The dystopian action movie “In the Lost Lands,” based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, is a threadbare film that barely resembles an idea.
Dave Bautista plays Boyce, a taciturn body hunter hired by a sorceress named Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) to pursue a shape-shifter for their kingdom’s young queen (Amara Okereke). Boyce and Alys are pursued by a zealous soldier known as Ash (Arly Jover), a leader of a religious royal guard dressed like Knights Templar intent on killing Alys.
This lackluster script struggles to build a captivating story to match the allure of its expansive desert setting. Instead, Boyce’s tragic origins are kept hidden by the director Paul W.S. Anderson in order to spring a hokey third-act twist. Another issue is that Alys seems to exist solely as Boyce’s lovesick romantic interest. Neither Bautista nor Jovovich can cobble together anything resembling chemistry, and this isn’t helped by Bautista consistently overacting.
After making the equally garish “Monster Hunter” in 2020, somehow “In the Lost Lands” is Anderson’s least imaginative film. Though Anderson and his trusted cinematographer Glen MacPherson remain capable of framing and lighting engrossing shots, the cheap effects used for the film’s many firefights and explosions look like a flurry of pixels. The editing attempts to hide these shortcomings, cutting around the action to the point of being incomprehensible. And maybe that’s for the best.
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