Mythica: The Darkspore

MYTHICA: THE DARKSPORE is the second film in the indie fantasy series that was funded independently via a Kickstarter campaign. You do wonder why they bothered when all the filmmakers seem interested in doing is making yet another LORD OF THE RINGS clone that heavily copies the Tolkien classic. This one is very close to THE TWO TOWERS in its depiction of a band of raiding orcs riding around the plains and slaying victims. The film as a whole looks quite nice and the effects are okay, but the story is A-Z basic and it lacks the professional touch to make it decent.

I was a bit disappointed with Mythica: The Darkspore at first. I thought the beginning didn't make much sense. Caeryn is murdered almost immediately and the party splits up leaving two of them behind at the inn. Marek then has some dialog with Gojun who talks about men and power several times. It was a perfect opportunity for Marek to point out that she wasn't a man but the writers didn't take it. At the very least, Gojun could have acknowledged that Marek was a woman! The party eventually regroup and head off on their travels again but it is slow going. There are one or two redeeming parts later though, and I've given Mythica: The Darkspore a decent score because of that.

This is wholly a spoiler, because as far as this kind of movie goes, the acting and dialogue was fine. I give the 2 stars for that. And what has been said about the sets, effects and fights has already been said. So here is my gripe, and the spoiler: The tag line is: "Marek and her company must go on a journey and prevent Szorlok from obtaining all the shards of the Darkspore, or all will be lost." So what happened? The 'heroes' give the Darkspore to Szorlock, and therefore, surely, all is lost? But no - they head off on another adventure. Wait - you haven't finished this one yet! Come back! The evil wizard has the most powerful artefact in the world and doom will befall all, and you've already forgotten what an utter balls-up you've made of everything... Actually, on second thoughts - don't come back.

I hadn't seen the first one, before I watched this, so I might have missed a couple of jokes or references to the first movie, but overall it worked even without the knowledge of it. It's not an acting masterpiece or a masterpiece in general, but it does what a low budget fantasy movie is supposed to do. Some of the effects are really bad, but you can deal with it, if you want to. The stunts are decent enough for the size and budget this movie probably had and if you like what you saw here (and maybe the previous one), you will be happy to hear, there is another one coming in 2016 to conclude the trilogy ...