George R. R Martin is well known for his work across fantasy, helping deliver not just amazing books and short stories, but lending his efforts across other mediums, such as TV and video games. ‘In the Lost Lands’ is a lean fantasy tale, telling a tight story avoiding common fantasy tropes, keeping audiences guessing as to what will happen.
Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich give good enough performances that will take audiences on a ride.
‘In The Lost Lands’ introduces audiences to a new world, one where it features recognizable structures of the present rotting away in ruins, Mad Max-Esque cities with their own politics and religion, the darker fantasy elements, with a sprinkling of the Wild West thrown in there. It surprisingly comes together quite well, with the world managing to be unique across the many that exist out there. Audiences might be familiar with these elements but not remixed in this way. The tone of the film remains consistent throughout, absent of constant quips. This helps to keep the film grounded in a way that fits the established world.
The opening narration and worldbuilding is enough to clue the audience into the situation at hand, but in particular the city and its politics could have done with a little more explanation, especially with the city guard and the megalomaniacal Church. This element also felt like it got resolved far too suddenly, to give a half-hearted message of revolution. But overall, the world is what will entice audiences and draw them into the film, where the more personal story of the two leads holds them in.
The CGI throughout the film has occasional mistakes, but more than this is the lighting. In the film, it’s all over the place, with many scenes blinding the audience with lens flares and bright suns, but others are desaturated. It can make the film quite difficult to look at during pivotal moments, and gives it an amateurish feel, which isn’t the case with anyone involved. It’s as if director Paul W.S. Anderson and cinematographer Glen MacPherson wanted to ape Zack Snyder, a feeling more than replicated when it comes to the overuse of slow motion in many of the action beats.
Anderson certainly wanted to replicate parts of ‘Mad Max: Fury Roa’ in the film, establishing a big powerful vehicle that must travel the wastes. But instead of a climatic battle at the end, audiences have to settle for a rather anticlimactic end to both this and the wider story about the church. He’s certainly not as skilled when it comes to the action as George Miller, not only with the overuse of slow motion but with constant choppy editing, which is overly distracting and makes some fights unreadable.
However, these elements thankfully don’t undo the work that coleads Bautista and Jovovich do to keep audiences. The pair have an uneasy relationship that grows throughout the film. Jovovich plays a witch, while Bautista gets a gunslinging veteran pulled straight from the Wild West. It’s their quest and developing relationship that is the most enjoyable to watch, with performances that might not win any awards, is perfectly suited.
While ‘In the Lost Lands’ is not a looker, with lighting and saturation completely out of whack, Bautista and Jovovich do more than enough to keep audiences watching. The world that Anderson adapts is not quite like anything audiences have seen before, and its twists and turns will keep audiences guessing as to what’s going on. It’s an unconventional story set in an unconventional world, but that is something that helps keep it fresh for those watching.
