Damsel

The title character in Damsel experiences plenty of distress, but doesn’t require a chivalrous knight to rescue her.

Indeed, as a vehicle for “Stranger Things” breakout star Millie Bobby Brown, this medieval coming-of-age fantasy admirably seeks to subvert fairy-tale stereotypes, although it winds up emphasizing style over substance.

Brown plays Elodie, the teenage daughter of Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone), whose kingdom and people are facing significant financial strain. When a wealthy queen (Robin Wright) presents an opportunity for Elodie to marry into her family, Bayford sees the arrangement as a potential windfall. Despite some ethical questions, he’s eager to finalize the details.

This being an empowerment saga, our heroine is skeptical about following traditions and leaping enthusiastically into the arms of the first handsome young aristocrat she meets.

Nevertheless, after visiting the castle and spending time with the debonair Prince Henry (Nick Robinson), she agrees to marry him, even as her stepmother (Angela Bassett) senses some red flags. “Just because they’re royalty doesn’t mean they’re good people,” she cautions.

Indeed, by the time secrets are revealed about the queen and a deadly family curse, Elodie’s entire family becomes endangered. She winds up embedded in a series of underground caverns with a dragon, needing to muster resilience and resourcefulness to escape. Along the way, she must break free from the climate of patriarchal oppression and socioeconomic division in which she was raised.

As she scurries and screams her way through labyrinthine caves, the film fails to build consistent suspense or establish a meaningful endgame. However, Brown generates sympathy while conveying valor and courage in a corset.

Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and his team craft some striking visuals, including extravagant period sets and costumes and dazzling effects-driven action sequences.

Credit the anachronistic screenplay by Dan Mazeau (Fast X) for trying to break the mold and sidestep genre tropes, even as it struggles to raise the emotional stakes with a muddled mythology including arbitrary twists and perilous creature confrontations.

Amid some conveniently timed close calls, this survival adventure funnels toward a predictable final showdown for vengeance and freedom and peace. Yet for a film about a fire-breather, Damsel rarely brings the heat.

Rated PG-13, 107 minutes.