In the Lost Lands (2025)
In the Lost Lands (2025)
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Based loosely on George R. R. Paul W.S., Martin's story with the same name In Anderson's dystopian sci-fi western "In the Lost Lands," royalty compete for power in the manner of a watered-down "Game of Thrones," while free-thinking individuals survive on the fringes of a society ruled by a cult-like version of Catholicism during the Crusades. Despite its mix of genres and themes, the movie as a whole appears to be much simpler. Anderson treads some familiar territory when it comes to monsters and men. In the end, the star power of Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista and a ton of CGI effects, as impressive as some of these sequences appear to be, will not be enough to cover up the subpar quality of Constantin Werner's script.
“In the Lost Lands” opens with a struggle between religious zealots and a witch named Gray Alys (Jovovich). She is required to be killed because she is a heretic, as stipulated by the order, but she eludes and is derided by the zealots who survived. Gray Alys then finds herself with the queen (Amara Okereke), a power-hungry figure who asks for the power of a shapeshifter to unite with her secret lover, an affair she is having while the much older overlord (her king) is wasting away in bed.
Gray Alys is with the queen because she wants to have more power. In order for the queen to obtain her prize, the witch agrees and sends a hunter by the name of Boyce (Bautista) to the Lost Lands to capture and kill a shapeshifter. However, this is only possible if they are able to evade the hordes of irate zealots who are eager to follow them. Nearly every scene has a lot of narrative details, but some of them are delivered quickly and without emotion, making them feel like expositional filler. There is both a lot going on and not enough connective tissue to fortify Werner’s screenplay through silly one-liners and the made-up jargon of this dystopian world. Anderson’s vision of the future is largely a CGI landscape that feels out of a video game like “Fallout,” barren sepia-toned wastelands, crumbling remnants of a bygone world, and plenty of enemies. However, during the film's action scenes, Anderson and cinematographer Glen MacPherson have fun by slowing down the action so that Jovovich and Bautista appear calm and collected while shooting and punching the evil flock that is attempting to kill them. There are even a few inspired shots, like when the camera seems to float backward through a hanging bus about to fall hundreds of feet with Gray Alys and Boyce aboard, reminding you of Anderson’s sleek visual style.
These scenes add a lot of life to the movie, but they're only a few interesting ones in a sea of white wasteland and bland dialogue. Of the two leads, Bautista carries the film with the most emotion, and his character holds the most secrets and surprises throughout the story. He is committed to everything this lightheartedly serious role requires of him and is aware of the kind of movie he is making. His character is a sympathetic loner who is upset that his killer pet snake has been killed, but he is able to totally deliver the script's cheesy one-liners, such as when Boyce turns to Gray Alys after the zealots catch up to them with his lover as a hostage and tells her, "You came out here to find a monster." Well, you discovered one. In comparison, Jovovich’s performance feels lacking. She acts stiff in an effort to project a mysterious air, but her appearance on screen is flat, like a pretty woman who is bored at a costume party.
From the 1990s to the 2010s, Anderson's career as an action filmmaker took off with the "Resident Evil" series, which he co-created with his frequent collaborator and wife, Milla Jovovich. While his subsequent movies have been met with mixed results like “Pompeii” and “Monster Hunter,” his fans may enjoy this latest reunion with Jovovich fighting monsters yet again. Still, it might be difficult for other audiences to get onboard with a murderous cult that uses sunglasses to protect against a witch’s spells. In a lost land populated by skeletal demons, shapeshifters, and killer priests, surviving is never boring, but it may be unsatisfying.
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