Review of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007) by Harry W — 04 Oct 2014

Well aware of the fact that Uwe Boll is considered the worst filmmaker of the current age, I went into In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale strictly to see how little he could do with a $60 million budget.

For me, I had to see In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale twice. The first time I watched it I knew it would be crap and it was, but it was so crap that it was hilarious. So with expectations of it to be more dreadful and funny the second time around, I had hopes to find that In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale would be so bad that it was good.

One of the issues which makes things unconvincing is the conventional cinematography. Despite a few moments featuring tracking shots which look good, the majority of the cinematography in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale proves to be merely conventional shots of the actors faces which follow them as they move through the land. It is shaky and poorly edited a lot of the time as well, and the only thing that it tends to captures is shoddily choreographed action scenes anyway. So there is little visual appeal in the technical elements of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and even the visual effects of the film are shoddy. There is nothing to boast about in how In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale looks.

But the most clear element that makes the film look cheap is largely the scenery. Shot on the coast of a Canadian Island, it is too easy to notice that the setting for the film is bad. If In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale wanted to establish the setting of a medieval kingdom, it should have been filmed somewhere where there is miles of solid Greenland. Instead, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale looks like it was shot on Craggy Island, the fictitious location where the Irish sitcom Father Ted. So in terms of legitimacy, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale misses its mark. But it is assisted in looking terrible by the production design of the film. As well as using cardboard set pieces, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale does not use nearly enough of them to be a mile from realism. The scene in which the farmer's village is attacked is the prime example of this because it capitalises on the cheap scenery and the few wicker huts built to preserve the fictitious idea that farmers actually live there. There is minimal huts actually there and what little they are prove to be nothing but cheap looking. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale would need someone like Sherlock Holmes to find out exactly where all the money in the $60 million budget went, but I can presume that it would mostly be in the salaries for the actors and construction fees for Uwe Boll's ego.

The musical score starts out promising during the more quaint scenes in the movie, but it is only when things get more climactic and the action kicks off that viewers realise precisely how poor the soundtrack is. It becomes a series of generic and repetitive screeching sounds which make In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale less of a treat on the ears than it is on the eyes.

The final scene in the film is good. Despite having senseless plotting and poor audio dubbing, the final scene of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale incurs some decent action choreography and dedication from Jason Statham and Ray Liotta. If more of the film was like the final scene then it would have the possibility of being a guilty pleasure. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time. It could have been if Uwe Boll got himself more focused, but he was too busy wasting the budget on arbitrary purposes to remember that he is supposed to be making a fantasy action adventure star vehicle for Jason Statham.

The most laughable element in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is the fact that halfway through, the audio syncing loses touch with the video. The dialogue of the actors comes out half a second after their mouths move, and it is just such a ridiculous mistake. It's a rookie mistake, I mean how the hell do you fail to notice while editing a film that the audio has lost touch with the video? It's such a rookie mistake, something nobody in their right mint should mess up. But as Uwe Boll proves time and time again, he is not in his right kind and so In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale proves to be crap for all new reasons. I'm uncertain if this flaw is due to the film's editing or the DVD release, but both copies I have seen be the digital or DVD have the same severe audio flaw, so either way it would make more sense to point the finger in Uwe Boll's direction as his incompetent handling of the rest of the film would very likely reflect on the audio dubbing as well.

It's impressive that Uwe Boll lined up such a talented cast of actors for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. But what's surprising is just how poor they all do.

Jason Statham is the one actor to be half decent. The only thing that Jason Statham can bring to In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale his his gimmick due to the fact that it is fun to see the same actor who portrayed Frank Martin in The Transporter wielding a sword and saying such generic words. A lot of the time it is part of Jason Statham's gimmick for him to be such an emotionless warrior. The issue is that In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale makes a cheap attempt to put emotion into him and Uwe Boll cannot direct an actor to save himself. Luckily enough Jason Statham's simple presence makes him somewhat compelling in the lead role and his training as an action hero makes it interesting to see him. And in all honesty, the way he delivers his final line in the film is so ridiculously monotonous that it is perfectly laughable. Jason Statham's presence in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale makes the film watchable simply for its cheap gags.

Burt Reynolds is ok as well. The problem again is with the direction. Uwe Boll seems to be so starstuck about the fact that he managed to get Academy Award nominee Burt Reynolds for his film that he seemed to forget to establish a character for him. All Burt Reynolds ends up playing is himself in a Saturday Knight Live sketch, and yes that was a pun. His presence is entertaining, but it is sad to see that his career has sunk low enough for him to have to work with Uwe Boll, but the fact that he is present does elevate the film lightly due to his archetypal charm. His performance is nothing to boast about because the character is not up to his standard or even ridiculous enough to give him opportunities for comedy, and he receives minimal screen time. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see him on board in such a crap film.

Ray Liotta comes close to being the best actor in the film. Although he doesn't best Jason Statham because his gimmick is not as appealing, as he has portrayed thugs and criminals countless times in other films, it is no challenge to see him as the central antagonist for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. He combines his natural thug archetype with cheesy medieval language and ends up giving a performance which is the right mix between legitimate and camp. Considering the standard for acting in Uwe Boll films, Ray Liotta does a decent job simply because he fits the profile of the seriously intended but unintentionally silly nature of the film.

John Rhys-Davies is a good presence as well considering the fact that he portrayed Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy which In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is clearly a rip off of. He brings a sense of brooding confidence for the part which makes him a welcome addition to the cast. And even though he has another generic character, he does his part ok enough.

Matthew Lillard is just blatantly ridiculous in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. His performance is like a mix of Liberace's flamboyance and William Shatner's melodramatic Shakespearian acting style. The actor once popular for is spot on performance as Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo is used for clearly intended comic relief in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, but even then the only reason that it is funny is due to the fact that it is so unfunny. Either way he is interesting to watch because it is just so wrong. So Matthew Lillard gives a perfect good bad performance in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.

Ron Perlman is always welcome in films, and so the fact that he is in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale makes the ride a little bit easier. But his screen time is far too minimal for anyone to really capitalise on his existence. His role is incredibly diminutive which fails to capitalise on his status as a popular cultural figure. He is incredible underused.

Will Sanderson's clueless facial expressions make for some hilarious moments as well. He seems genuinely confused as to what's going on the entire time in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, so he easily adds to the idea of the film being an unintentional comedy which is so bad that it's good, as well as the fact that he is clearly intended as a Legolas lookalike which adds to the idea that In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is a Lord of the Rings rip-off.

Leelee Sobieski is fairly crap as well.

So thanks to Uwe Boll's godawful direction, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is a cheap looking waste of $60 million with a terrible script and lacklustre acting which may render it a perfect example of being so bad that it is somewhat good. But it isn't bad enough in the right sense to be good-bad as a whole.