Look, I like an excellent sword and sandals film, but it surely’s received to be actually good, like, The Odyssey or Lawrence of Arabia. By itself, that style — which refers to biblical epics, mythology films, and historic dramas going down across the Mediterranean and Center East in Greco-Roman occasions — doesn’t do a complete lot for me. However if you happen to’re an indiscriminate lover of those varieties of flicks, there’s a brand new one coming to Hulu on September 1 that you simply would possibly wish to try.
Set in Arabia within the seventh century, Desert Warrior is the story of Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), who refuses to grow to be a concubine of Emperor Kisra (Ben Kingsley). She flees her residence, with the emperor’s military in pursuit, and allies herself with a bandit named Hanzala (Anthony Mackie). The 2 then unite a number of rival tribes to face up towards the emperor, resulting in a historic battle within the desert referred to as “The Battle of Ze Qar.”
Desert Warrior options a mixture of actual Arabian historical past and folklore and was meant to be a car to invigorate the Saudi Arabian movie trade. The Saudi authorities funded the film, which started with a $70 million finances earlier than ballooning to greater than double that. Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) directed the movie, a course of that took 5 years. The film first opened in 2025 internationally earlier than premiering in America in April. All advised, it grossed lower than $1 million around the globe, making it a candidate for the most important field workplace flop in historical past.
Having watched Desert Warrior final evening (a selection I remorse), the issue with the movie is that it’s simply actually, actually boring. Princess Hind’s complete journey by no means caught my consideration, and the film plods alongside very slowly, till it all of a sudden hurries up throughout out-of-place motion scenes. As soon as the struggle ends, the narrative slams on the brakes once more and the film slows again down.
I suppose what Wyatt was attempting to do was take a sweeping, picturesque narrative like Lawrence of Arabia and mix it with trendy motion sequences. And at occasions, Desert Warrior is gorgeous — but it surely’s by no means attention-grabbing. Simply staring on the desert for 2 hours isn’t what I would like out of a film, and since the story by no means grabbed me, the motion didn’t both as a result of I did not really feel the stakes. The quick motion and sluggish story additionally don’t marry nicely. They really feel like two totally different films (and each are unhealthy).
One other big downside is Mackie, who simply feels tremendous misplaced on this film. I imply, this man was born in Louisiana and is at the moment taking part in Captain America. The dude feels American. Simply placing a turban on him and having him do a Center Jap accent doesn’t appear credible. It actually feels oddly dated. I believed we had been previous the purpose the place a film a few sure ethnicity is led by an American star, and solely the supporting gamers are literally of the right ethnic make-up. Whereas this clearly isn’t “whitewashing,” Mackie feels extremely misplaced and at no level did I purchase him because the Center Jap thief from greater than a thousand years in the past.
A really transient protection of Desert Warrior
Then once more, perhaps you’ll love Desert Warrior. The manufacturing design comes off as genuine, with spectacular costumes and villages constructed for the movie. And there are some actually stunning pictures of Saudi Arabia within the film. It’s the sort of movie that makes you wish to go to Saudi Arabia — simply so long as Desert Warrior isn’t the in-flight film.
Desert Warrior is streaming now on Hulu.