There was once a writer named George RR Martin, who wrote an exciting little fantasy story long before the success of his book series, which was later filmed as a series Game of Thrones: in the Lost Lands. On just 15 pages, he created the magical world of the witch Gray Alys, which is sent out by a queen to find a werewolf with the help of a hunter. (Reading readable in the collection of dream songs 2 *.)
Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil) has now adapted this 15 pages for the cinema in 101 minutes. But his fantasy film mutates the greatest missed genre chance of the year with every ticking second.
In The Lost Lands, more than a fantasy film wants to be-and that’s a problem
The number of large-scale fantasy films is manageable this year. If a trailer like that promises an adventure full of monsters and magic, not as a remake or continuation, genre fans notice accordingly. And at first glance, the film adaptation is even close to the most important figures and elements of the template:
Whether poor or rich, the magical Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) does not show any: n seekers. When the young Queen Melange (Amara Okereke) submits the desire for a werewolf fur to transform herself into a monster, the witch accepts the order as well as that of Melanges Hauptmann Jerais (Simon Lööf), who asks her to fail on her mission. In Boyce (Dave Bautista) Alys finds a hunter who is in the dangerous wasteland of the Abandoned country leads where the beast is supposed to live.
This sounds like a promising magical adventure on paper. In practice, however, director Paul WS Anderson is not enough to fill his boiler only with fantasy ingredients. Instead, he mixes other genres into his soup, which is causing an unsavory mass: he settles in the Lost Lands In addition in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting and explains the traveled wasteland as the remains of a lost civilization. But a vague end of the world alone does not result in any WorldBuilding.
What is this “reality connection” supposed to do to a modernity that has not been defined in more detail? How does that fit the figurative skills of the figures? Anderson are not interested in such questions. Instead, he also enriches the whole thing with Western ingredients such as revolers and derailing trains. The is finished Genre. Even the quest card, which is repeatedly adopted, as picked up from a fantasy book, does not help to keep the narrative on course.
If at least would look good in the Lost Lands …
Visually tries to emerge several role models as a fantasy sci-fi-fi action western in the Lost Lands at the same time-and thus fails across the board. The adventure is looking for the coolness of Stephen Kings the dark tower, on which others failed. It roars through the dry landscape like Mad Max: Fury Road, without getting any to this level of visual ecstasy. And it is illuminated by his pictures without the style of style of a Zack Snyder, as if the film had just discovered the Sepia filter.
At every corner the look puts one leg itself For a uniform feeling of world. The glittering fantasy costume of the perfectly painted queen bites with the rusty backdrop. In one moment, two -headed snakes are flying through the area, in the next we are already offering radioactively contaminated zombies in an old nuclear power plant. Steampunk locomotives stomp through the landscape covered with broken wind turbines, religious fighters pull out their firearms and sunglasses serve as protection against witch powers.
On this together fantasy trip, it is not very subtle how, as at the latest the (invented) name of the goal, it illustrates: Skull River, the skull flow full of dead heads, where the Werewolf sought lives in its mediocre-animated form. The repeated countdown of a mechanical full moon show image is completely contrasting to the listlessly clapped
CGI stations. The mix gives disappointment on all fronts.
In the Lost Lands, his staff welcomes the death blow
After Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, Paul WS Anderson is once again working with his long-time favorite star (and his wife) Milla Jovovich, who is already a alice, forgiveness: Alys, plays and at the same time woves bad memories of her Hellboy-Hexe Nimue. It can be overlooked that Dave Bautista, as a hunter Boyce, does not even like the white -haired young man in the short story. About that the role Any charisma is missing,, not.
As someone could believe that the main figure combination by Jovovich and Bautista was a good idea, remains veiled until the end. After all, both are more, well, facing faces. But if So little happens on the faces of the most important charactersthe sympathy for your fantasy adventure is difficult. Canvas chemistry may be found in the nuclear reactor mentioned, but not between these two stars.
In addition, the secondary characters all so uninteresting are staged that they are forgotten again before they have completely left the picture. The twists of fantasy history, which the Game of Thrones author delivers at the end of his short narrative, also exist in the film adaptation. However, the adaptation has already destroyed its staff and its world at this point so that instead of amazement, there is only boredom.
Anderson drives the monster of his film into the abyss like a locomotive with full steam. Instead of forced coolness or hoped -for canvas magic, nothing remains more empty. Empty and the agonizing thought, What a great fantasy adventure George RR Martin’s history in other hands would have.
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