Mythica : La Nécromancienne

First-off I wanted to give a warning. The ratings suddenly exploded over night with 500 new 10 star ratings and the rating jumped from 6 to 9 stars. Seems a bit suspicious if you ask me.

That said, this film is like a filler episode in the Mythica story. Nothing much happens to progress the story. A bit cool dialogue and a new character keep it somewhat interesting. The fighting scenes and the new quest are far inferior though to the previous film - and this, plus the filler story, is why I didn't enjoy it as much.

If you want to continue following the Mythica universe, you should still watch it, but lower your expectations and don't expect as good a film as the previous one! I think it's justified to call this a filler episode - keep this in mind and you are good to go.

I enjoyed watching Mythica: The Necromancer. It escalates the conflict between the forces of good and evil nicely, and it develops the relationships between the characters quite well too. I thought the story was interesting and I did like the new evil character the team has to work with for most of the film. Szorlok finally makes an appearance too.

The negatives are not very many. There were a few story elements that seemed to be taken from The Empire Strikes Back. It hadn't occurred to me before but the comparison seems obvious now. Gojun is Obi-Wan. Marek is Luke, etc. Although I'm taken with Mythica, it's not in the same league as Star Wars. I always seem to find something I'm not entirely happy with in scenes involving Gojun and Marek, the same was true in this one too. The theme song didn't work for me this time either. It's great when they are singing it in Hammerheads near the start of the film but the version at the end feels very flat. It needs to be much more upbeat!

And so the saga continues - a saga I thoroughly enjoy for its beautiful locations and the adrenaline of adventure with obstacles thrown in around every corner. The photography and visuals seem to get better as the series continues. I did miss Adam Johnson (who plays Thane) during the action sequences, due to him being captured in the beginning of the film, and the film is actually a quest to save him. A very determined character, Betylla, is introduced in this film, wonderfully portrayed by Philip Brodie. The evil inside Marek surfaces more regularly as the series continues, again very well played by Melanie Stone.

This was yet another great action adventure film.

The first two Mythica films may have been cheesy low budget nonsense but they were enjoyable cheesy low budget nonsense.

But now they've brought in a new director who has managed to remove the all important enjoyable bit.

The guy has one trick, one single trick that he does over and over again and it goes like this...slow motion, suddenly fast motion, now slow motion again. And it happens all the time. Even just walking about among some trees or something people start slowing down then suddenly briefly speeding up for no reason at all. After about the 7000'th time this happens you just have to start laughing. I don't know, maybe his editing machine is broken or something but it certainly made this instalment of the Mythica series a chore to sit through. He better cut it out with the next one.

When I picked up this DVD for £3 at my local supermarket, I knew I was in for a classic tale of mediocrity, sub par effects, and budget filmmaking.

I was not disappointed.

Acting: I've never seen death and hardship be portrayed in such a dead-pan and wooden manner. Thane's character was under-utilised as his screen presence was quite strong. The bad guys did a good job, but sometimes their writing wasn't believable - for example one of them seemed to be a really bad guy at times, but seemed to develop a kind of stockholm syndrome with the good guys, and this betrayed not only his character but the sense of antagonism and tension within the main 'party' of characters.

Story: A good overall storyline, actually very well paced. Ultimately, the fact that I watched the film in windowed mode while playing Guild Wars 2 speaks volumes about my interest in the on screen action. The introduction was very disappointing as nothing much really happened.

Visual effects: Obviously this is not a huge budget blockbuster, and so the effects are going to reflect this. Still, there was some skilled camera-work which helped mask some of the rougher edges.

Music and Sound: Unfortunately one of the weaker points of the movie. Some of the synthesised effects were very out of place for this genre of film. Also, for the first half there is this unusual helicopter synth sound that is pretty intrusive and goes on for several minutes. I don't know how this sound effect is at all related to progressing the narrative or reflecting the on screen action, it only served as an annoyance.

Conclusion: Why not? Just don't pay top dollar for it.

Also, that one 10 star review on here is obviously fake, right? I mean it has to be fake.