The Plot: The world has fallen waste to an apocalyptic disaster, with the land roamed by dangerous creatures. The last refuge of civilisation lies in a city ruled over by an ambitious, power-playing Queen (Amara Okereke). She dispatches witch Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) along with grizzled hunter Boyce (Dave Bautista) into the Lost Lands to kill a powerful shapeshifter and steal his magical ability. Easier said than done…
The Verdict: He’s back… After an absence of five years, the present-day king of the apocalyptic film genre has returned to lay waste to cinema screens once more. Nobody is going to mistake Paul W.S. Anderson for his namesake Paul Thomas Anderson and he’s probably just fine with that. Anderson has built a career on pulpy genre films which emphasise special effects over plot, action over character – with one shining exception. Atmospheric space horror Event Horizon is a stone-cold cult classic whose reputation has only grown in stature in film circles over the years. 1997 sounds like a long time ago though, so it’s back to the usual Anderson business with his latest effort In The Lost Lands.
It’s an adaptation of the George R.R. Martin short story, but hold your direwolf excitement at bay. This is no Game Of Thrones and one has to wonder what Martin himself thought of it. Anderson claims that Martin loved it, but maybe Martin was just being polite. It’s essentially an apocalyptic western by way of Mad Max: Fury Road, complete with an isolated city just waiting to revolt, fanatical religious soldiers and some shady backroom politics going on to prop its thin plot up. Mix in some shapeshifting birds and creatures familiar enough from Martin’s magnum opus and hey presto… you have something resembling a film. Anderson’s script adaptation with Constantin Werner wastes no time in getting down to the action, barely even pausing for character depth or backstory. All we need to know is that character A and B are thrown together and need to get something from character C for character D before time runs out.
Anderson faithfully casts his wife Milla Jovovich in the lead role once more and while she has the action chops after years of Resident Evil screentime, her performance here is wooden and humourless. Playing an all-knowing witch fighting for her life in a society that bans such people should at least allow for some vulnerability, but there’s little of that evident. Bautista doesn’t fare much better, which is surprising given that he has the ability to dig deep into his characters and show range (e.g. Blade Runner 2049 and The Last Showgirl). The frequent action sequences, including a propulsive train chase, are at least packed with enough incident to keep the plot, such as it is, running along. Filmed mostly against blue screens, the film has a synthetic video game aspect to it along with frequent washed-out colour that’s nearly sepia-toned at times. If Anderson was going for a Wild West aesthetic, then it doesn’t come across as convincing.
In the end then, In The Lost Lands is a bit… lost in itself. Even the abrupt ending is more like a shrug of the shoulders. It doesn’t add up to much and is likely to remain an unloved film. And yet… like a lot of Anderson’s films, it’s the kind of disposable, switch-off-your-brain film that might just work with a bag of popcorn and a drink on a Friday night at the cinema. That’s about it though.
Rating: 2 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: Lost in itself
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Starring Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista, Arly Jover, Amara Okereke.