In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is Uwe Boll's 4-hour, 2-part "epic" that is now being advertised before Boll's latest release, Bloodrayne, is even in theaters. After checking the Internet Movie Database, I see that Boll has 6 movies releasing in the next 2 1/2 years. I guess when you half-ass every motion picture you work on, you can fit more of them into your schedule.

I used to rant and rave about the absurdity of studios who keep giving Boll financing to make wreteched videogame adaptations. I am done with that now. After watching the trailer for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, I am finally prepared to just sit back and accept Boll as this generation's Ed Wood. After all, whenever Boll releases a film, I make sure to see it. I have no hopes that he will ever produce anything of quality, I just want to watch the train wreck.

From what I can tell, In the Name of the King... features poor Jason Statham once again wasting his talents, Burt Reynolds looking embarrassed to be in the film, Ray Liotta also looking embarrassed, and Kristanna Loken just happy to be working. At times during the trailer, Statham seemed to be under the impression that this movie was actually titled In the Name of the King: The Transporter 3. He kicks, he punches, he does impossible acrobatics that result in several villains somehow getting kicked at once. But at least he looks like he's trying. John Rhys-Davies shows up, apparently unaware that this isn't a Lord of the Rings film. And Leelee Sobieski makes a brief trailer appearence as a young woman being seduced by the not-even-trying-to-be-in-character Liotta. Also, I watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin last week, and thought it was absolutely hilarious. However, never once during that films did I laugh as hard as I laughed when I saw Matthew "Shaggy" Lillard trying to be a bad-ass in this trailer. Oh man, even the memory makes me giggle.

I wish I didn't have to admit this, but the action scenes do look pretty good. There is one particular shot as the camera sweeps through a forest while a battle ensues that really impressed me, because it appeared to be entirely live action, without any CGI. There is also another cool shot featuring a soldier being lit on fire and launched out of a catapult at the enemy. Maybe Boll is improving. Is that too much to hope, that Boll might be learning something about the basic fundamentals of filmmaking and storytelling with each 60 million dollar film he's allowed to make?