Title – In The Lost Lands (2025)

Director – Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil)

Cast – Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista, Arly Jover, Fraser James

Plot – Earth has been turned into a desolate and dangerous dystopian wasteland known only as The Lost Lands. In this unforgiving landscape witch Gray Alys (Jovovich) and hunter Boyce (Bautista) team up to wonder the lands in hope of overthrowing the violent dictatorship that has control over the population.  

“I refuse no one”

Review by Eddie on 17/04/2025

You’d be forgiven for not even knowing Paul W.S. Anderson’s latest collaboration with his long-term wife and creative muse Milla Jovovich In the Lost Lands even exists, it certainly appears as though most of the world is in the same boat.

Sporting a budget that’s reported to be close to $60 million dollars (not including marketing), Lands was released with 0 fanfare or support toward the end of February on its way to making a paltry sub $5 million dollars at the worldwide box office.

I recall being personally staggered that days after the film hit cinema screens in markets around Europe and Australia that there were still no reviews to be found for Anderson’s latest attack on our senses and sensibilities but having now had a chance to catch up on the film that came and went in a flash, it’s not hard to see why this film has been buried before it even had a chance to live.

A loose adaptation of a George R. R. Martin short story, Lands is a fantasy adventure/action hybrid that for all intents and purposes should be a highly entertaining B-movie with cult movie favourite ambitions but Anderson and his lead performers that includes Dave Bautista can’t help instil the film with any type of energy or enthusiasm, creating a convoluted watching experience that is neither enjoyable or comprehensible.

Outside of its poorly scripted events or designed delivery is what I would be happy to call one of the most downright ugly and horrific visual experiences I have witnessed in the modern era.

Like Anderson has combined all the worst things of an over computer generated Zack Snyder film and the lens flare love of a J.J Abrams event picture, Lands is brutally and undeniably hard to look at from an aesthetic point of view and it’s hard to fathom that a significant budget of $50 plus million would only buy you a film that looks like it’s been finished in post by a high-school student meddling in a computer program they’ve only just become acquainted with.

Every set piece and location appears as though it features its main cast in front of a green screen and there are multiple scenes where it actually looks like its cast aren’t even real and have been augmented into the scene by poorly rendered CGI, it’s truly hard to describe just how bad Lands looks from a visual standpoint and even if the films incredibly loaded collection of ideas managed to gel together more cohesively, there would have always been a huge mountain to climb for viewers to accept its ugliness and blandness from a production point of view.

Building his long-standing career from making films that are designed purely to be enjoyed by forgiving audiences and torn apart by critics, Lands is a new low for Anderson who has on the back of this effort and the slightly better but instantly forgettable Monster Hunter lost the little creative spark he once had.

Likely to disappear into the cinematic wasteland as quickly as it came into the world, Lands is best left avoided if you wish to stay awake or keep your eyesight in tact from the visual horrors on display.

Final Say –

Equivalent to what you’d expect from a prime Uwe Boll offering, Paul W.S. Anderson and his ever willing wife combine forces to give us their worst collaboration yet, an incredibly ugly and convoluted mess that misfires all of its shots.

1/2 a snake gun out of 5