Uwe Boll's In The Name of the King 2: Two Worlds was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD. Dolph Lundgren, Natassia Malthe, and Lochlyn Munro star in this film about an ex-Special Forces soldier who travels back to medieval times to fulfill an ancient prophecy. In the process, he ends up finding redemption for his own battlefield experiences.
Aside from being a medieval fantasy action film directed by Boll, Two Worlds has nothing to do with the first film. This is an unnecessary sequel to In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. That film starred Jason Statham, Claire Forlani, and Burt Reynolds and is one of Boll's better films (if that is possible).
Two Worlds is bad on so many levels, that it is almost good. If you are familiar with Boll's previous work, you will know exactly what to expect. The bad script, poor choreography, and ridiculous special effects make this film on par with SyFy made-for-TV movies. If you are looking for a good story, then this is not the movie for you. The story is convoluted and horribly paced from the opening scene. The script seems to have been written by someone who has seen way too many medieval movies and wrote the script after drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
The saving grace for the script is that there are some relatively funny moments. Granted, the majority of the good bits are more cheesy than anything. My favorite line is when Lundgren's character Granger is asked if he'd like a larger sword. He responds by saying "In the Black Forest, I have a feeling that bigger is better." Don't worry, there are many more lines that are pure cheese like that throughout the movie. There are times when I almost had to stop the disc and re-watch a scene just to see if they actually said that.
Lochlyn Munro seemed completely mis-cast as the King. During fight sequences he just seems out-of-place on the battlefield. Lundgren is right at home in any action movie. I loved him in The Expendables and have seen a couple of his other straight-to-DVD movies. His presence is literally larger-than-life; he towers over the rest of the cast.
I had hoped that Two Worlds would have better action and fighting sequences. As I stated above, the choreography is horrible. I am sure that LARPers would have done a better job. If that was not enough, some of the fight scenes were confusing. It was hard to tell the difference between the villains and the heros. The villains are dressed in black with hoods, while the king's men are dressed in dark colors. This causes the fight scenes to be even more muddled than they already are because of the poor choreography.
Not much went into the special features on this disc, but I have to say it does have decent sound and picture quality. Two Worlds is a sub-par Blu-ray experience overall. Even though I am not a fan of Boll's films, I have to give him credit for his tenacity. As a fan of Lundgren, I am looking forward to his redemption in The Expendables 2.