Legendary Pictures: In the Name of the King, The Almost Zelda Movie

When it comes to movies with a sense of Zelda built into them, one of the first, and worst, that comes to mind is 2007’s In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Directed by Uwe Boll, this infamous titan of video game movie adaptations created something that was uniquely based off another series entirely (the Dungeon Siege games) but just as easily could have been The Legend of Zelda: The Movie with a few name changes.

What is In the Name of the King?

There is so much to this movie; I’m not even sure where to begin.

First of all, the cast is absolutely loaded with stars: Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew Lillard, Ray Liotta, and even Burt Reynolds as the King. Academy Award winners, action film stars, and cultural icons come together in a way that makes you wonder what sort of dirt they were trying to hide by agreeing to do this movie.

The story on the other hand is somehow so simple, yet so convoluted that it gets lost. Essentially, the King’s nephew wants the throne and works with a dark magician to steal said throne. Classic fantasy action ensues, an unlikely hero rises, an epic clash occurs, and the good guys win in the end. It’s a very standard fantasy tale. However, much of that story is told through two hours of cringey dialogue, unnecessary additional characters, and what I can only assume were nods to the source material.

The costumes and general aesthetic were good… if they had come a whole decade earlier. In a movie made a full four years after Return of the King was in theaters — a film that revolutionized special effects and brought believable fantasy creatures to life — In the Name of the King‘s mindless monster brigade, the Krugs, look like rejected 1960’s Star Trek baddies. Ray Liotta’s evil wizard character has two costumes in the movie, a blue dinner jacket from your local Renaissance Faire and a black leather overcoat left over from your Matrix-themed Halloween party. And then there’s the CGI backdrops which are especially bad in any scene where the castle shows up (though there are some genuinely nice shots in the beginning around the small seaside town).

All in all, In the Name of the King is your typical, terrible two-hour-plus video game adaptation that we all wish didn’t exist, but are also so infinitely happy it does. I love this movie. I think it’s a masterpiece of terrible in all the perfect ways, and if you’ve got a few hours to waste on this, by all means strap in and suffer.

So Where’s the Zelda?

Now, this is where the movie really does shine. Jason Statham plays Farmer in the film; and at the start, he’s doing just that: farming. He has a wife and son, and lives a peaceful life away from the hustle and bustle of whatever major town or city is nearby. When trouble starts brewing though, we get our first glimpse of Link-er… I mean Farmer in action. Krug attack his farm en route to burning and pillaging the nearby settlement, and he fights them off with a combination of awesome Statham-esque hand-to-hand fighting and boomerang hurling. That’s right. A boomerang capable of mowing down multiple enemies and swinging back around to our hero’s hand.

Another aspect of the film that just straight up screams Zelda is the motto that Farmer carries with him. Farmer tells his son very early in the movie that “courage never fails.” And this mantra comes up again later by the King himself, who adds, “wisdom is our hammer.” Well right there, we’ve got our hero bearing courage and a member of the royal family bearing wisdom. Combine that with the main bad guy being obsessed with power, and we’ve got ourselves a perfect little Triforce. While there’s no Princess of Destiny to carry the Triforce of Wisdom into the final clash, the daughter of the King’s head Wizard does join in the fight using her own magic, so that sort of works.

Lastly, let’s talk about the forest. While magic forests and enchanted woods are a staple of pretty much all fantasy settings, its worth mentioning the forest in this film as well. Inhabited by some Cirque de Soleil-like forest women, the heroes travel through this wood on a few occasions. One of them talks about the dangers of getting lost in there and of rumors regarding ghosts. That sounds a lot like the Lost Woods and the various mysteries surrounding them.

Conclusions

There is a serious spirit of Zelda alive in this movie, and it shines brightest when Farmer is being his most Link-like. From hurling boomerangs that are as OP as the original Link’s Awakening weapon, to the unmistakable connections to the Triforce, and finally the standard staples of the fantasy genre that just mirror Hyrule too well, this movie is, even with its B-movie charm, absolutely Zelda at the movies.

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David Wayne Nystrom is a Staff Writer for Zelda Dungeon. His top three Zelda games are Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Link’s Awakening. He likes playing games like Smash and RPGs like Final Fantasy.