In the Lost Lands

If you told me ten years ago that the guy who directed Mortal Kombat and the woman who perfected the mid-air kick would still be making $50 million fantasy epics in the mid-2020s, I would have cheered. Yet, looking at the box office receipts for In the Lost Lands, it seems I might have been the only one in the theater. I actually watched this on a Tuesday afternoon while my neighbor was power-washing his driveway, and the rhythmic drone from outside synced up shockingly well with Paul Haslinger’s industrial, grinding score.

There is a specific, jagged comfort in a Paul W. S. Anderson film. He’s a director who has spent decades being the punching bag for "serious" critics while quietly building a filmography defined by high-contrast geometry and an unwavering devotion to his wife, Milla Jovovich. In In the Lost Lands, he trades the sleek steel of Resident Evil for the dusty, supernatural grit of a George R.R. Martin short story. The result is a "Weird Western" that feels like it was unearthed from a 1990s time capsule, despite utilizing the same cutting-edge virtual production tech that gave us The Mandalorian.

A Sorceress and a Drifter Walk Into a Bar

The setup is classic pulp: a Queen (Amara Okereke) wants the power of "shape-shifting," and she hires the most dangerous person she knows to find it. Enter Gray Alys, played by Milla Jovovich with a level of icy detachment that suggests she’s seen everything the multiverse has to offer and wasn't impressed by any of it. To get through the "Lost Lands," she needs a guide, and that’s where Boyce comes in.

Dave Bautista is, quite frankly, the best thing to happen to the Anderson-Jovovich cinematic universe. While Milla Jovovich handles the mystical heavy lifting—staring intensely into the middle distance while her hair blows in a magical breeze—Dave Bautista brings a soulful, weary physicality to Boyce. He’s a drifter who has clearly made some terrible life choices, and his chemistry with Alys is less "will-they-won't-they" and more "how-long-until-we-both-die."

The action choreography here is less about the "gun-kata" of the early 2000s and more about the heavy, impactful thud of a Western. When Boyce fights, you feel the weight of his movements. Anderson treats a green screen like a Renaissance painter treats a canvas—if that painter was also obsessed with slow-motion leather and symmetrical framing. There’s a sequence involving a "ghostly wilderness" that looks like a fever dream filtered through a heavy-metal album cover, and it’s easily the most visually inventive thing the director has done since Event Horizon.

The Fifty-Million-Dollar Ghost

Why did this film vanish? It’s a $55 million production that barely made a dent at the box office, becoming a "forgotten oddity" almost the second it stopped flickering on screens. In our current era of franchise fatigue, you’d think a standalone fantasy film based on the work of the Game of Thrones creator would be a slam dunk. But In the Lost Lands lacks the "meta" winking and irony that modern audiences seem to crave. It is a dead-serious, occasionally campy, and entirely sincere fantasy adventure.

The film suffered from a "quiet release" strategy that usually signals a studio losing its nerve. It’s a "theatrical-style" movie that felt lost in the streaming soup. Ironically, the virtual production techniques (using LED "Volumes" instead of traditional green screens) make the film look incredibly expensive and strangely claustrophobic at the same time. There’s a sense that Glen MacPherson’s cinematography is trying to break out of the digital walls, creating a visual tension that actually serves the "trapped in a wasteland" vibe of the plot. It's a movie that looks like a million bucks but feels like it was filmed in a very high-end garage.

Stuff You Didn't Notice

Interestingly, this project was in "development hell" for nearly a decade. At one point, it was set to be a much smaller production before Dave Bautista signed on and the budget ballooned. You can see the remnants of that smaller, weirder film in the script by Constantin Werner. The dialogue is sparse, often feeling like it was translated from an ancient rune, which fits the Western trope of the "Strong Silent Type" but might frustrate viewers looking for the political maneuvering of House of the Dragon.

Also, pay attention to the character of The Enforcer (Arly Jover). Her costume design is a masterclass in "fantasy-punk" aesthetic, blending leather-clad practicalism with some truly bizarre silhouettes. It’s these small, artisanal touches that make me wish more people had seen this on a big screen. It’s a film where the stunt performers were clearly told to ignore the laws of physics in favor of looking cool in a silhouette, and honestly, I respect that.

In the Lost Lands isn't going to change the face of cinema, nor is it the "next Game of Thrones." It is, however, a beautifully shot, weirdly earnest piece of pulp fantasy that showcases a director and his muse doing exactly what they love. It’s a film for people who miss when fantasy felt a little dangerous and a lot more eccentric. Seek it out if you’re tired of the same three superhero templates and want to see Dave Bautista fight a demon in a wasteland that shouldn't exist. It’s a flawed, fascinating ghost of a movie that deserves at least one more look before it’s truly lost to time.