“In my world, the
king's army is expected to protect the kingdom, not just the castle.” –Farmer,
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
In the year 2001, a fantasy trilogy began its theatrical
run. This changed history. The movies were nominated for numerous
awards. They turned a director into a
star, and he didn’t recapture the magic, even when he returned to the world a
decade later. These movies were the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Audiences watched as a band of travellers
trekked across vast landscapes to throw a magic ring into a volcano. Along the way, they ran into orcs, trolls,
evil wizards, and Gollum. It was a
journey that changed lives.
I saw these movies as an eleven, twelve, and thirteen year
old. I still revisit them every few
years. The Two Towers was my favourite of the trilogy. I saw it in theatres four or five times. That’s the most I’ve ever seen a movie in
theatres. When I finished my last term
in university (my first post-secondary experience, not my current one) before
dropping out, I spent the week after exams watching the extended cuts while my
roommates were still studying. These
movies have a place in who I am.
There were nine years between the release of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. During those years, a few filmmakers
attempted to take the mantle of fantasy epic and capture an audience. Movies like 2004’s Troy, 2007’s 300, and
2010’s Clash of the Titans were
movies that tried to get the same sort of audience as Lord of the Rings, without having the same sort of fanfare. One other movie that went in the same
territory was In the Name of the King: A
Dungeon Siege Tale.
Based on a video game called Dungeon Siege, In the Name of
the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale was about a farmer who became a skilled
fighter in a war with orc-like monsters.
It was the largest budget that director Uwe Boll has ever been given. It showed, with the movie looking noticeably
better than most that he has made, and having a recognizable cast. Jason Statham played the farmer who was
trying to save his wife Solana (Claire Forlani) from evil magician Gallian (Ray
Liotta). Along the way, he teamed up
with King Konreid (Burt Reynolds), who was trying to stop Duke Fallow (Matthew
Lillard), from taking over the kingdom.
Also on the side of good were another magician named Merick (John
Rhys-Davies), Merick’s daughter Muriella (Leelee Sobieski), some tree-dwelling nymphs
led by Elora (Kristanna Loken), and the farmer’s surrogate father Norick (Ron
Perlman).
The movie had many similarities to the Lord of the Rings
trilogy in its story. There were two
magicians facing off against one another.
In Lord of the Rings, this
battle was between Gandalf and Saruman. Almost
matching those foes were the characters of Merick and Gallian. The two faced off near the end of the movie
in a way that was reminiscent of a fight in Lord of the Rings. Farmer had a similar story arc to Aragorn,
discovering that (SPOILER!!!) he was
the true king. Then there were travelling
shots with a band of good guys going over the ridges of mountains and such,
which were a large portion of the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, and were replicated in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.
That was only the first In
the Name of the King movie, however.
Though the series flourished into a trilogy, the way it did so was much
different than Lord of the Rings. The
Lord of the Rings movies were a set of three movies that told one complete
story. Each movie was like an episode
and they joined together to tell the entire arc. The ring was introduced in the first movie
but wouldn’t be destroyed until the end of the final film. The characters continued from one movie to
the next. In the Name of the King did not go that route. The movies had very slight connections to
each other with the cast being completely different from movie to movie (minus
one actor who was in the first two but may not have been the same character). The stories were unrelated. It wasn’t one long story arc. It was three separate stories with different
characters. It was not a continuation.
In the Name of the
King 2: Two Worlds didn’t borrow as heavily from The Lord of the Rings, but still had some influences within
it. The most notable was the title. The second Lord of the Rings movie was The
Two Towers and the second In the Name
of the King movie was Two Worlds. That where the similarity on that front ended
because the Two Worlds of the In the Name of the King sequel represented
present day and the middle ages setting of the majority of the movie. Once again, the Aragorn story was present
with main character Granger (Dolph Lundgren) finding out that he was the true
king. The only connection that the
sequel had to its predecessor was that Granger may have been the lost son of Farmer. Farmer wasn’t in the sequel though. The basic story was that Granger was a
martial arts teacher in present day Vancouver, and was taken back in time to
defeat the evil in the kingdom. It’s about
as far from a continuation of the first movie as you could get.
The third installment went even farther away from being a
continuation, as it was basically a standalone story with the same time travel
stuff as the second installment. In the Name of the King: The Last Mission,
also known as In the Name of the King:
The Last Job, also known as In the
Name of the King: Mark of the Dragon Warrior, followed Hazen Kaine (Dominic
Purcell), an assassin working out of Bulgaria.
