Parents' Guide to In the Lost Lands

Based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, this bloody sci-fi fantasy has some good twists and a nifty ending, but the bulk of it is unforgivably awkward, wooden, and slapdash. The seventh movie from the husband and wife team of director Paul W.S. Anderson and actor Jovovich (their first was Resident Evil; they married in 2009), In the Lost Lands could have been a cool movie, coming from the creator of Game of Thrones. And it gets off to a good start, with Bautista, dressed like a futuristic cowboy, promising to tell us a story with magic, witches, quests, and monsters.

But it's not long before the clunky dialogue kicks in, with characters explaining everything about this dystopia to one another and talking like robots in a 1950s pulp magazine. (Jovovich is probably used to this kind of thing, but Bautista occasionally looks quite uncomfortable.) Every so often, characters have to fight evil skeletons or The Enforcer's disposable minions, and it's all a smeary blur, with rubbery digital effects getting in the way of any kind of real thrills. (Although one sequence, in which the heroes try to evade The Enforcer in an aerial tram over a huge gorge, is actually pretty gripping.) And, Martin's story elements aside, the movie takes a few clunky logic leaps to get to its conclusion. It's possible that there's enough good stuff here that In the Lost Lands will find some fans, but for most viewers, the bad will far outweigh the good.