Depending on who you talk to, Paul W.S. Anderson might be considered a hack who makes demonstrably janky movies based adapted from the lesser artform of video games, or he might be a largely unheralded formalist — maybe even a generational talent. Indeed, few filmmakers have enjoyed Anderson’s steadily burgeoning cult of fans, especially in terminally online cinephile circles. It’s a fool’s errand to actually attempt to determine whether he deserves such hype, but it would be equally pointless to deny his very apparent tics and idiosyncrasies, which, for good or ill, are exactly the things that tend to signal an auteur, regardless of relative quality of output.
True to form, then, his latest film, In the Lost Lands, features copious amounts of Andersonian markings, not to mention his muse and wife Milla Jovovich (herself a major element of the director’s tribe of fans). And, like most of the last 20 or so years of output, the film is a very rough adaptation of popular source material — in this case, a non-Westeros-based George R.R. Martin story — onto which Anderson has grafted a hodgepodge of visual preoccupations, narrative cliches, and out-and-out ripoffs of better films.
The post-apocalyptic future here is ruled by The Queen in the City Under the Mountain (Amara Okereke), who craves only the power to become a werewolf (no, it’s not clear why). Enter the legendary Grey Alys (Jovovich), a possibly immortal witch who’s been around for millennia and who famously cannot refuse to grant any wish. In order to carry out the Queen’s request, Gray Alys recruits Boyce (Dave Bautista), a hunter/mercenary with his own mysterious secret. He also has a special gun that shoots a two-headed snake at people, which regardless of anything else that takes place here, is undeniably pretty fucking cool. They set out across the wasteland in search of a werewolf skin (at least, that’s what it seems like they are seeking). Along the way, they’re confronted by zombies, mutants, mutant zombies, and, most terrifyingly, religious fanatics, all of which is mixed together in a heavy metal, steampunk cassoulet that honestly is frequently even more tasty than that sounds.
It can’t be merely a coincidence that Milla’s heroine in the director’s entrancingly goofball Resident Evil films is also named Alice, and In the Lost Lands, at least in part, can’t help but feel like a post-post-apocalyptic sequel to that franchise. It’s also clearly a Fury Road ripoff, padded with a lot of generic medieval fantasy. But Anderson has never lacked in visual flair or stylistic idiosyncrasy, and that’s what completely sets In the Lost Lands apart from its antecedents. As with the director’s previous movies, this latest project is full of ostentatiously symmetrical compositions, egregious uses of speed-ramping and slow motion, endless iconic posing from Jovovich, and outlandish CGI monsters. The more level-headed — not a compliment — viewer may hasten to notice just how cheap everything looks, with endless out-of-focus green screen backgrounds, a heavy overuse of closeups, and a murky brown and orange color palette that makes the whole thing kind of feel like a big mudhole. All that being said, it’s also remarkable how fully imagined (if not always fully realized) the results are for a film that is operating on what’s clearly a relative shoestring of a budget. The perceived charm of all of all this is of course subject to individual mileage, but for the heads in the know, In the Lost Lands is an absolute delight.
DIRECTOR: Paul W.S. Anderson; CAST: Dave Bautista, Milla Jovovich, Arly Jover, Fraser James; DISTRIBUTOR: Vertical; IN THEATERS: March 7; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 41 min.
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