The mundane retelling of an implausible true story declares itself ruler of a foreign land on streaming

There’s no way any screenwriter could have made up the tale of James Brooke, which becomes crushingly ironic when you sit through the uninvolving Edge of the World and realize that the people tasked to retell the incredible true story somehow conspired to waste its undoubted cinematic potential.

Brooke was a former soldier in the Bengal Army who set sail to Borneo in 1839, where he lent assistance to a local governor in putting down a rebellion. From there, he ended up taking over as governor after declaring himself the ruler of his own private kingdom, earning him the title of the Rajah of Sarawak.

He ended up being knighted by Queen Victoria, became appointed as the governor of yet another new colony, leaving behind a dynasty that spanned multiple generations and remained intact for most of a century, all while facing accusations of piracy and murder along the way. Old-fashioned historical epics are always worth a watch when done right, but Edge of the World fell flat.

Then again, seeing as it’s ended up as one of the most-watched features on Prime Video this week after FlixPatrol revealed it to be a Top 10 hit in 14 countries, subscribers aren’t paying any heed to lukewarm Rotten Tomatoes scores of 56 and 41 percent. It’s not an awful movie by any stretch of the imagination, but given the fascinating figure who anchors the real-life narrative, it should have turned out a lot better than it did because all the pieces were right there.