A World of Worlds (2020)

 

When an evil warlock conquers her magical planet, Commander Sofia Hayden sets out to find the legendary "Royal Four" in order to take it back.  Travelling to Earth, she finds Eric Wilson, who may be the reincarnation of King Zahyian Crehin, and the first of the Four.  Unfortunately, Eric has no idea what she is talking about, and even less interest in being dragged into some kind of magical war.

A World of Worlds began as a series of four 'episodes', which basically covered the plot outlined above.  This 'movie' (it's actually about fifty minutes of new content, followed by the original 'episode 1' to take it up to around 75 in total) follows on from that.  I'm not going to summarise its plotline any further since whatever I write would make it sound far more coherent than the disjointed series of vignettes that actually comprise the film.

To get the basics out of the way up front: this is a bad film.  The acting varies from poor to dire.  The script mostly consists of characters yelling exposition at one another before engaging in badly choreographed fights.  Characters appear and disappear from the narrative with about as much logic as in Tommy Wiseau's The Room.  The effects are bargain basement stuff.  It ends - after only fifty minutes, remember - on a transparent cliffhanger for the next film, and is in no way a complete work on its own.  There's really nothing to recommend it as a work of entertainment.

Which is something of a shame, since as far as I can tell, this is a genuine passion project for the creator, Barry Gaines.  If you look up the full credits for A World of Worlds on IMDB, you will find Mr Gaines's name appearing no less than eight times.  He produced, directed, wrote, shot, edited and cast the film, as well as coordinating the stunts and appearing  on screen in a minor role.  He clearly worked long and hard to turn his creative vision into a sort-of film, and he has since managed to produce a sequel (A World of Worlds: Rise of the King).  I admire this dedication, and I wish it had resulted in a film I could genuinely praise.  Alas, it most definitely does not.