A Sword With No Edge
“It shares a name and nothing else.”
When Red Sonja was announced for 2025, there was cautious optimism among fantasy fans. Could this finally be the bold, bloody epic the iconic warrior deserved? Instead, what arrived on screen is little more than a cinematic husk — a film so tone-deaf, so painfully undercooked, that it leaves even the lowest expectations unfulfilled.
A Name Only
Forget what you know about Red Sonja. This isn’t a reboot, a re-imagining, or even a respectful nod to pulp tradition. It’s a film that slaps the name on the poster, then proceeds with a hollow, shapeless fantasy adventure utterly divorced from the character’s mythic roots. Limited sword and sorcery, with little real sword play other than what appears to be a practice session with the stunt people.
Acting Without Life
The performances are uniformly dreadful. Every line lands with the energy of a rehearsal read-through, actors seemingly stranded on set without direction. What should be fierce, fiery characters come across instead as mannequins, mouthing dialogue without conviction. Actors that should be back in the daytime soaps of old, delivering their lines with lifeless reading, or where they try too hard but all in vain, this too much looks like a rehearsal than a movie, what were they thinking. The casting looks more like what was left after something good was setup rather than deliberate. A baddy you can laugh at rather than fear.
Action as Parody
If the cast struggles, the action collapses entirely. Sword fights are staged with all the menace of playground scuffles, choreography so flat and slow that it drifts into unintentional comedy. Climactic battles that should thunder with intensity instead stumble like outtakes from a bad cable pilot.
Effects from Another Era
And then there are the visuals — or rather, the lack of them. In 2025, when even mid-tier streaming shows conjure convincing fantasy worlds, Red Sonja somehow looks like it was stitched together in a studio lot in 1963 left over from a sitcom. Wobbly sets, painted backdrops, and bargain-bin effects make every scene feel embarrassingly antiquated. Scenes that should be scary make you cringe that they could be done so much better with paper puppets.
The trailer, as all trailers do does a much better job at selling this than the movie ever could, you will be captivated by the effect, both seconds of them, the magic and the monsters.. dont worry there isnt much.. but do do look at the acting and the story.. cos it is indeed bad.
“The effects are on par with a 1960s studio fantasy — minus the charm.”
The Verdict
Red Sonja (2025) fails on every conceivable front: a betrayal of its legacy, a showcase of bad performances, bad acting, bad casting, bad effects and a technical disaster that feels decades behind the industry standard. And what looks like an excuse to show off the flat stomach of the star rather than any sort of story or acting prowess. The final insult? It isn’t even entertaining in a “so bad it’s good” way.
⭐ ½ / 5 — Not worth your time, or anyone
