In the Name of the King

Up until yesterday I had only heard legends of Uwe Boll's directing; some comparing him to Edward D Wood Jr, or Ed Wood - director of such "classics" as Plan 9 From Outer Space. He has won many Razzies, inlcuding "Worst Career Achievement". Yesterday I decided to watch one of his films; In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Unsuprprisingly it's based on the Dungeon Siege series of games, none of which I've played. I was expecting it to be either hilariously bad like Troll 2 and Ed Wood's films, or just terrible. It was actually quite good.
I say it was good; in actuality it was pretty terrible in terms of film making, but it was very good fun, and it kept me entertained for 2 hours. The lead role is played by Jason Stratham (Crank), who is adequate. His gravely London voice reminded me a lot of Beowulf, but he managed to play emotional scenes as well as fight scenes, so meh. The rest of the cast are pretty much the same; not particularly good, but not bad either. The special effects were pretty bad, with the very few CG models being SO obvious. The "magic" effects were good, but they can be done by 1000 people on youtube with a hacked copy of After Effects. The general look of the film was interesting; all the scenes looked like HDR photos, which is something I've not really seen done in this way in a film before. The downside of this technique though is the general downside of HDR photography; it can destroy the quality. All too frequently, the backgrounds are very grainy (especially noticeable on Blu-ray), and occasionally the skyline shows the "Halo" effect that is a sign of over-manipulation. Still, the appearance was interesting, and given better effects, it would have looked brilliant. The fight/battle scenes reminded me greatly of Power Rangers; with the over-the-top leaping around, with every move emphasised and shown from various angles. This was more true at the beginnig of the movie, and once it got to later battles, it was far better. Still, this added to the fun of the film for me. The WTF moment of this movie came in the form of the smallest regiment of the king's army; they were never referred to, but featured heavily in later battles... Ninjas. There's not much I can say; they're ninjas. The second they appear will prove a turning point for most people - either they've completely suspended disbelief, and are enjoying it for what it is, or will be shocked/confused/outraged and shall turn it off immediately. I understand either response, but I was the former, and actually enjoyed seeing Ninjas in a Medieval Lord of the Rings/Arthurian battle... now that I put it like that it seems even more strange.

Overall it was, as I said, terrible. But because I enjoyed it, it entertained me, and I am likely to buy it cheaply and watch it again, has it completely failed as a film? I feel that movies are taking themselves too seriously in recent years, and something like this takes us back to good, fun films of the 80's. Films aren't supposed to be hyper-realistic, with every action being pheasable in the real world; they're there to entertain people - a lot of people seem to be forgetting that, and are making films look too much like documentaries. For it's sheer entertainment value, I give this film 5/10.

I was going to end that review by sticking up for Uwe Boll, suggesting that he is harshly criticised, but in looking up about him to write the intro, I discovered that he is a tool.

In other news, Little Boots' new video, Remedy, is online. BBC.co.uk had the exclusive showing of it, but Perex Hilton managed to download it, and upload it onto his own website, BBC watermark intact. Perez Hilton once again fails. It would be hilarious to see Little Boots punch him in the face... Will.iam "boom-boom-powed" him, so what would little boots do? "Meddle" with his face?.. nah. Forget I said anything...

Musical Merriment of the day - Little Boots - Remedy - Not really a surprise... the video's more low-key than New in Town, but it fits the song and Little Boots in general more. And the song is perhaps my favourite of 2009 so far. *Bonus Round* Spot Little Boots' signature Unicorn figurine and you win a prize. Not really, but look for it anyway.