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Red Sonja (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Signature Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (28th August 2025). |
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The Film
 An adaptation of the comic book, Red Sonja, a vengeful warrior known as a "She-Devil with a sword". Matilda Lutz is a badass barbarian on a mission in this action fantasy based on the best-selling comic series. Enslaved by an evil tyrant who wishes to destroy her people, barbarian huntress Red Sonja must unite a group of unlikely warriors to face off against Dragan the Magnificent and his deadly bride, Dark Annisia. Starring Matilda Lutz (Revenge), Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy), Michael Bisping (Den of Thieves), Wallis Day (Sheroes), Luca Pasqualino (Skins), Martyn Ford (Final Score), Rhona Mitra (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) and Veronica Ferres (The Bricklayer), Red Sonja is written by Tasha Huo (The Witcher: Blood Origin) and directed by M.J. Bassett (Solomon Kane).
Video
A rich, colourful, digitally lensed production and a breath of fresh air given the usual, desaturated digitally corrected look of kist modern sword & sandal efforts. Red Sonja is quite a surprise in that this disc was sent to me for review having heard of many attempts to get a film off the ground in the forty years since the 1985 film was released but I'd not heard of any success in getting it made. I'd seen the Richard Fleischer-Brigitte Neilson film at the cinema upon first release and a few times down the years. It's not a great film by any stretch, but equally it's not the turkey many would have you believe. TV-streaming director MJ. Bassett has been a round doing solid work since her debut with Deathwatch (2002) and does a yeoman job in creating a fantasy land populated by giant creatures, humanoids of different stripes and races and we even get some nice CGI matte paintings than expand the backdrop irresistibly. The action is plentiful, Mathila Lutz is intense and effective in the lead role and the supporting cast are really rather good. We have Robert Sheehan as a wonderfully petulant, spoiled rich kid big bad Emperor Draygon who is using an alchemist (Trevor Eve) to achieve world domination. He has a rather splendid female warrior as his consort, Annisia, who's equally intense as Lutz played by Wallis Day. But, he only has half of a magic book that he needs to totally succeed so the plot is that he's searching for this tome. A very enjoyable slice of swash & buckle that's well worth seeking out. Good fun and it doesn't outstay it's welcome at 111 minutes. Beyond being female-led in a more progressive way this could've been made in the 1980s heyday of Sword & Sorcery flicks. As for the disc, it's a well encoded presentation on a BD50 with a decent bitrate. Colour values are strong and vivid with excellent management of black levels and contrast. This is a new 4K digital production so there's no grain and plenty of detail although obviously. Everything would've been boosted a notch or three were Signature to have sprung for an UHD BD with HDR, but they have released relatively few 4K discs and this being a marginal film will have influenced that decision. Fans will have to see what gets released elsewhere. But, it's a top notch HD presentation ('A').
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) English LPCM 2.0 Stereo (48kHz, 16-bit) Subtitles: English HoH What do you expect from a modern, recent action fantasy? If not quite demo level, this is still a powerful, active sound field with excellent fidelity and range. Surrounds are used fairly frequently and LFE is strong throughout. That said, it's not in the same league as your average Marvel-DC-Bond-Star Wars blockbuster but then this had a much smaller budget. The hard of hearing subs that .i sampled seemed comprehensive ('A').
Extras
Startup Trailers: - The Toxic Avenger (1:08) - Den of Thieves: Pantera (1:26) Promos for other Signature Entertainment releases presented in 1080p24 2.39:1 with uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 stereo (4kHz, 16-bit) and no subtitle options.
Packaging
Standard blue, BD Amaray Keepcase.
Overall
The long gestation remake of the Robert E. Howard (via Marvel comics) adaptation from 1985 finally arrives from director M.J. Bassett. It's a thoroughly entertaining version that owes a lot to Gladiator (2000). It has strong image and sound quality but is barebones as regards extras, which is a shame because previous Bassett productions have included commentaries and EPK material at the least. Thankfully, it's a cheap disc and is recommended ('B').
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