It’s the return of the Boll, as well as Mad Man Purcell, as Direct to DVD Dissection looks at another release from the most notorious filmmaker from Germany. This time, it’s a sequel that features time travel, dragons, and a desire to know what the point of the film is.
And what ever happened to DUNGEON SIEGE?
The Story
An modern-day assassin, wanting out, is hired for one final job – to kidnap the kids of a local businessman. Things go haywire when it turns out he’s chosen to return to the Middle Ages and bring back order to a kingdom in chaos.
The Cast
Dominic Purcell as Hazen Kaine. A hitman with a dark past who is sent on one more mission, and winds up discovering himself sent back to the past, and he finds it very…..annoying.
Ralitsa Paskaleva as Arabella. One of the two princesses of the kingdom, deposed due to the betrayal of Uncle Tervin. She seeks revenge for her family’s honor.
Nikolai Sotirov as Tybalt. The uncle of the princesses, who helps to lead the rebellion against the evil king and his rule and seeks to take down his traitorous brother. Not related to the much more notable Shakespeare character.
Marian Valev as Tervin and Ayavlo. Tervin is the leader of the kingdom, with no remorse in killing people who fail to do his work, and Ayavlo is the boss of Kaine, who gives him his mission that sets of the series of events in the film. Aside from the same actor, though, there’s no real connection to them.
The Dissection
Another Boll franchise finally hits the trilogy landmark, with BLOODRAYNE being the first. It was originally released as an adaptation of the PC game series DUNGEON SIEGE, and was Uwe Boll’s biggest theatrical bomb released. However, it somehow warranted a sequel, dropping the game story and featuring a time travel plot instead, as well as placing Dolph Lundgren in the lead role. The results were actually decent, and this caused Boll to go back to that well with this film that he intended to be bigger and better.
The results for this, however, are more of a giant leap backward.
Hazen (Purcell), as he is in the beginning, the middle, the end, and pretty much the entire movie.
The biggest issue in this movie lies with that fact that the main character is not likeable. The first act of the movie paints Purcell’s Hazen in the worst light, as he’s seen mowing down a group of guards and assassinating someone, stealing from them, and the plot of the film kicks off by him being involved in kidnapping the daughters of an affluent family, hurting them and locking them in a giant freight container. That on its own is not the real issue; as it leads on to believe that this trip into the past will lead him to seeking redemption of his soul and a revelation to change him for the better. And that is what the movie is trying to push by the end of the movie. But the problem is that what Hazen is in the start of the movie, he’s pretty much the same character in the last part of the movie. The only change is that the people who were his friends at the start suddenly want him dead later on, for no reason. So, you have someone acting like a boulder throughout pretty much the entire movie, and someone had the wise idea to have him do scenes where he has to emote without emoting. There’s a love scene that not only comes out of nowhere and has no real build to it, it honestly has zero chemistry and zero impact. It’s the same with scenes of drama or sensitivity, and in situations with the movie trying to show remorse in him, and failing tremendously. The only emotion that Hazen seems to have in the film is a sense of annoyance at every aspect of his situation. Sure, it’s in character for him, but it does not make for an interesting movie, nor an engaging protagonist.
But that’s just the tip of the mountain range that makes up the problems of this film. The entire production feels like a step down from the last film, and that was kind of a big step down previously compared to the first film. Some areas look recycled and the visuals look the same, no matter the location. It’s very scaled down, and it ties in with the cast. For the most part, they don’t stand out, have poor or no direction, and are just non factors by the end of the film. The villain himself shows up in two roles, and neither role has any depth or gives any reason to want to see his downfall. And then there’s the plot. The movie has a plot that is both pointless by the end of it, but does enough to just flip off all sense of logic and reason. Both the modern story plot and the medieval story plot just end in possibly the most insulting ways, not only for the audience, but for the characters. The supporting characters, Arabella especially, are built up in the course of the film as demanding vengeance for the crimes of the baddies, but by the end, they either end up looking like shmucks or disappear. And the last 5 minutes of the film contain some of the stupidest sequence of events that occurred in a film.
Apparently, a Stormcloak is about to be beheaded by a Legion executioner.
Overall, it just seems like no one cared about this. This felt less like a story someone wanted to tell, and more like a job. And the dumbest thing is that the story itself can actually lead to some interesting scenes and can bring something entertaining. Having someone like Haken, who is ruthless and this overall villainous character thrust into a role of being a hero and savior opens up a ton of possibilities, from the action and contrasting the battle tactics of someone like him versus someone in medieval times, and even the interactions with the villain and this sense of the rest of the heroes being able to trust Haken fully. Those elements are in the film, but they lead to nothing here. It’s honestly the film’s worst feature, which has this entire interesting element to it from the start, and the film absolutely refuses to capitalize on it.
The movie’s main centerpiece when it comes to extras is a behind the scenes feature about the making on the movie, along with a few trailers for other movies. Nothing much to mention, except that the movie that the cast and crew are describing in no way, shape, or form really matches with whatever is on screen. Also, there’s a not too subtle burying of everyone in the last film. Pretty ignorant talk after a viewing of the “bigger and better” film on this disc.
The Verdict
Dominic Purcell has done better than this, like with PRISON BREAK, and JOHN DOE. Same with Uwe Boll, believe it or not, with RAMPAGE. Heck, Boll and Purcell have done better work before, with ASSAULT ON WALL STREET. This film, though, is not just a toss away movie, it’s really one with no point, no reason for its existence.