In The Lost Lands

There is a special charm to a movie that dares to commit unreservedly to the absurd, revel shamelessly in its own madness, and embrace the kind of grandiloquence that once defined a bygone era of fantasy filmmaking. But Paul W.S. Anderson, is not that movie. It's more like a cinematic fossil from a time when filmmakers confused visual gimmicks with visionary storytelling, a relic from a time when green screens and CGI pollution were considered an acceptable substitute for building a tangible world. And yet, somehow, it still manages to stumble into occasional plot moments, as if by accident.

Based on a novella by George R.R. Martin, whose literary gravitas has been so thoroughly eroded by the years of delay of The Winds of Winter, this movie takes a simple premise and inflates it into a bloated, joyless epic. A queen, desperate because she cannot change shape, calls on Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich), a witch who grants wishes and who, bound by her own magical code, cannot refuse a request. Accompanied by the dark hunter Boyce (Dave Bautista), Gray Alys ventures into the desolate Lost Lands to hunt down a creature that holds the secret of transformation. The premise alone should be rich in thematic potential - questions of power, identity and consequences - but instead it collapses under the weight of lifeless execution.

From the first frame, In the Lost Lands announces its aesthetic intentions with a sense of outsized importance. Paul W. S. Anderson's vision of the post-apocalypse is a dark, sepia-toned wasteland where every landscape appears to have been covered in grime and rust. The vibrant contrasts that give dystopian worlds their immersive character are gone; in their place is a visual mud that drains the frame of all energy. There is an art to desaturation, a way of making gloom beautiful (think Mad Max: Fury Road or Blade Runner 2049), but here the lack of color simply reads as a lack of imagination. Even worse, the entire film is shrouded in a digital fog so artificial that it often looks more like a low-budget video game cutscene than a real cinematic experience.

Paul W. S. Anderson's use of the Unreal Engine to construct his world is obvious. Instead of pushing the boundaries of digital cinema, it only serves to emphasize how disconnected his actors feel from their environment. Scenes that should be vast and epic instead feel confined, as if the characters are walking against an invisible wall in a virtual playground. But even the most artificial of worlds can be saved by compelling characters, and this is where In the Lost Lands fails. Milla Jovovich, a seasoned action heroine, is given a role with seemingly infinite potential: that of a mysterious and enigmatic witch bound by a curse that forces her to grant every wish.

Instead, she is relegated to delivering awkward expository monologues with a detached, almost robotic performance. Her character Gray Alys lacks the charm, menace or intrigue that should define such a character, making her neither a compelling protagonist nor an interesting antagonist. The movie seems unsure what to do with her, never allowing her character to develop beyond a series of philosophical quips. Dave Bautista fares a little better as Boyce, the gruff but secretly tender warrior who serves as Gray Alys' reluctant companion. Dave Bautista has proven himself one of the most versatile ex-wrestlers-turned-actors, capable of nuance even in bombastic roles. But here he has so little to work with that he ends up delivering his lines in a monotone, raspy voice that suggests even he knows he's gotten himself into a bad business.

His relationship with Gray Alys is supposed to be the heart of the movie, but their dynamic remains frustratingly underdeveloped, reduced to a series of terse exchanges and tense stares into space. Then there's the question of pacing, which is both frenetic and slow. The first ten minutes alone contain several sequences of action, none of which is particularly well staged, and yet the plot itself seems to drag. Paul W. S. Anderson, whose Resident Evil films have long been criticized for favoring style over substance, is here given free rein to his worst instincts. The action is spoiled by an excessive use of slow motion, an inexplicable number of zooms on the characters' eyes and a fetishistic obsession with double-edged weapons.

Yet none of this reaches the kind of kinetic energy that Paul W.S. Anderson clearly aims for. Instead, the fight sequences resemble rehearsals for a much better movie, with actors content to go through the motions in front of green screens while CGI creatures flail around them awkwardly. There's a scene with a school bus suspended over a gorge, which in theory should be thrilling. But it's filmed with so little tension or geographical clarity that it ends up seeming light and inconsequential. What makes In the Lost Lands particularly frustrating is that there are brief, fleeting glimpses of a better movie buried in its wreckage.

The concept of a wish-granting witch, who must satisfy requests, no matter how contradictory, is fascinating. The idea that the queen's wish to become a werewolf is countered by a simultaneous wish for her failure introduces a potentially compelling moral dilemma. But these threads are left dangling, drowned out by absurd plot twists and arbitrary betrayals that exist only to extend the running time. The film ultimately confuses complexity with depth, multiplying betrayals and last-minute revelations that do little to enrich the story. By the time the final act unfolds, with hasty explanations and a huge outpouring of information that attempts to justify everything that has gone before, any remaining investment has long since evaporated.

It is difficult to say who In the Lost Lands is aimed at. It lacks the visual grandeur to appeal to fantasy lovers, the narrative depth to satisfy fans of George R.R. Martin and the thrilling action to attract fans of big-budget movies. It's a film in limbo, a relic of a director who seems increasingly out of step with modern cinema. There was a time when Paul W. S. Anderson's kitschy, video-game-inspired action movies had a certain charm, but here he just seems tired.

And yet, even when the credits roll, you can't help but marvel at the utterly misguided ambition of the whole thing. It's a film that sincerely believes in its own importance, that thinks it's saying something profound when in reality it's just recycling clichés from better films. Perhaps the most appropriate metaphor for In the Lost Lands is its own setting: an arid and desolate wasteland, filled with the remains of what could have been something great, but which is ultimately just a vast expanse of nothingness.

In the Lost Lands
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
Written by Constantin Werner
Story by Paul W. S. Anderson, Constantin Werner
Based on In the Lost Lands by George R. R. Martin
Produced by Jeremy Bolt, Paul W. S. Anderson, Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista, Constantin Werner, Jonathan Meisner, Robert Kulzer
Starring Dave Bautista, Milla Jovovich, Arly Jover
Cinematography: Glen MacPherson
Edited by Niven Howie
Music by Paul Haslinger
Production companies: Constantin Film, Spark Productions, FilmNation Entertainment, Dream Bros. Entertainment, Rusalka Film
Distributed by Vertical (United States), Metropolitan FilmExport (France)
Release date: March 5, 2025 (France), March 7, 2025 (United States)
Running time : 101 minutes

Screening on March 6, 2025 at Gaumont Disney Village, Theater 10, seat A19

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