Damsel is the kind of Netflix movie that would feel right at home in the 2010s. It may be an original fairy tale of sorts, but it pulls from the same kind of girl power feminism that drove the “edgy” retellings of popular fairy tales like Snow White and the Huntsmen and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 10 years ago.

On the surface, Damsel might seem like a fresh and exciting take on a centuries old story. A young woman (Elodie) marries a prince to help her kingdom, but instead of living happily ever after, she gets sacrificed to a dragon and has to fight her way out of its lair. Despite the promise of that premise, the movie itself feels like such a shallow representation of what a story like this could be.

The very first moments of Damsel involve a dramatic voiceover from Millie Bobby Brown’s Elodie assuring the...