IN THE NAME OF THE KING 2: TWO WORLDS (2011)

 

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

Michael Weldon of the long vanished PSYCHOTRONIC magazine coined a great phrase for review of films like this one: "Sequels No One Asked For." Probably one of the least likely sources for added installments was Uwe Boll's flop fantasy 2007 IN THE NAME OF THE KING. I can only assume that Boll crunched some numbers and realized he could make some degree of profit by churning out extensions of this dubious franchise on a tight budget, for sale to cable/streaming.

So in my review of the original film, I found it to be a patchwork of poorly realized concepts from Tolkien and its alleged video-game source. But KING 2 is surprisingly good-- for about the first third of the film, after which it plunges into incoherence.

Boll starts out with action, showing a cloaked woman. identified as a sorceress (Natalie Burn), running from guys in black garments. She turns on them, flinging medieval grenades at some of them and dispatching others with twin daggers. She escapes into a space-warp. Cut to a martial-arts dojo in Vancouver, and we see Granger (Dolph Lundgren) demonstrating to a gaggle of peewee students the fine art of beating up four other adult attackers. It's a little confusing as to whether or not the attackers are being paid for their labors-- it looks like they're paying Granger for the privilege of getting ass-kicked. Maybe they lost a bet? Soon we're out of the dojo, as Granger goes home to a lonely apartment. It's efficiently communicated that he's former Special Forces and that he suffers some survivor's guilt, wishing idly that he might've died with some of his buddies.

Then both the sorceress and her black-garbed adversaries swarm into Granger's apartment, forcing him to fight for his life. Sorceress manages to grab the ex-soldier and whisk him into her world, the quasi-medieval fantasy-world of Ehb. The sorceress is killed by a bunch of warriors (after which she's pretty much forgotten for the rest of the film), and those warriors take Granger prisoner.

In short order the dazed ex-soldier is introduced to the "King" (Lochlyn Munro) of the title (whose only proper name, weirdly, is "Raven"), a big lug named Allard who seems to be spoiling for a fight with Granger, and a doctor (Natassia Malthe) named-- wait for it-- Manhattan. Actually, I don't believe anyone in KING 2 ever speaks that risible name, so I guess it's an in-joke. Raven apologizes for how his men roughed up Granger and informs the Earthman that he's the savior of Ehb according to some prophecy. Granger alone can destroy the evil sorceress known as The Holy Mother, and the confused fellow attempts to roll with this notion, as well as with being in some faux-medieval world. After some blandishments from the King and some threats from Allard, Granger's given a private room with a hot and cold running chippie. Granger dispenses with the chippie's services, but shortly thereafter he has his various wounds tended by the local sexy female doctor, and small sparks ensue.

I note in passing that even though Raven is strongly suggested to be the story's villain, Munro's approach to villainy is the exact opposite of the over-ripe performance of Matthew Lillard in the first film. Raven is sort of smarmy, and yet not without humor and the appearance of humility. That's why I could buy it that Granger more or less welcomes the chance to take on another killing-mission, even if it's for some medieval dude he never met before. Lundgren's charisma sells this notion better than the script does, and I could even buy that Sexy Lady Doctor is so taken with Granger's charms that she quickly beds him, though not without some morning-after regrets.

Unfortunately, the last engaging moment in the movie is when Granger wants to go off and assassinate the Holy Mother with nothing but a knife, but Raven insists on sending him along with Allard, Manhattan and a cadre of men. After this, Granger's arc as a soldier seeking surcease of sorrow comes to an end, and he becomes a cog in the jumbled gears of the story's clockwork. The detachment is attacked by more black-garbed ninjas, but Granger notices that one of the killers refrains from attacking him, the guy who's supposed to kill the ninja's lady boss. Does the Holy Mother have some special plans for Granger?

Well, no big surprise, the Holy Mother is the good guy and Raven is the bad guy. The old broad also informs Granger that she saved the child-heir of the previous regime ("The King Before," presumably the "Farmer" character) and sent that kid to an adoption agency on Earth. Did we really have to get another "prince-raised-as-a-commoner" trope, since it didn't work that well the first time? Also, for some reason Raven wants to unleash a plague on Earth, though I never saw how that was going to help him cement his power. The latter half of the film devolves into a lot of expositional blather and dull fight-scenes. Granger returns to his own world and doesn't "take Manhattan" with him, but the end of their off-again, on-again romance carries no emotional impact.

So instead of being blah all the way through like the first movie, KING 2 is promising at the start and then unravels into incoherence. I'm not sure which is worse.