Mythica: The Darkspore

Because it's a continuation movie, it lacks the "newness" factor that always gives the first in any series a boost.

For those who enjoyed the first of the set, it's certainly worth seeing this second one too - it's an enjoyable watch with its own story, and it has a few surprises. The characters work well and have their own personalities that all get a chance to properly take their part in the story.

For those who have not seen the first, I would recommend watching them in order, beginning with the first.

The party continues on their quest, this time helped by a dark elf with mysterious markings, while a warlock is trying to beat them to their goal. Unfortunately, it seemed like the makers made a lot less effort for this film, especially in the areas of character interaction and storyline. That's unfortunate, especially since I loved A Quest for Heroes.

Some commentators focused on the quality of the special effects. I don't care about those, but this is an indicator that those people didn't feel the characters were important or the story inspiring, and that is on the script writer. If the story is great and the characterization well done, no one looks twice on the special effects. I think that, while I still enjoyed the film, more effort should be made to make the viewers feel with the characters in a story that one could believe in.

Bottom line: fun film, really inconsistent characters, jumping from love to hate on a whim, and a disappointing and rushed ending that made little sense. I hope the next part will be more engaging.

RELEASED IN 2015 and directed by Anne K. Black, "Mythica: The Darkspore" is the second film in the five-film fantasy/adventure series about a limping servant girl with blossoming magical powers named Merek (Melanie Stone), who teams-up with a heroic warrior, Thane (Adam Johnson), a miscreant lothario, Dagen (Jake Stormoen), a priestess, Teela (Nicola Posener), and a hunky elf, Qole (Rocky Myers), for a journey to obtain all the shards of the Darkspore to keep it from the diabolical Szorlok (Matthew Mercer). Kevin Sorbo has a cameo.

The story takes place in an adventurous Medieval-like world where sorcery, elves, orcs, dragons and other fantasy creatures are real. If you like The Lord of the Rings, D&D, Warcraft, Conan or Sinbad you'll probably like the Mythica franchise. These movies were partly funded by a Kickstarter campaign with all the movies costing less than $100,000, except the fifth and final one. The first movie, "A Quest for Heroes," cost $94,294 while this sequel cost $81,099. The production quality is incredible for such meager budgets, particularly if you're familiar with micro-budget productions. The Mythica films are basically just as good production-wise as "Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God" (2005), a TV movie that cost a whopping $15 million (for a TV flick, that is).

"The Darkspore" is disappointing in comparison to the dynamic first film, in particular the first half where the transition from "A Quest for Heroes" is clumsy and unexciting. Thankfully, things perk up in the second half and make up for the weak first act, especially a fight with a dragon in the desert. In any case, be sure to see "A Quest for Heroes" before viewing this one.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 47 minutes. WRITERS: Anne K. Black, Jason Faller and Kynan Griffin.

GRADE: B-

This film, the second in a three part series, was very well-done and enjoyable. I thought the character development in the first would have done well to continue in the second but there seems to be a disconnect in the relationships amongst the main characters that should not have existed based on the limited information that everybody had - especially at the beginning. Still, overall, a good product but just a tick less than the previous installment. Great acting, good storyline, sub-par CG/special effects (which is to be expected). ARROWSTORM knows how to make really good B movies. Now they have a good enough reputation that I am going to look up by production company to see what else they've put out. Enjoy this most recent installment of Mythica and we all await, Mythica: Necromancer (out this year, 2015, according to IMDb.com). This movie rates better than a 4.1 which shows as of the time I am writing this review. Get out of the visual dependency on high-end CG/special effects and enjoy these good stories for what they are... good stories. Be entertained, folks!

It's not necessary to mention the terrible use of CG (most of which could have been done with cheaper, more realistic non computer effects), because that's not really where this movie can use improvement.

While the acting is mostly good, the script is very weak. Character interactions are awkward. Their relationship seem forced, like there doesn't really look like there's enough motivation for them to stay together. The fighting scenes are really badly coordinated. With that same group and just a bit of tactics, victory would come easy (at least to enemies shown) but instead everyone fights like if they were drunk or disabled somehow; so whenever the heroes are defeated, being in good condition, it is not believable. Also, all heroes are unremarkable: the warrior is not a great fighter, the wizard cast magic sparingly or waits the worst moments to do so, the "thief" is not really stealthy or that quick on the feet, and the priest has no real divine magic or combat power (despite "being trained in combat", see the first part).

Also the name/title of the enemy seemed like inspired from a video game, thus awkward and forced... the ending felt forced as well.

In the end, unless they improve script and character development and interaction, not even "Hercules" can save this movie series...