DVD Review: In The Name Of The King 2: Two Worlds / Cert: 15 / Director: Uwe Boll / Screenplay: Michael Nachoff / Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Lochlyn Munro, Natassia Malthe / Release Date: May 21st
It’s so fashionable and easy to slate an Uwe Boll film, his make-‘em-cheap, stack-‘em-high production mantra has produced some of the most turgid filmic offerings of recent cinema. However, it also seems that the German director, producer and general Jack of all trades has started to learn from his mistakes.
His original output of video game adaptions were lowest common denominator movie making, but recently, Boll has begun to create some more thought provoking films like Darfur and Auschwitz alongside his more audience friendly productions.
Here we’re given a sequel to the 2007 Jason Statham starring In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Is it a necessary sequel? Is it one that was demanded? Probably not, but as Boll has said himself, there is always room for no brainer movies that are just there for entertainment purposes. But this is the issue with Two Worlds. Although it’s not the worst fantasy film ever made, it’s certainly not the best either.
We are given Dolph Lundgren as our new hero, Granger – a retired Special Forces soldier who is sucked through a portal to the past to fulfil a prophecy. A plot involving a King, a coup and an ancient evil is not particularly original, but they do the trick enough to keep the story rolling along.
The biggest issue here is that the tone that the film has gone for is completely wrong. With Dolph Lundgren as the hero, there was a real chance of a fish out of water tale with lots of misunderstandings and opportunities for comedy, taking Army of Darkness as an influence. Instead, apart from a couple of moments and one-liners, the film is mostly serious and this is a mistake. The fight scenes are laboured – after all Lundgren is no spring chicken anymore – and the book-ended modern day scenes seem abrasive compared to the Medieval moments in between. There also seems to be some issues of possible mis-casting and a forced sub-plot about a “coup-de-tat involving biological warfare”. It’s a definite improvement on Boll’s earlier output, but then that’s not saying a lot.
Boll, is right, this is a no brainer – but not in a good way.
Oh well, at least there’s a dragon!
