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With: Matilda Lutz, Wallis Day, Robert Sheehan, Luca Pasqualino, Michael Bisping, Martyn Ford, Eliza Matengu, Rhona Mitra, Veronica Ferres, Katrina Durden, Manal El-Feitury, Danica Davis
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Written by: Tasha Huo, based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, and on a comics adaptation by Roy Thomas
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Directed by: M.J. Bassett
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MPAA Rating: R for strong/bloody violence
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Running Time: 110
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Date: 08/13/2025
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Hy-borin' Age
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
The best attribute of M.J. Bassett's Red Sonja is that it's a lot better than the 1985 version with Brigitte Nielsen, but this long-awaited, feminist fantasy-action reboot feels thin and rushed, leaving little to care about.
It's the Hyborian Age, and young Sonja's life is disrupted when her peaceful village is invaded by barbarians. She escapes and grows up alone in the forest, accompanied only by her faithful horse. One day Sonia (Matilda Lutz) is captured by Emperor Dragan the Magnificent (Robert Sheehan) and imprisoned in an inescapable pit, along with several others.
The prisoners are made to fight in an arena, sometimes monsters and sometimes each other, for the amusement of the evil Emperor. Sonia shows her mettle by refusing to fight her comrades and by communicating with the giant creatures and empowering them. The prisoners escape and are pursued by the Emperor and his fearsome warrior Annisia (Wallis Day). A showdown is imminent.
Red Sonja star Lutz, who gave such a powerful, physical performance in Revenge (the debut of future Oscar-nominee Coralie Fargeat), makes a great Sonja, far more relatable and human than Nielsen's unemotional Amazon.
And director M.J. Bassett — who previously made the solid, entertaining Solomon Kane, based on another Robert E. Howard character — does an admirable job of updating the material to make it less about the male gaze. Sonja still wears her chainmail bikini, but this time it's something she's forced to do while imprisoned, and it becomes a running joke.
However, the rest of the movie is rather lacking. It feels like a production that was forever short on cash and time. Nothing sticks. A so-called romance between Sonja and a character called Osin The Untouched (Luca Pasqualino) goes nowhere, the Emperor — who spends the movie looking for the second half of a book that will supposedly bring him great power — is a typical scenery-chewing maniac, and Annisia, who vainly hopes to become an empress, just broods.
The FX are poor, and even the scenery fails to elicit many oohs or ahs. The only thing left in Red Sonja is the fighting, but without anything to care about, it's just a bunch of empty sword-swishing.
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