March 13th, 2025

Something I always try to remember when I’m watching a film is “What is this movie trying to do? And is that good? And is it executing that well?” I’m not going to bring the same expectations of ‘Moonlight‘ that I will ‘Wet Hot American Summer’, these are two perfect films that I love dearly, but they are accomplishing completely different things. So walking into something like ‘In the Lost Lands’, I had to assess what my expectations were, and what exactly I would consider a success from this sci fi dystopian adventure film.

If you’re unfamiliar with the works of Paul W.S. Anderson, he’s the mind who has brought you all six of the Milla Jovovich (Anderson’s wife) starring Resident Evil films. Anderson directed the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth films, and has writing credits on the entire series. I can’t say these are great films, but they are all largely fun to a degree, and some are more successful than others. And the tone of those movies is felt heavily across all of Paul W.S. Anderson’s work.

‘In the Lost Lands‘ stars, once again, Milla Jovovich alongside former wrestler and up and coming actor Dave Bautista. It is based on a short story by George R.R. Martin and takes place in a dystopian future where society has crumbles in a Mad Maxesque way. This is the movie’s biggest flaw. The closer they get to feeling like a Mad Max movie, the more you feel the divide between those films and this one. Even the main city has a large skull on it that immediately makes one think back to ‘Fury Road’s‘ Citadel.

The plot of the movie is a combination of overly complicated and impossibly straight forward. The straight forwardness comes from a wanted witch Grey Alis (Milla Jovovich) and cowboy monster hunter Boyce (Dave Bautista) needing to get to a place called Skull River, because of course they do, to find a shapeshifting monster and steal its power. The movie helpfully shows you on a map anytime they get to a new area where they are and how far they have to go. The sets, if you can call them that, are almost entirely CGI. The movie was shot on a soundstage in Poland for what was almost definitely tax reasons and at no point does anything feel even remotely tactile.

The character designs are “Cool” in a video game type way, honestly it makes sense that Martin wrote the short story because a lot of the setting reminds me of the video game Elden Ring. Nothing is really explained, you’re just supposed to infer what happened to society in this world. Maybe FromSoft heads will like this movie more than I did. The weapons that Grey Alis uses feel like loot from a particularly difficult boss, and Bautista has a two headed snake friend that definitely has a super long cooldown before it can be used again. Probably the best acting in the whole film is when Boyce is talking to and about his two headed snake friend.

The other major issue the film runs into is thinking that it’s smarter than it is. The ending involves a lot of tying things up in a nice neat bow, and I just think what I want from a movie like this is silly costumes, weapons, setting, and action. And the movie has a lot of those things. It’s just that it also has weird editing choices, at one point our two heroes mysteriously get a pair of horses, then seem to leave those horses behind, and then escape again on a different set of horses? At no point does anyone acknowledge where the horses came from or where they went while the pair were chased onto a cable car, running away from soldiers. I don’t particularly subscribe to the CinemaSins of it allbut that felt particularly egregious.

I should probably say that if you’re looking for a dumb/fun sci action movie Paul W.S. Anderson has done better on prior films. Lots of other people have done better on prior films in all honesty. But I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t have fun, so take what you will from all of this. Is it a little soulless? Yes. Does the story have much of a pulse? No. Could you have two the three beers and watch while Grey Alis and Boyce dispatch a hoard of irradiated fiends? You bet your ass you can.

2/5