Entertaining but forgettable
Summary
In the Lost Lands has some nice visuals and no shortage of action; Jovovich and Bautista do the best with what they’re given, but there isn’t much you’ll any thought to by the time the credits roll.
Plot: A queen sends the powerful and feared sorceress Gray Alys to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where the sorceress and her guide, the drifter Boyce, must outwit and outfight man and demon.
Review: Critics were not kind to In the Lost Lands when it was briefly released a few weeks ago sitting at 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, he rarely makes movies for critics and as a fan of action movies I had a fun time with this even if it isn’t anything amazing.
Based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, In the Lost Lands stars Anderson’s wife Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista as a witch and a hunter who agree to go into the Lost Lands (thus the title) to find a half man/half beast, so Gray Alys (Jovovich) can deliver her promise to a queen.
As critics have stated, this movie is more about the visuals than substance and it doesn’t really give you much to think about; it could have been a study about how a church can have too much power which is touched on, but this just goes for straightforward action thrills. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing as this is mostly well paced with regular action scenes including fights, explosions and cool-looking demonic entities.
You can tell you’re watching a Paul W.S. Anderon movie as this is the kind of tale he excels in although visually this feels influenced by Zack Snyder with its CG heavy slo-mo set-pieces.
Jovovich and Bautista are entertaining in their respective roles even if they don’t have much to work with in terms of memorable dialogue.
The music is speaker-destroyingly loud but it’s awesome and makes the action more exciting.
Overall, In the Lost Lands deserves most of its criticism however, I still had an enjoyable time with it as there are some entertaining action scenes with Jovovich and Bautista making for appealing leads. It’s worth a one-time watch but considering it’s from the creator of Game of Thrones you’d be forgiven for expecting more.