He was hired to kidnap the daughters of a politician and ended up being
sent back in time to fight off evil in middle age Bulgaria. There was absolutely no connection to the
previous movies. The only similarities
were that the time travel plot point also happened in the second movie, and
that the majority of the story took place in the middle age. A special note is that this closing of the In the Name of the King trilogy was the
only installment to come out while Middle Earth was in wide release. It came out the same year as the final
installment of The Hobbit.
Though the series devolved into time travel stories without
the budget wonders as the first movie, the initial In the Name of the King movie was a decent substitute for the Lord of the Rings movies while Middle
Earth was out of theatres. It may have
been a little crazier, a little lower-brow, and a little lower budget than the
movies that were its inspiration, but it still managed to be a solid, fun
time. Maybe the drought of Middle Earth
that is currently happening will bring about another movie like this. We could use the dumb fun. We really could use the dumb fun.
Now for some notes, and there are a bunch of them:
- Uwe Boll directed all three movies in the In the Name of the King franchise. He also directed House of the Dead, Blackwoods, Alone in the Dark, and Blubberella.
- The only actor to be in two In the Name of the King movies was Christopher Rosamond, who was in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and In the Name of the King: Two Worlds.
- Michael Eklund made his fourth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. He was previously in The Marine 3: Homefront, House of the Dead, and Blackwoods.
- Also making his fourth appearance in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale was Will Sanderson. He was previously featured in House of the Dead, Blackwoods, and Alone in the Dark.
- Mike Dopud also had his fourth Sunday “Bad” Movie appearance with the first In the Name of the King movie. He was in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Skin Trade, and Alone in the Dark.
- In the Name of the King: Two Worlds saw Michael Adamthwaite in his fourth Sunday “Bad” Movie. He was in The Marine 3: Homefront, Repeaters, and Skin Trade.
- Ron Perlman has now been in three Sunday “Bad” Movies, thanks to In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. He was previously in The Ice Pirates and Skin Trade.
- Darren Shahlavi is now a three time Sunday “Bad” Movies actor. He was in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, The Marine 3: Homefront, and Alone in the Dark.
- John Rhys-Davies is also a three timer now with In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. He has already been featured in Anaconda III: Offspring and Anacondas: Trail of Blood.
- In the Name of the King: Two Worlds featured Aleks Paunovic, who was also in The Marine 3: Homefront and The Christmas Consultant.
- Sean Campbell was also in In the Name of the King: Two Worlds. He was previously in Blackwoods and Alone in the Dark.
- The star of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale was Jason Statham. He was in Death Race.
- Gabrielle Rose was in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. She was also in Repeaters.
- Ghost Storm actor Daniel Boileau was in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.
- Burt Reynolds, who played the king in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, did some voice work in the animated movie Delgo.
- Brian White played an important part in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale as one of the king’s best soldiers. He was also in DOA: Dead or Alive.
- Both Reese Alexander and Paul Lazenby from In the Name of the King: Two Worlds were in The Marine 3: Homefront.
- Lochlyn Munro, who played the king in In the Name of the King: Two Worlds, was in a movie called Hansel and Gretel Get Baked.
- Elisabeth Rosen appeared in both In the Name of the King: Two Worlds and House of the Dead.
- In the Name of the King: Two Worlds wasn’t the first Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for John Tench, who was also in Repeaters.
- Dolph Lundgren, the star of In the Name of the King: Two Worlds, was also the star of Skin Trade.
- Julia Sandberg Hansson made her second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance with In the Name of the King: Two Worlds. She could previously be seen in Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven.
- In the Name of the King: Two Worlds featured Natalie Burn who had previously been featured in Blubberella.
- And rounding off the second In the Name of the King film is Natassia Malthe, who was in a movie called DOA: Dead or Alive.
- Dominic Purcell, the star of In the Name of the King: The Last Mission, has appeared in the Sunday “Bad” Movies before. He was the star of Ice Soldiers.
- Finally, In the Name of the King: The Last Mission featured Nikolai Sotirov, who was in The Legend of Hercules.
- Have you seen any of the In the Name of the King movies? How do you think they stack up against other movies of this type? Do you think we need more movies like this? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
- The comments are also one of the places where you can tell me what movies I should watch in future Sunday “Bad” Movies installments. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments or on Twitter.
- You can find me on snapchat with the username jurassicgriffin. Add me if you want to see clips of the bad movies I watch because I frequently share clips on there.
- Now onto the final note of the week. What is next week’s movie? Well, thanks for asking. Next week, I will be diving back into the world of Happy Madison as I take on the 2011 classic Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. By classic, I mean that it’s one of the worst movies to come out of Adam Sandler’s production company. If you don’t join me next week, I completely understand. But there’s sure to be a post for the movie, so be ready for that.
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