It's Wednesday again, and I am back with another Uwe Boll film after suffering Alone In The Dark before now, I sincerely hope it's better than the last Uwe Boll film I watched... So strap yourselves in because here comes the plot run down and, boy, this was a long one.
Jason Statham (playing Farmer), Ron Perlman (playing Norick) and Will Sanderson (playing Bastian) are just minding their own business when their village is attacked by Krugs - nasty goblin / troll looking things controlled by an intensely powerful wizard; Gallian (Ray Liotta) who slaughter most of the village including Farmer's son and kidnap his wife, Solana (Claire Forlani). Rejecting a call to arms by the King the trio set off to find Farmer's wife, in hope she may still be alive, only to get captured after making it through the forest. Meanwhile Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard) plots with Gallian to overthrow his father, and the King; King Konried (Burt Reynolds) and seize power for himself, and Gallian acting on his wishes poisons the king, allowing Fallow the opportunity to form an army and form an "alliance" with the Krugs. Meanwhile again, Farmer after almost dying at the hands of the Krugs is united with the Kings magician - Merick (John Rhys-Davies) who after healing him brings him to the King and announces that Farmer is his son and after a pep talk from Merick agrees to join the King and his armies in battle. MEANWHILE AGAIN the King and Fallow meet for the first time since his defection, causing Fallow to loose 2 thirds of his army who remain loyal to the King, but Fallow and Gallian have a sizable army of their own in the Krugs and after a long battle the King and his men take victory but not before Fallow could strike the King with an arrow later causing him to die. Escaping the battlefield Fallow then finds himself captured by Merick's daughter; Muriella (Leelee Sobieski) with some assistance from the forest... people.. delivering Fallow to the Kings Army, he loses a final duel with the Commander of the Kings forces, Commander Tarish (Brian White) and is on the verge of execution when Merick emerges to announce the King has died and introduces Farmer as Camden Konried; and the new King. King Farmer and Merick begin to formulate a plan to take down Gallian, recruiting Muriella and the forest folk to their army as they do, and head to the place where Gallian is holding out. MEANWHILE AGAIN a extremely large Krug army has formed which proceeds to meet the Kings army in battle whilst he is away. Merick and Gallian have a confrontation leading to Merick's death at his hands, but not before he can pass his power to Muriella, who assists Farmer in his final battle as he finally slays Gallian and rescues his wife, bringing an end to the battle.
Phew! Are you still with me? So yes. This was a long one, clocking in at 1 hour and 56 minutes before the credits roll, and I actually cut some parts out of my run down. This could have easily been split into 2 films and some of the scenes better developed on, although I'm kinda thankful it wasn't... this movie is borrowing alot from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and follows the same basic sort of premise; a previously little known figure goes on to lead the good guys to victory against an immensely powerful enemy with an unfathomably large army. It was almost a photocopy of Lord of the Rings. Right down to the forest people being the 'elves', the King (both of them) having a magical guy as his consort. The evil dude having limitless soldiers at his hand and being magical, the coincidences are too numerous to have been... erm... coincidence. There is a lot of a plagiarism going on here.
Again, as is the standard with Mr Boll, In the Name of the King is evidently influenced by the Dungeon Siege series of games. A series of games admittedly I've never played so I can't tell you how much this stays faithful to the games, or how much creative licence it exercises but I'm familiar enough with medieval CRPG's and this film pretty much goes down that same route; you are an unknown quantity with a unique gift and over time your character develops to become more powerful (and in the case of this film; King) and you are destined to have a big showdown with an evil force that wants to kill you. It's a plot that has been done so many times in so many films and this movie is bringing nothing fresh to the table in that department.
There are a handful of things I want to address about this film, so this post is in danger of being a long 'un but first of all; look at that cast! Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds and they're just the names I instantly recognize! No expense was spared here, seemingly, which really makes me wonder where all the money is coming from... and for the most part, they all put in good performances, there was no real stinkers in this movie. Even Jason Statham who was his traditional wooden and uninspiring self managed to strain out some emotion at the death of his on screen son. But Brian White who played Commander of the Kings forces was by far and away the best Actor in this movie and should have absolutely been cast in a bigger role. He put in a really great performance and was outstanding.
However high quality individual performances accounted for, this movie really suffered in the post edit with it's pacing. Things seemed to move far too fast and it really hampered a handful of moments as you didn't have time to dwell on what had happened before the movie moved on to the next set piece, and as a result it felt choppy and confusing in parts. The soundtrack also had some... unusual moments... there were giant action set pieces with underwhelming soundtracks, and the backing music that was used whilst Farmer buried his Son was just baffling; like some kind of conquest theme tune... completely illfitting. There was also some suspect special effects and it seemed like this department really suffered in the budget allocation. I imagine large bags of money were thrown at the casting and costume department, and by the time it got to the CGI there probably wasn't alot of beans left to hand out... and it shown. The parts in the forest with the vines particularly looked very low budget and I don't think it was a sign of the times; this film dates after some much later titles that managed to do a much better job in this department.
However all above accounted for, this film usually finds itself on the Worst Film lists that are my frame of reference, and granted there were some slightly cringey moments, some really corny trailer-bait dialogue, some dodgy special effects and a fair degree of plagiarism from the LOTR trilogy, there were also some really positive individual performances and some impressive, well filmed set pieces with some good cinematography and this was bucketsful better than the last Uwe Boll film I watched, lightyears ahead. It was certainly better than some of the other bum gravy, barrel bottom dwelling movies I've watched since starting this project, and I'm not altogether convinced it should be talked about in the same conversation as Hercules in New York, Reefer Madness or Babe Ruth Story. But it really is hampered by it's poor elements and an ultimately uninspiring lead Actor. 2 out of 5.
