IN THE NAME OF THE KING (2007)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological*

While Uwe Boll is probably not the world's worst filmmaker-- his three BLOODRAYNE films, the only other Boll-movies I've seen, were competent formula-- no one could have convinced me he wasn't the worst in 2007, when friends talked me into seeing IN THE NAME OF THE KING in a theater. I practically climbed the walls trying to find any entertainment on screen. Other viewers who saw KING must have told all their friends, for the $60 million dollar fantasy adaptation of the "Dungeon Siege" videogame flopped hard.

I read somewhere that the preparation of the script by the project's three (largely inexperienced) writers took a long time. Probably most of that time the writers weren't just trying to figure out how to build up the fantasy-world of the "Siege" videogame, but reading and rereading LORD OF THE RINGS to figure out what to swipe. That's assuming that they didn't just repeatedly screen Peter Jackson's trilogy, which had wrapped up to great accolades in 2002. The main contribution of the videogame would have been the base situation, in which a humble farmer (oddly, a female) becomes embroiled in repelling an invasion of her land of Ehb by rampaging warriors called "Krug." The game doesn't seem to involve one of the movie's key tropes: that the taciturn hero known only as "Farmer" (Jason Statham) turns out to be the lost son of Ehb's king Konreid (Burt Reynolds), which both of them learn as the humble landsman seeks to alert the royals to the invasion. This is probably the least Tolkienian aspect of the movie.

The most Tolkienian thing about KING, though, is the female lead, who might be described as a road-company Eowyn. Muriella (Leelee Sobieski) can't catch a break in the medieval patriarchy. Her father is the king's court magician Merick (John Rhys-Davies), but he won't pass on his magical knowledge to Muriella, for Reasons. She trains with the sword. but the king's captain of the guard won't admit females to the ranks. So she rebels by sleeping with Gallian (Ray Liotta), who held the position of the king's magician before getting kicked out in favor of Merick. The actor playing Gallian was about thirty years older than the one playing Muriella, so daddy issues are not impossible. But when Gallian and Muriella are first seen together, she's breaking it off with him, having realized his cold-hearted villainous nature, so we never know what brought them together in the first place. Much later in the movie, Muriella does get a little sword-action, and even some magical action against Gallian. But though she probably had the most potential of any character in KING, her arc is ultimately disappointing.

 The rest of the characters don't disappoint, because they're such ciphers no one expects anything of them. Farmer is a taciturn family man, and-- that's it. His wife is abducted by Krug warriors and he spends the movie seeking to get her back, and the belated discovery that he has royal blood, and a living father he never knew, doesn't make any real impact. As for King Konreid, his arc is unremarkable as well. Reynolds is definitely outside his comfort zone playing a medieval king, but at times he does manage to project some gravitas. But his main role is to be poisoned and eventually slain by his throne-hungry nephew Fallow (Matthew Lillard), so the monarch's role is severely underwritten. In fact, though many reviewers didn't like Lillard's hyperactive snake-in-the-grass, for me he was the only entertaining performer in the movie. At least Lillard worked hard to draw all the boos and hisses he could earn with his twitchy, despicable poser, while Liotta's primary villain merely struts around like the performer knows that the simple role is beneath him.

I'll admit that watching KING on a small screen, where I could choose other distractions than movie-house refreshments, was more forgiving than my theater-experience. Some of the big battle-scenes looked good, and Gallian and Merick have an okay magical duel with levitated swords. Sobieski's fight-scenes are so short that I almost can't label her a "fighting femme," but there's also a small role for an elf-warrioress (Kristanna Loken), whose combat-schtick might be termed "Mirkwood meets Cirque d'Soleil." Jason Statham still hadn't solidified his status as a major action-star, but atter KING he wisely stuck with contemporary ass-kickers. The most I can say about the film is that if one is in an undemanding mood, it may satisfy-- but it's equally possible that it won't, too.