TL;DR: The Bluff on Prime Video is a gory, high-energy pirate action flick that finally lets Priyanka Chopra Jonas unleash her inner warlord. The script has some clunky edges, but the action choreography, lush Caribbean setting, and unapologetic brutality make it one of the more satisfying streaming action movies of the year. Come for the swashbuckling chaos, stay for Bloody Mary reclaiming her legend.

There are certain movies you watch with a glass of wine. There are others you watch while scrolling your phone. And then there’s The Bluff on Prime Video — a pirate action movie so gleefully violent and sweaty that it practically demands you sit upright like you’re about to enter ranked PvP.

Going into The Bluff, I had one big question: is this finally the Hollywood vehicle that lets Priyanka Chopra Jonas unleash the full action-hero potential she’s been hinting at since Quantico? Or is this another glossy, mid-tier streaming experiment that vanishes into the algorithmic void?

Reader, she fights dirty. And I loved it.

Set in the Caribbean during the 19th century, The Bluff plants its boots squarely in pirate movie territory — but this isn’t Pirates of the Caribbean cosplay. This is mud, blood, severed dreadlocks, and the kind of machete work that would make even Game of Thrones blink twice.

Let’s get into it.

A Pirate Origin Story Drenched in Blood and Coconut Water

The Bluff follows Ercell “Bloody Mary” Bodden, a retired pirate trying to live a peaceful life on a sun-drenched island. When we meet her, she’s chopping coconuts instead of heads. She’s got a husband at sea, a stepdaughter asking inconvenient questions, and a picturesque Cayman Brac existence that feels like it’s one montage away from a tourism ad.

And of course, that serenity gets nuked within the first act.

Her former mentor, Captain Connor — played with gloriously smoldering menace by Karl Urban — storms the island with a private army of greasy buccaneers. He’s not after gold. He’s after her. Because nothing says 19th-century villain like possessive pirate patriarchy.

The inciting home invasion sequence is where The Bluff announces what kind of pirate action flick it wants to be. This isn’t elegant fencing. This is gouging, spitting, bone-snapping brutality. At one point, Ercell rips a man’s dreadlocks out by the roots. Blood splashes the camera lens like the movie is personally offended you’re watching it in standard definition.

If this had a theatrical run, I would 100% book a 4DX screening just to feel the wind machines and mist sprays. Prime Video is doing a disservice to my adrenal glands.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas: Action Star Mode Activated

Priyanka Chopra Jonas has been orbiting mainstream Hollywood action stardom for years. We’ve seen glimpses — Quantico, Citadel, assorted franchise attempts — but The Bluff finally commits to making her the apex predator instead of the glossy co-lead.

And she absolutely throws herself into it.

This is a physical performance. Every stagger, every breathless crawl through mangrove mud, every blood-soaked glare feels earned. She spends half the movie looking like she just survived a slasher film — clothes shredded, face smeared crimson — and the visual language leans into that “final girl” horror energy.

There’s something deeply satisfying about watching her flip back into Bloody Mary mode like muscle memory. The film treats piracy like riding a bike — except the bike is on fire and has knives taped to the handlebars.

Do I wish the script gave her more emotional depth beyond revenge and survival? Sure. But in terms of pure action choreography and commitment, this might be her strongest Hollywood performance yet.

Russo-Produced Chaos and Frank E Flowers’ Swashbuckling Vision

Anthony Russo and Joe Russo serve as producers here, and you can feel their blockbuster DNA in the pacing. The action escalates methodically, building from small-scale skirmishes to full island warfare without ever fully collapsing into noise.

Director Frank E Flowers, meanwhile, gives The Bluff a tactile sense of place. The mangroves feel claustrophobic. The beaches feel exposed and vulnerable. Skull Cave — which genuinely looks like a Tatooine side quest location — becomes a mythic battleground.

The Caribbean setting isn’t just aesthetic wallpaper. It’s weaponized. Alligator-infested rivers, narrow jungle paths, limestone caverns — each environment becomes a tactical playground for Ercell’s increasingly creative kills.

From an action design standpoint, the film understands spatial geography, which is more than I can say for half the green-screen sludge we get in streaming “event” movies. You can track where people are. You understand the terrain. That clarity makes the violence hit harder.

And yes, it is grisly. Not horror-movie depravity, but enough practical splatter to feel dangerous.

The Villain Problem (And a Missed Opportunity)

Karl Urban’s Captain Connor is introduced as a philosophical brute — a sea-worn warlord who stares into the horizon and growls about ownership and destiny. He’s magnetic in that classic “I’m definitely about to monologue” way.

But here’s my one big frustration: the film teases a past between Connor and Ercell — something intimate, something messy — and then sort of shrugs.

For a movie this sweaty and violent, it oddly sidesteps erotic tension. There’s history. There’s obsession. There’s betrayal. And yet the script keeps it PG-13 in emotional complexity, even while going hard R in violence.

Imagine if this had leaned into the psychological chess match between them. Instead, Connor remains more symbol than character: patriarchal menace personified.

He’s fun. He’s effective. But he could’ve been legendary.

Dialogue That Sometimes Walks the Plank

You don’t come to a swashbuckling pirate action movie for sparkling dialogue. I get that. But some of the exposition in The Bluff feels like it was smuggled in from a daytime soap.

The stepdaughter exists primarily to ask, essentially, “Mom, why are you so good at murder?” which makes subtlety walk the plank. The pirates’ cartoonish sexism is thematically coherent but delivered with the nuance of a sledgehammer.

When the script tries to get philosophical — “Real pirates are murderers, not heroes” — it gestures toward something interesting about myth-making and colonial violence. But it never fully commits to unpacking it.

Still, when the machetes start swinging, I stop caring.

Streaming Spectacle That Feels Theatrical

Here’s the thing about The Bluff on Prime Video: it doesn’t feel cheap.

In a landscape crowded with mid-budget streaming content that looks like it was shot in a warehouse with LED walls, this actually feels cinematic. The lighting is naturalistic. The production design is textured. The stunt work feels practical.

For a straight-to-streaming pirate action movie, that’s kind of wild.

Would I have preferred to see this in theaters? Absolutely. But as far as Prime Video exclusives go, this is one of the better-looking action releases in recent memory.

It knows exactly what it is: a brutal, pulpy, 19th-century revenge saga where a retired pirate reclaims her throne with maximum carnage.

And sometimes that’s enough.

Final Verdict: Bloody Mary Earns Her Legend

The Bluff isn’t perfect. The dialogue wobbles. The emotional subtext feels undercooked. The villain dynamic could’ve been juicier.

But as a visceral, swamp-soaked pirate action movie led by a fully committed Priyanka Chopra Jonas? It absolutely delivers.

It’s scrappy. It’s grimy. It’s occasionally absurd. And it understands that a swashbuckler can be both mythic and mean.

Most importantly, it proves that Chopra Jonas can anchor a physically demanding action film without getting swallowed by the spectacle. She doesn’t just survive this movie — she dominates it.

And honestly? I’d watch a sequel tomorrow.