In the Name of the King
In the Name of the King | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Uwe Boll |
Produced by | Uwe Boll Dan Clarke Shawn Williamson Wolfgang Herold |
Written by | Doug Taylor |
Based on | Dungeon Siege by Gas Powered Games |
Starring | Jason Statham Leelee Sobieski John Rhys-Davies Ron Perlman Claire Forlani Kristanna Loken Matthew Lillard Ray Liotta Burt Reynolds |
Music by | Jessica de Rooij Henning Lohner |
Cinematography | Mathias Neumann |
Edited by | Paul Klassen David M. Richardson |
Production
company |
Boll KG Productions / Herold Productions / Brightlight Pictures
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Distributed by | 20th Century Fox (Germany) Freestyle Releasing (US) |
Release dates
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Running time
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127 minutes |
Country | Germany Canada United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $60 million[1] |
Box office | $13,097,915[2] |
In the Name of the King (also known as In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale) is a 2007 fantasy adventure film directed by Uwe Boll, inspired by the Dungeon Siege video game series. The English spoken film was an international (mostly German and Canadian) co-production, filmed in Canada. It premiered in the Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films in April 2007 and in the theatres in November 2007.
Contents
Plot
In the previous war involving the Kingdom of Ehb, a three-year-old boy was found wandering the field of the Battle of Oxley Pass by the rancher Norick (Ron Perlman) and adopted by the town of Stonebridge. While Norick could be considered his stepfather, the child was cared for by the entire town, including the family of Basstian (Will Sanderson) and Solana (Claire Forlani). His identity unknown, the boy grew up to be known as Farmer (Jason Statham), married Solana, and was raising his first son Zeph (Colin Ford) when war suddenly struck again with a surprise attack by the Krug.
The adversary was a Magus-in-exile, Gallian (Ray Liotta), sadistic, megalomanical, and very powerful, influencing the normally primitive, almost animal-like Krug to take up arms, don armor, and fight against Ehb with a courage, intelligence, and ferocity that surprises all of the Kingdom's inhabitants. While King Konreid (Burt Reynolds), Commander Tarish (Brian J. White), and a significant proportion of Ehb's standing army surveys the damage at and seeks recruits from Stonebridge, the King's nephew Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard) and Muriella (Leelee Sobieski) allow Gallian to infiltrate the castle. Muriella's father Merick (John Rhys-Davies), the King's Magus is with the King at Stonebridge, and takes the liberty to investigate the matter of Farmer's true identity.
Farmer's adopted name belies his leadership and combat abilities and, in defiance of the King, he convinces Stonebridge's civilian combatants to mount a rescue mission. Gallian, via an avatar, had killed Zeph and taken Solana and other inhabitants of Stonebridge prisoner. Farmer's rescue mission goes very badly, Gallian nearly kills him because of the threat he poses (a mechanic of Kings, Magi, and magical power in the movie's world.) Farmer kills several of Gallian's avatars and escapes execution with the help of Merick, who brings him before the King to reveal his true identity as Camden Konreid, the King's son, solving a major inheritance problem: Duke Fallow is selfish and immature, poor material for royalty even if he weren't in league with Gallian.
Muriella had betrayed Ehb and her father largely by accident: she fell in love with Gallian, who proceeded to deceive and train her, stealing her power. After she realized his dark nature, she breaks off their romance, and confesses to her father Merick, who finally has an answer to another problem of his: a growing imbalance of the magical power in Gallian's favour. To offset this, the normally reclusive nymphs of Sedgwick Forest, led by Elora (Kristanna Loken) side with Ehb against Gallian.
The King decides on a surprise attack against Gallian's advancing forces, and Duke Fallow, caught in his treachery, has only his personal guard remaining. Gallian seeks the blood of Farmer, who prevails, while Duke Fallow succeeds in mortally wounding the King, who dies after the forces of Ehb force Gallian to retreat. Farmer's brief battlefield coronation surprises everyone except Gallian, and he decides to press to the attack all the way to Gallian's keep the following day.
Farmer leads a small force consisting of Merick, Muriella, and Elora through mountains to Gallian's back door. The main force led by Tarish and escape efforts led by Norick and Basstian keep Gallian busy, even as he interrogates Solana. Gallian's magical sense for royal blood reveals to him that Solana is pregnant with Farmer's second child, and because of his preoccupation with this, she is able to join in the final battle between Gallian and Farmer's infiltration team. Elora is not able to enter, while Gallian kills Merick and defeats Muriella's magic; Solana and Farmer kill Gallian together. With his magical influence gone, Gallion's avatars vanish and the Krug immediately revert to their natural disposition, retreating from Tarish's hard-pressed forces. The movie ends with the royal couple, still in their peasants' clothes, happily reunited.
