Sword and Planet is a really rare subgenre, and I was so excited to find one that it probably colors my review, but this movie definitely exceeded my expectation.
It's pretty much the classic Earth-man lands on a hostile primitive planet and socks it to the local aliens with their superior kung-fu. But of course, this time the Earth-man is actually the Earth-girl Kate Mitra (Danielle Chuchran). I'm not sure what happens to her sleeves, but she doesn't need them to kick lots of alien and scale every mountain like a champ. I'm not sure how much of those stunts Chuchran does on her own, but whoever did it, dayum, good work. The character Kate is a bit of a stone, but plot-wise, it makes sense, she's falling back on her training and tuning herself out in this truly traumatic experience. And frankly, this is what I like to see in my Sword and Planet heroes, and I'm glad that they didn't decide that because she's a girl she needs to have a softer side. Kate Mitra proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with Sword and Planet heroes like John Carter and Flash Gordon.
I felt like the combat was very realistic too. There aren't a lot of useless spins or flips. There are a few leaping attacks but they almost always end badly, which is good, being dramatic in RL fighting is rarely a good idea. People do not expire from small wounds, you do see people go for take downs and finishers. There are moments when Kate gets concussed or winded and she never does that weird second-wind thing where the movie hero is losing and then inexplicably gets their strength back and wins because the movie plot needs them too. This makes Kate Mitra a much more reasonable and relateable character than a lot of other action heroes and makes the action feel more credible. I'm especially pleased that Survivor pulls this off because I absolutely would have forgiven them for non-real action in a female-lead Sword and Planet movie.
Dialog is not great. For most of the movie, Kate Mitra is alone anyways, and when she is around someone she could talk to, she's usually understandably out of breath or emotionally shocked by the last crazy thing that happened. However, I think there's a certain realism to this, you do get the impression that Kate is stomping out her own feelings because she has to survive. Plot isn't particularly twisty or turny either, she's basically just lurching from one disaster to the next until the director runs out of film, but if you're a fan of Flash Gordon or John Carter stories, that's pretty true to the genre. And to be honest, bad dialog or plot would have ruined the movie, so I'm okay with the decision to keep the movie focused on stunts and bare shoulders.
It's pretty much the classic Earth-man lands on a hostile primitive planet and socks it to the local aliens with their superior kung-fu. But of course, this time the Earth-man is actually the Earth-girl Kate Mitra (Danielle Chuchran). I'm not sure what happens to her sleeves, but she doesn't need them to kick lots of alien and scale every mountain like a champ. I'm not sure how much of those stunts Chuchran does on her own, but whoever did it, dayum, good work. The character Kate is a bit of a stone, but plot-wise, it makes sense, she's falling back on her training and tuning herself out in this truly traumatic experience. And frankly, this is what I like to see in my Sword and Planet heroes, and I'm glad that they didn't decide that because she's a girl she needs to have a softer side. Kate Mitra proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with Sword and Planet heroes like John Carter and Flash Gordon.
I felt like the combat was very realistic too. There aren't a lot of useless spins or flips. There are a few leaping attacks but they almost always end badly, which is good, being dramatic in RL fighting is rarely a good idea. People do not expire from small wounds, you do see people go for take downs and finishers. There are moments when Kate gets concussed or winded and she never does that weird second-wind thing where the movie hero is losing and then inexplicably gets their strength back and wins because the movie plot needs them too. This makes Kate Mitra a much more reasonable and relateable character than a lot of other action heroes and makes the action feel more credible. I'm especially pleased that Survivor pulls this off because I absolutely would have forgiven them for non-real action in a female-lead Sword and Planet movie.
Dialog is not great. For most of the movie, Kate Mitra is alone anyways, and when she is around someone she could talk to, she's usually understandably out of breath or emotionally shocked by the last crazy thing that happened. However, I think there's a certain realism to this, you do get the impression that Kate is stomping out her own feelings because she has to survive. Plot isn't particularly twisty or turny either, she's basically just lurching from one disaster to the next until the director runs out of film, but if you're a fan of Flash Gordon or John Carter stories, that's pretty true to the genre. And to be honest, bad dialog or plot would have ruined the movie, so I'm okay with the decision to keep the movie focused on stunts and bare shoulders.