Red Sonja, Marvel and Dynamite’s “She-Devil with a Sword” (along with iconic chainmail bikini and flaming red hair), played with a fiery charm by Miranda Lutz, returns to the screen in director M.J. Bassett’s engaging but limited Red Sonja.
Director M. J. Bassset is no stranger to pulpy fantasy. Before directing 2025’s Red Sonja, she made 2009’s Solomon Kane, adapting Robert E. Howard’s Puritan evil-destroyer. It was shuffled around before dropping on VOD. That’s a shame, as it’s a rather good picture, using limited resources to grant a grand epic, harking back to the pulpy world of Howard. For the Howard-adjacent Red Sonja, Bassett pulls off the same. Despite a limited budget and resources, she creates a low-key yet engrossing and highly entertaining flick, anchored by an engaging performance by Matila Lutz as the titular character.
Often misaccredited to sword-and-sorcery pulp fiction writer and Conan the Cimmerian creator Robert E. Howard, Red Sonja is more of a Marvel character. Howard’s Red Sonya (with a Y) avenged in 16th-century Eastern Europe in a 1934 short story “The Shadow of Vulture.” In 1973, drawing inspiration from Howard’s original character, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith used Howard’s other works as a springboard, drawing in the magic and myth of Conan of the Cimmerion, premiering a new barbarian Red Sonja in a Conan comic. In 2005, Dynamite Comics resurrected the character for its line. It’s Dynamite’s take on the iconic warrior that M. J. Basset’s new film (long in the works with various creative folks attached and detached over two decades) is based upon.
The first Red Sonja picture arrived in 1985, directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Bridgette Nielsen as the title character. While not officially a Conan adventure, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character is essentially Conan with a different name. Sorry, folks, it’s not good; not even cheesy good like Conan the Destroyer (Conan the Barbarian remains the high bar, but I have a real love of Beastmaster; ahem, moving on). Arnold even calls it his worst movie. Put it aside and take Bassett and Lutz’s version of Red Sonja as she is. 
And that version I’m asking to accept is a solidly built film of well-done action and character, albeit one slightly hobbled by a smaller set of resources and needs than the story and audience might expect. However, Bassett does a fantastic job working around those to create her world of Red Sonja and the Hyborian Age. Tempering expectations of it won’t be as big and brash as the 80s sword-and-sorcery flicks will do well. Bassett’s film, written by Tasha Huo, turns the standards of the genre, of overlarge brutish men, overly sexified women as victim or scantily clad femme fatale, around to a more female-forward drive. This Red Sonja is more empowering, less leering. Yes, it has the iconic chainmail bikini, but its practicality as an “armor” choice is remarked upon and ultimately used for her as a statement. As a film, Red Sonja still delivers on the magic-tinged action with superb choreography and fist-pumping battles that gain size and confidence as the film progresses.
Matilda Lutz is a fantastic choice to explore the “She-Devil With a Sword” from this perspective. She’s a survivor and a victim of larger forces around her, but not one to take injustice. Lutz brings Red Sonja the survivor’s grit and ferocity as she had in Shudder’s Revenge. She’s a grounding figure, full of compassion and also capable of kicking major ass. True, she’s not the hulking Amazon of Neilson, but I loved the wiry spunk and sheer force of will. Her expressive eyes bring a soulful determination. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, she’s entrancing. As a child, Sonja’s family was taken from her, left alone with her horse, and she’s pulled into gladiator slave fighting before leading rebels against her oppressors. She’s facing off against wizard warlord Draygan, played by Umbrella Academy’s Robert Sheehan, mostly playing with a charming, but basic snarling smarm (he’s obviously having fun), but occasionally opening up, and his right-hand woman, Batwoman’s Wallis Day; out to break his slavery ring and keep him from gaining a eldrich book he wants for nefarious purposes.
The world around them is well-released, if limited. It’s full of magic, enchantment, and monsters. Said monsters are usually computer-generated and generally look rather good, if not a little plastic. It’s in the world where the smaller parameters are noticeable: the handful of small locations- the Gladiator-style slave-fighter training grounds, the forest where the rebels live, and the stronghold of Drakan are constrained with a smaller cast. Bassett and team do well to move around it, with good-looking digital extensions (although they make me yearn for the days of massive built sets) and a marked attention to detail on the allowed physical. Sets, costumes (including the iconic chainmail bikini), props: there is nothing lazily done; I appreciate the resourcefulness and the amount of work the team put in. But one can see a bigger film waiting to break out. The “epic” tone of the subgenre doesn’t quite come through.
Come into Red Sonja with tempered expectations, and have a good time. It’s a solid film, one made with limitations of budget and resources. But M.J. Bassett does a fantastic job working around them to create an engaging warrior picture, led by Miranda Lutz as the titular character. As this film is meant to be a franchise starter, I’ll gladly take more!