he adopted cats—lots of cats! When he is not writing technical manuals, newspaper articles, press releases or blogs on anything from comic books to yoga, he is busy working on his first novel, a semi-autobiographical fictional account of his life that dares to ask the question, “where did God go wrong with me anyway?” His first short story, “The Rest Was Easy,” was published by the online literary magazine Amarillo Bay in 2013. The five people who read it liked it. He’s well aware that it took him over a decade to publish another one, so he’d really appreciate it if you'd cut him some slack about it! He loves coffee, cats and reading, mostly because those three things go very well together.