Customer Reviews

In the Name of the King - A Dungeon Siege Tale (Two Disc Special Edition)

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If you're looking for a review about the movie itself, go to the standard release page; this is merely a critique on the two-disc special edition...which, I'm sorry to say, is not special enough to save the movie if you didn't like it in the first place.

The only reason you have to buy this Canadian-exclusive release is for the special features. The 165-minute director's cut promised by director Uwe Boll is available on DVD only in overseas countries and on the Blu-ray release of the movie; this edition contains the exact same cut of the movie as the regular release. The special features aren't anything worth paying extra for, so I suggest you only buy this here if you can get it cheap. On the second disc, you get 1) an 18-minute making-of featurette (not featured on the regular release), 2) 16 minutes of deleted scenes and extended footage (these are already on the regular release), 3) free digital download of the movie, 4) a downloadable demo of the Dungeon Siege 2 PC game, 5) previews and trailers, and 6) an unnecessary and unexceptional photo gallery.

Unless you want the movie on your mp3 player for potentially less than demanded by online sites, the only noteworthy addition is the making-of clip, which is only moderately insightful as to how the movie was made but still good for a few laughs. It's basically Boll and the performers telling you how great the movie is going to be: Brian "Tarish" White claims that people were actually competing for the opportunity to work on the flick, Ray "Gallian" Liotta says that he couldn't relate to his character at all and therefore had to rely entirely on actual acting ability, Jason "Farmer" Statham proudly claims that he did his own stunts (not entirely true), and Boll reiterates that you're foolish to expect a movie adaptation to actually follow the game it's based on (but Claire "Solana" Forlani is confident that gamers will still like the movie because of the Krug and fighting). To his credit, Boll lauds his actors, speaks highly of action choreographer Tony Ching's contributions, and explains his reasoning behind the claustrophobically-shot battles.

I don't imagine there's too many of them, but for actual fans of the movie, this "special" edition is a bit of a rip-off, seeing as they'll still need to buy another version of the movie to get the full nine yards out it. Nevertheless, in a pinch, for those who haven't seen the movie at all and are open to potential disappointment, I suggest you buy this version if you can find it cheap and don't live in Europe or own a Blu-ray player, since it's still marginally more satisfying than the standard release.