Long Live the King!
I spent this past weekend away from home base visiting family, and unfortunately there was no internet available in my locale. And without my games, or news of games to keep me busy we had to hit the next best thing, a movie based on a game. Yes folks everyone’s favorite director Uwe Boll has done it again with his latest release “Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King.” If you don’t know anything about Boll and his film adaptations of games, ask the next person you see to slap you upside the head fiercely at least 4 times. This will be less painful then seeing his first 4 game movies which include “House of the Dead”, “Alone in the Dark”, “BloodRayne” and “BloodRayne 2.” I could go on and on about how much of a jerk he’s said to be, or how he uses crazy German tax breaks to fund his budgets, or you could do your homework here and hurry back to reading the good stuff.
So with all that in mind where does this latest venture end up? I can say without any doubt that this is easily the best Boll game film ever (I’ve heard his non game related stuff is decent also). Now this must be taken with a grain of salt, and I’ll break it down Beastie Boys style with much gall and guile to help you understand if you will garner any enjoyment from this film. First off, if you knew nothing about the game this was based on, and were seeing it simply as a fan of medieval fantasy stories you would consider it decent. But let’s be honest, if you’re a fan of fantasy flicks, you have your fair share of cheesy goodness in your library already. As a matter of fact, beyond Petey Jacksons recent rendition of Tolkien this genre is often allowed more leeway in light of some good action packed fun. And it is here that our favorite kick happy Brit, Jason Statham delivers.
Now what if you say, “But Thunderpudd, I loves me that great story from the game this is based on!” Then I say to you Sir or Madam you are a lier. Yes folks, one of the reasons this film does not mutilate the story of the original game is because it barely had one. S’matter of fact the only story in the game was that you were a farmer, in the village of Ehb and the Krug attacked. After that it pretty much trails off into generic, although fun hacking and spellcasting and what not, and so does this film. Does it try to be a poor-mans Lord of the Rings? Yes, in many spots it does, but who cares? I think either Uwe may actually be getting better, or maybe he finally got a good enough mix of decent to good actors together and he was simply unable to kill it. Sure some of the sets and costumes will cause you to snicker, and Burt Reynolds and Ray Liotta couldn’t sell a medieval accent if their life depended on it, but the rest of the crew help pick up the slack and carry it home.
As a movie and game fan this will be an easy DVD purchase for me. But I’d have a hard time telling anyone who wasn’t a fantasy buff to bother with it unless you simply have an evening to kill. I still hope to one day see video games get to the point where they’re considered real film material like comics books finally have, but this is not that film. Decent at best, this is easily Uwe Boll’s shining star thus far.
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