In the Name of the King: Movie Review

Jason Statham stars in the film In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale directed by Uwe Boll, director of BloodRayne and House of the Dead. Based on a video game, this movie has had a lot of undeserved attention. A synopsis of the film on kerasotes.com describes the plot as a simple family man named Farmer goes up against an evil Magus, played by Ray Liotta, who threatens to overthrow the kingdom with an army of menacing beasts.

The movie also stars notable actors like Burt Reynolds as the king, Matthew Lillard as Duke Fallow and Leelee Sobieski as Muriella. The cast seems to be a jumble of actors that have no chemistry with each other and seem ill suited for their roles. Matthew Lillard proves comic relief as the king's usurper even when he is trying to be serious and repeat big words that seem ridiculous coming out of his mouth. Burt Reynolds gave a passable performance but the lines that he spouted were not ones that felt natural and it showed. Ray Liotta hams it up for the camera in an okay performance as Gallian the evil Magus. He does not look menacing enough for the part but he does spout one of the few good lines in the movie, "In my kingdom, there will be no word for madness. It will simply be called power."

Jason Statham brings to the film the incredible stunts that have made him famous from the Transporter movies yet he is still unsuited for his role. He does not seem believable as a simple farmer named Farmer who just so happens to fight incredibly well with just a machete and, unbelievable as it is, a boomerang. He looks more like the kind of man who could break some thug's jaw with a broken bicycle pedal.

The cast is the least of this movie's problems. The plot is so convoluted that there did not seem to be a reason to even include dialogue in the film. There is never any good reason why the kingdom is so important to the different armies. The differences in nationalities and accents in this movie are never explained. The convoluted plot is so buried that the characters, who had so much potential, seem flat and uninteresting that no one in the audience cares whether they live or die.

The dialogue is so stiff and boring and the scenes were so predictable. One surprise twist was so obvious that audience members actually groaned when the "truth" was uncovered. The actors themselves suffered from bad directing. Some could not even fight and talk at the same time, if you want to call the inane drivel that they spouted talking. The scene changes are choppy and have no relation to one another. Many scenes should have been cut altogether. The location is breath-taking but some of villages are uninspiring and too planned out.

The movie starts and ends so abruptly that it takes the audience a few moments to realize what is going on. The presence of ninjas seems so out of place, in what is supposed to be feudal England, that it boggles the mind. Hanging seems to be a prominent scene ending in many places for this movie. The enchanted forest is not so enchanted with any danger whatsoever. The actual magic in this movie seems superfluous and not a large part of the whole plot. The end has no resolution, there is no reconstruction done to a war torn kingdom. As a fan of fantasy movies, this was a total disappointment and a waste of time and money.