After the gonzo epicness of Uwe Boll's first In The Name Of The King movie, the sequel, Two Worlds, is a strangely low-key affair (presumably for budgetary reasons).
Ex-special forces officer Granger (Dolph Lundgren) is whisked away from our world to the war-torn Kingdom of Ehb (where the original film took place) by the sorceress Elianna (Natalia Guslistaya).
Time has moved on since the first movie, Farmer is dead and a new king sits on the throne, Raven (Lochlyn Munro). He needs Granger to fulfil his role in a prophecy and slay the leader of his enemies, The Dark Ones.
Accompanied by the court physician, Manhatten (Natassia Malthe) and a small detachment of soldiers, Granger heads off into the wilderness to assassinate The Holy Mother (Christina Jastrzembska) - belatedly finding out everything isn't quite what it seems.
Two Worlds is an enjoyable, if not wholly original, romp that doesn't overdo the "fish-out-of-water" shtick (Granger actually adapts to his new situation very quickly, although never makes any effort to blend in with the locals).
Hampered by an unnecessary, and thankfully infrequently used, voice-over from Lundgren (which I mistakenly took at first as the 'audio description track' as it was just telling me what I was seeing on the screen) and odd lines of clunky dialogue, Two Worlds nevertheless reinforces my belief that the fantasy genre is the much maligned Uwe Boll's strongest.
There's also a sad lack of monsters (only one - a CGI dragon - makes an appearance) and The Dark One's costumes are remarkably unremarkable, little more than fancy dress ninja suits.
While the "earth-man saves alien world" aspect works surprisingly well with the clever plot twists sown into the story, and the ending is clearly left open for a sequel (it was very John Carter-esque in that sense), I hope that when Uwe returned to this well for a third time in 2014 the next In The Name Of The King movie - this time with Dominic Purcell headlining - would be more akin to the original.
Two Worlds is fun but reminiscent of so many other low-budget fantasy flicks, while the first film at least had a flair of eccentric exuberance about it.
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