Fantasy Watch: Red Sonja (2025)

Watched:  02/15/2026

Format:  Kanopy

Viewing:  First

Director:  M.J. Bassett

Jim had been rec'ing this movie at me for a while, and the man knows me well.  

Heads up - most people are going to dismiss this movie, and that's fine.  And maybe my reasons for saying "this is kind of cool" won't add up, but here we go.

I have no idea what the budget was for Red Sonja (2025) but it's certainly not a $150 million.  So, this is a movie that does a lot of "you get the idea" hand waving with FX and sets, etc...  that was part and parcel of exactly this kind of movie when it was starring Brigitte Nielsen and making me stay up way too late on a Saturday in middle school.  And, in fact, I'm kind of wondering if we lost something about the charm and allure of those movies when all they had were talent in front of and behind the camera, where a movie would sink or swim based on story and characters.  And cool ideas.  We couldn't just smother everything with CGI.

This version of Red Sonja, based loosely on the Robert E. Howard/ Roy Thomas/ Barry Windsor-Smith character of the pulps and comics.  I won't get into the legality of who owns what, but it seems murky - and still Red Sonja hits the comics stands every month.  And while I respect her existence as a character, I have never purchased a Red Sonja comic book.*  So don't ask me about whether this is accurate or not.  I have no idea.

The 2025 film of Red Sonja acts as an action-filled origin story for the character in her current form - a favorite among particularly female readers who enjoy a strong female lead who can be brains, brawn and beauty in one package. And it's worth noting, this version is written by Tasha Huo and directed by genre film and TV director MJ Bassett.

What's kind of kooky is that the film is full of people you've seen elsewhere.  Our Sonja is Matilda Lutz, I last saw in Revenge.  Wallis Day who I know from Krypton plays Sonja's evil opposite.  Rhona Mitra shows up as a warrior woman.  Our main villain is played by actor Robert Sheehan.

Our story is that Sonja's village was attacked when she was a youth, and she was separated from her people.  She's come up in the forest, haunted by her memories but become a good fighter and with a respect for nature, etc...  But an evil empire with machines has entered the forest, killing rare species as trophies. 

We learn a young man is the emperor, having developed the machines and strategies that have allowed him to wreak havoc.  

Themes of power-for-power's sake, learned cruelty, of industrial versus pastoral come up.  Our villain has harnessed something that is akin to a magical dynamo that powers his capital and weapons.  But he's found all of these things in a book he's studied since his youth - he didn't come by these concepts on his own.

Sonja is captured and thrown in the pits, so of course we have some gladiatorial combat complete with mythical beasties (there's a Cyclops!).  Sonja finds out that she's imprisoned with some of her lost people.  

Anyway, I thought the movie was fun in a fantasy movie way.  I liked the cast, particularly Matilda Lutz and I'd argue - a Red Sonja 2 would be a welcome watch.  The three legged stool of writing, directing and lead are in alignment here on what we're doing.  It's only winky once or twice, but also doesn't feel edgelord serious.  If we're going to ask for the audience to come along on this ride, we know why they're here - and we give them something a bit better in story, performance and spectacle than they were expecting.

Yes, there's CGI and some of it is very iffy - but charming in a sort of Ray Harryhausen way.  Wisely, the movie relies on advanced movie make-up techniques for some fantasy characters and it's really great to see characters like that on screen outside of Starfleet and Star Wars.   

Understand, this is on the scale of what kind of movie this is - I'm not putting this up against Citizen Kane.  I'll still say Conan the Barbarian remains the undisputed champion, but in the long line of fantasy movies, I think this one is heads and shoulders over many similar movies.    

With a little more budget for battle scenes, I'd be curious what this team could do for another installment.

*or Vampirella or many other characters