Cast
- Jason Statham as Camden Konreid/Farmer
- Leelee Sobieski as Muriella
- John Rhys-Davies as Merick
- Ron Perlman as Norick
- Claire Forlani as Solana
- Kristanna Loken as Elora. Loken previously played the lead role in Uwe Boll's BloodRayne.
- Matthew Lillard as Duke Fallow
- Ray Liotta as Gallian
- Burt Reynolds as King Konreid
- Brian White as Commander Tarish
- Mike Dopud as General Backler
- Will Sanderson as Basstian. Sanderson has also been featured in all but one of Boll's video game-based films, starting from House of the Dead.
- Tania Saulnier as Talwyn
- Gabrielle Rose as Delinda
- Terence Kelly as Trumaine
- Colin Ford as Zeph
Production
The production budget was $60 million, [1] making it Uwe Boll's most expensive film production to date.
Boll has said that two versions will be produced due to length. The first will run for 127 minutes as a single movie trimmed down for cinematic release. The second, a director's cut, will be for DVD and run for approximately 156 minutes.[3]
The film was shot near the Municipality of Sooke, the westernmost area of the Greater Victoria, Capital Regional District (CRD), British Columbia. Locals and First Nations people were recruited as extras and for other duties.
Visual effects were added in post-production. Companies included Elektrofilm, Frantic Films, The Orphanage, PICTORION das werk, Rocket Science VFX, Technicolor Creative Services, TVT postproduction, and upstart! Animation.
Soundtrack
The German power metal band Blind Guardian recorded the movie's main theme, "Skalds and Shadows".[4] The British progressive metal band Threshold contributed the song "Pilot in the Sky of Dreams" from their album Dead Reckoning. The Swedish power metal band, HammerFall, also contributed a track, "The Fire Burns Forever". Wolfgang Herold was the executive soundtrack producer.
Reception
Box office
In the Name of the King was a box office bomb, grossing $2.98 million in its U.S. opening, not cracking that week's top ten.[5] It had grossed $10.3 million worldwide, including $2.47 million in Germany, $1.39 million in Russia and $1.22 million in Spain.[6] Afterwards, Uwe Boll announced that this would be his first and last movie with a large budget.[5]
Critical reception
The film was critically panned. The film holds a 4% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 49 reviews, with the consensus "Featuring mostly wooden performances, laughable dialogue, and shoddy production values, In the Name of the King fulfills all expectations of an Uwe Boll film." The film is also ranked in that site's 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s[7] and in 2008, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies.[8] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 15 out of 100, based on 11 reviews — indicating "overwhelming dislike."[9] Many critics have attacked the film's close resemblances to other fantasy films, especially the popular The Lord of the Rings films.[1][10][11]
The film was nominated for five Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor (Burt Reynolds) and Worst Supporting Actress (Leelee Sobieski), with Uwe Boll winning Worst Director.
Sequels
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Despite being considered a bomb, Boll filmed a sequel titled In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds.[12] Filming began on December 1, 2010 and it was released in 2011. The film stars Dolph Lundgren and Natassia Malthe.
A third film, In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission, was filmed in 2013 but not released until 2014. The film starred Dominic Purcell, with Boll returning to direct.[13]
Home media
The DVD, released on April 15, 2008, does not include the 156-minute version. The Blu-ray release in December 2008 contains this edition. 813,147 units were sold, gathering a revenue of $14,865,984, more than its box office grossing.[14]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Bloody-Disgusting - All Things Horror Archived January 17, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ http://www.blind-guardian.com/new_version/popups/news.php3?news_id=283
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Box Office Mojo. Accessed February 13, 2008.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at IMDb
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at AllMovie
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Box Office Mojo
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at Metacritic
- Interviews at Movieset.com
- 2007 films
- English-language films
- Pages with broken file links
- Dungeon Siege
- 2000s adventure films
- 2000s fantasy films
- American films
- American fantasy films
- Canadian fantasy films
- German films
- German fantasy films
- Films directed by Uwe Boll
- Canadian fantasy
- Films based on video games
- Films based on role-playing games
- Fantasy adventure films
- Sword and sorcery films
- 20th Century Fox films
- Works based on Microsoft video games
- Brightlight Pictures films