In the Lost Lands review (2025)

In the Lost Lands is an action thriller in the vein of Fury Road by way of Zack Snyder with a dash of Resident Evil for good measure. But only if the worst elements of those inspirations were cobbled together for a dreary, empty and exhausting slow-motion bore fest.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson, who helmed four of the Resident Evil franchise, continues on his seemingly endless quest to make his wife, Milla Jovovich, look as bada$$ as possible. Typically, he only gets it partially correct as Jovovich has come off bad in most of Anderson’s films.

In the Lost Lands was inspired by a short story from Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin, which at least provides a decent foundation to build a decent film.

Anderson and screenwriter Constantin Werner can’t quite figure out a way to make the premise intriguing enough for a full-length movie even at an abbreviated hour and 41 minutes run time.

Jovovich plays Gray Alys, a witch of some notoriety. There’s apparently no truth to the thought that Jovovich and Anderson circled this role as the witch shares a name with Jovovich’s near invulnerable superhero in the Resident Evil films.

Witchcraft is frowned upon in the lost lands, which is ruled by The Overlord, a bedridden and nearly feeble leader. The true power of the realm, all that’s left after an apocalyptic nightmare left most of the world in a desolate state, is The Church led by The Patriarch (Fraser James) and his Enforcer (Arly Jover).

Gray Alys refused the edict from the church to end her witchy ways and was sentenced to be hung. With the use of her powers, Gray Alys avoided her execution and earned the nickname from the people of ‘The Witch That Would Not Hang.’

With the king stuck spending his days in bed, the Queen (Amara Okereke, Andor) is desperate to hold on to her fleeing power. She recruits Gray Alys to turn her into a shapeshifter. Her logic seems sketchy since all the Queen really needs is to provide a male heir to ensure she retains some measure of power.

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Through reasons that also go unexplained, Gray Alys cannot refuse a request and sets out to track down a hunter who can help her find and kill the shapeshifter while they’re in their wolf form. This would allow her to transfer the power to the Queen.

Gray Alys recruits Boyce (Dave Bautista), apparently the best tracker by virtue of his ability to spot an ambush. Not convinced? Boyce also uses a defective shotgun as a decoy to conceal the real threat — a snake with two heads. The practical purpose of this trap seems to be simply because it looks cool.

Thus, we enter into the Snyder influence of In the Lost Lands where Anderson decides booming music and copious amounts of slo-mo are the way to go. Anderson must have bought his slow-motion cameras at Costco as seemingly every scene has some needlessly melodramatic drawn-out sequence. This effect mostly is a detriment to the rare scenes that are shot with some creativity and less excessive amounts of editing.

Mimicking another Snyder trademark, Anderson opts to go with murky, dark and often hard to distinguish what’s playing out on screen cinematography from Glen MacPherson (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter). The film is largely washed out in a sepia tone that isn’t very visually appealing.

Jovovich speaks in a breathy tone throughout perhaps in an effort to give her best impersonation of a witch. Otherwise, she offers a largely vacant stare as if her eyes were glazed over trying to make sense of the script. Bautista is an actor who is always game to keep working to improve his craft. In the Lost Lands is not the kind of film that can offer any worthwhile lessons he can take much from beyond what kind of apocalyptic fantasy sci-fi films to avoid.

With a two-member party there’s not much suspense to be had during the action scenes. To accommodate that, Anderson and Werner throw a mild twist in the final act. It addresses plenty of subplots but is executed in a clumsy manner that is less interesting and more eye-rolling. This twist is goofy enough that it ruins whatever goofy fun existed.

In the Lost Lands is a slog to get through as it’s just not a fun adventure with its flat characters and lousy action. There’s bound to be something more engaging even in the dreck of streaming platforms than one that might snag some viewers’ attention due to its star power.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Photo Credit: Constantin Films

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