The King's Daughter

For review of the plot, read other reviews...

The costuming is AWFUL. Late 17th to early 18th century French court was visually *stunning*. Extant clothes from the time are brightly colored, with huge skirts and layers of ruffles. This was a time of huge silk imports and fantastical wigs.

What do we get in this movie?

2010s high fashion on a shoestring budget. The colors are there, but the silhouette is nowhere to be found. Pencil skirts, no one wearing sleeves. Ugh.

Mirror Mirror did better 18th century dresses, and that's a fairytale.

Frankly, the lack of costuming knowledge makes this movie unwatchable.

Although I wouldn't consider it a kids movie, or much of a family movie which was what I thought it would be. The topics of conversation at points insinuating very adult things. So it made for an odd mash up, a fairy tale for adults. It was nice to see a high ranking religious official that was truly a good man and not the villain for once. That would have been very clique, and typical of most movies set in this time. Everyone loves to vilify religion, yes I know historically there were, and still are, horrendous acts done in the name of religion but they are few compared to the many that are not. It was just nice to see the good side for once. The overall story was fairly simple, not an action packed adventure. I think a lot of people were bored because they were expecting a swashbuckler or a "man in the iron mask" level of action and depth, leading them to be disappointed. I went into this not having much of an idea what it was, I hadn't seen any type of trailer, or heard anything about it. All I knew was what the info attached said, which wasn't much. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, the acting was good, the visuals were fun. It was well put together and moved at an even pace. For me other was worth the watch.

A young girl with a talent for writing music is introduced to the king's court, where she befriends a mermaid.

The plot is very simplistic and the characters are a bit two dimensional, but it contains magic and mermaids This is not the film for a middle-aged man but younger viewers, especially girls, will love it.

Basically, it's watchable. But the film is a bit slow and cold. Although the plot is simple, it's still doing fine. But if they could make it more interesting, it'd be better.

BTW, I'm so surprised to know that this one was filmed in 2014. That's a very long delay.

Just look at that cast: Pierce Brosnan, magnificent as an all powerful yet decadent king, William Hurt, great as always as the king's cardinal, Kaya Scodelario, beautiful as ever, Pablo Schreiber as the villain, Rachel Griffiths in a tiny role, even Fan Bingbing as... the non talking CGI creature?! And it's a fairy tale about Louis XIV's France, shot at Versailles, featuring a mermaid! How can you get this wrong?

And wrong they got it. A complete mess where the only redeeming quality is the acting and interaction of Brosnan and Hurt. It's not unwatchable, but a clear failure. And I get it, really. It's not easy to basically do a Disney film (mermaid, pirates, princesses, pompous figures in fancy clothes) in 2015, especially on a budget and with your parent company delaying the release for seven years. But they could have tried harder, made it a two parter, given the characters time to grow and for the viewers to get attached to them. Instead it feels like a bed time story read by a tired parent who just wants to go to sleep.