🎬 IN THE LOST LANDS (2025)

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista, Arly Jover
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Genre: Action / Fantasy / Adventure / Post-Apocalyptic

🔥 Review

In the Lost Lands (2025) sets out as an ambitious mash-up of genre elements—fantasy, post-apocalypse, western, and dark magic—but ultimately struggles to weave them into a compelling whole. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich as the witch Gray Alys and Dave Bautista as her reluctant guide Boyce, the film has flashes of visual ambition and interesting ideas, but the execution falls short of its potential.

The story follows Gray Alys, a powerful sorceress tasked by a desperate queen with retrieving a magical boon in the dangerous Lost Lands, a ghostly and hostile wilderness full of cults, monsters, and shifting alliances. Alys enlists Boyce’s help, and together they face both supernatural threats and human zealots.

Dave Bautista brings emotional anchor and rugged screen presence to Boyce, a character with secrets and surprising depth. He commits fully to the physicality and moral ambiguity of his role. Meanwhile, Milla Jovovich aims for a mysterious and serious Gray Alys, but her performance often feels stiff and under-utilized, with little chemistry between the leads.

Visually, the film emphasizes a desolate, CGI-heavy wasteland that aims for epic scope but often feels flat and artificial, pulling viewers out of moments meant to be immersive. The world-building—mixing dystopia and fantasy—is confusing and rarely pays off with emotional or narrative clarity.

Action sequences include hunts, battles with zealots, and magical set pieces, but they lack the energy or tactical choreography to feel truly exciting. The screenplay’s exposition and dialogue are frequently described as blunt or unengaging, which makes it hard to care about the stakes.

Critics were mostly unimpressed; the film holds a low 24 % Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviews pointing to uninspiring writing, uneven tone, and underwhelming visual design.

📝 Quick Verdict

✔ Interesting premise adapted from George R.R. Martin’s short story
✔ Dave Bautista is committed and charismatic
✔ Occasional visually striking shots and fantasy ideas

In the Lost Lands aims for mythic adventure and post-apocalyptic fantasy, but its scattered narrative, hollow world-building, and tonal inconsistency make it an uneven and forgettable ride—entertaining only sporadically and mostly for fans of dictionary-defined “so bad it’s interesting” genre films.