Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

When a film is based on a videogame it immediately garners at least a few raised eyebrows and much warranted skepticism. After all, over the years moviegoers have been subject to so much drivel adapted from the videogame genre it's a wonder money is continually thrown at them. Movies like Doom, Hitman and Max Payne are examples of some of the worst of the bunch. In the Name of the King, however, has even outdone those being one of the worst pieces of work to ever call itself a film.

Director Uwe Boll has outdone himself this time. After the terrible Bloodrayne, which was so bad it was at least laughable, In the Name of the King is just simply atrocious. Perplexingly, Boll managed to induce some heavyweight actors into this travesty of a film, including John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, and Burt Reynolds. How exactly he managed that, I'll never know, but if he can teach me how to work his magic I have my eye on a particular singles bar where some very lovely ladies hang out.

In the Name of the King is about a farmer named, umm, Farmer (Jason Stratham) -- I kid you not -- whose wife, Solana (Claire Forlani) -- is abducted by mindless creatures called Krug who are being controlled by an evil warlock by the name of Gallian (Ray Liotta). During the same attack on their village of Ehb in which Solana is abducted, the Krug also kill Farmer's son. Farmer set's out with the help of his father-figure friend Norick (Ron Perlman) and brother-in-law Bastian (Will Sanderson) to recover his wife and take vengeance on the Krug for killing his son.  

During this quest it is discovered that Gallian is planning to unseat King Konreid (Burt Reynolds) and replace him with his drunkard, ne'er-do-well nephew Fallow (Matthew Lillard) using the Krug as his army. Making himself more powerful by deceiving the daughter of Merick (John Rhys-Davies), the King's magus, and stealing power from their bloodline, Gallian plans for Fallow to be only a figurehead while he himself will be the true, all-powerful leader of the kingdom. Farmer is thrown into this conflict to defend the king and save his wife after it is revealed that he is the king's long-lost son and one true blood heir.

Melodramatic acting, overwrought dialogue and just plain asinine situations plague the screenplay. If you thought George Lucas coaxed bad acting out of good actors in the Star Wars prequels, then think again. In the Name of the King will have you cringing in embarrassment for these worthy actors who right about now are most likely firing their agents.

The Picture

Yet another bad film looks great on Blu-ray Disc. The 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding is solid straight through, with fine grain structure, strong blacks, good contrast and no compression artifacts. The fine texture of cloth in the medieval wardrobes is rendered superbly as is the detail in the chain mail and solid armor of the soldiers' uniforms. No processing misdeeds are apparent, making this a near-reference quality transfer.

The Sound

The disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround mix is thoroughly engaging. Dialogue is clear and well balanced in the mix, if a bit dull sounding, and the low frequencies are clean and extended with a good use of the LFE channel. From the galloping of the horses to thumping of punches there is a solid midrange and deep bass. The surround channels are used for ambience and discrete sound effects, really coming alive during the battle scenes.

The mastering is particularly easy on the ears with smooth high frequencies, given then amounts of clanging metal on metal from all the sword fights that take place during this film. The sound effects are natural and never fatiguing.

The Extras

In the Name of the King comes with a paltry set of extras that simply feel like an afterthought, much like the screenplay for the film itself. All the supplements offered up on this release could have been left off without being missed.

The extras available on this release are:

• Director's Commentary with Uwe Boll -- This is one of the most unusual audio commentaries from a director I've ever heard. Boll interrupts his commentary on more than one occasion to get up and go get coffee and cake, but when he is actually in the room he does manage to offer some interesting information -- mouth full of cake and all -- on the film's production. At least Boll admits he's no Orson Wells (except maybe in his love for cake) -- ain't it the truth?
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1.78:1/standard definition) -- There's not much to gain from watching these extended or deleted scenes other than seeing a few more pointless action sequences that do not forward the story at all.:
  • "Rise of a New King"
  • "Farmer and Norick Fend Off Krug"
  • "Farmer, Norick, and Bastian Take Rest"
• The Making of In the Name of the King (4:3/standard definition) -- They don't even bother to offer up an actual featurette for this so-called "Making-of", but, rather, do nothing more than edit together behind-the-scenes production footage of In the Name of the King set to music -- skip it.
• The Happening Trailer (1.78:1/high definition/Dolby Digital 5.1)

Final Thoughts

The Blu-ray Disc release of In the Name of the King looks and sounds great, but the film is so terrible it hurts -- in a really bad way. They couldn't even be bothered enough to offer some decent extras to make this release a valuable proposition. Don't do anything more than rent this one.

Where to Buy

• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies
• Director: Uwe Boll
• Writers: Chris Taylor, Dan Stroncak, Doug Taylor, Jason Rappaport
• Producers: Brandon Baker, Bryan C. Knight, Chet Holmes
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Audio/Language: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: December 16, 2008
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• List Price: $29.99
• Extras:
  
  • Director's Commentary with Uwe Boll
  • The making of In the Name of The King Featurette
  • Deleted Scenes