In the Name of the King

I’m a sucker for sword-and-sorcery movies, and I guess this one counts since it has plenty of hacking and slashing and an evil wizard and some monsters. Jason Statham plays Farmer, who does just that, living peacefully on a farm in the kingdom of Ehb with his wife and young son. Then a horde of monsters known as the Krug sweep through the area, burning and killing, and Farmer winds up having to abandon his peaceful life in order to seek revenge and pursue the Krug to rescue some prisoners they’ve taken.

Yep, the first third or so of this movie is actually a Western, in the same way that Robert E. Howard’s story “Beyond the Black River” is a Western. Just substitute “homesteader” for “farmer” and “Comanche” for “Krug”. Farmer’s even got an old galoot sidekick, played by Ron Perlman.

Of course, things get more sorcerous as they go along, and the political intrigue is amped up, too. In other words, the filmmakers start swiping more from J.R.R. Tolkien and Raymond E. Feist than they do from REH, although there are echoes of THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON to be found in much of the movie. The result is an extremely generic, predictable film. On top of that, Ray Liotta as the evil wizard, Burt Reynolds as the King of Ehb, and Matthew Lillard as the king’s evil nephew who wants to overthrow him all seem pretty miscast in those roles, although they try hard and Lillard succeeds fairly well. Then there are goofy, eye-rolling plot developments like the sudden appearance of a bunch of ninjas. Yes, ninjas. (Or in the words of Gus Griswold, “Why did it have to be ninjas?”)

On the plus side, I’ve liked Jason Statham in everything I’ve seen him in, and his screen presence and athleticism serve him very well here. He makes a believable sword-and-sorcery hero. Old pro John Rhys-Davies is fine as always as a good wizard. The special effects are okay, and the frequent action sequences are staged so that you can usually tell what’s going on, always a good thing where I’m concerned. This is a reasonably entertaining film that could have been a lot better, even with the oddball casting of some of the roles, if the script had contained even a single twist or surprise. But it’s worth watching for the swordplay, if you like that sort of thing – and we all know that I do.