Runtime: 108 minutes
Director: Anne Black
Starring: Melanie Stone, Kevin Sorbo, Adam Johnson
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Final Score: 8.5/10
Summary
When a powerful relic is stolen, Marek and her friends face a sinister new enemy: Kishkumen, a foreign mystic bent on reclaiming the Darkspore for his master Szorlok. Armed with twin maps, Marek and her team race Kishkumen and his horde through creature-infested lands, to a long-abandoned underground city – all the while pursued by bounty hunters intent on returning Marek to slavery. A nonstop adventure that continues the Mythica epic.
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Story
The movie starts off quickly. We are given a couple of scenes to set up the plot of the movie, as well a flashback that tells some of the history of the world. Then the heroes are off on another adventure. The plot is still simple, but some mysteries from the first film are answered this time, but also leave more mysteries behind. And while some parts of the story are tied up at the end, it’s not all good for the heroes.
Score: 1/1
Characters
The group is back again, and this time they get new friends. Conflicts arise among the party and it adds much to the characters. They all have different reasons for being there, and they don’t always line up. Marek has some personal conflicts with herself that she must fight too. We don’t spend a lot of time with supporting characters, but some of the more central of them are given scenes to explore their relationship with the party.
Score: 1/1
Romance
Love triangles are polarizing aspects to have in romance. It drives conflict and forces characters to identify their feelings. Some people don’t like them, but some people love them. This triangle had a comedic feel to it, as opposed to a dramatic one. It has some good moments, but isn’t given enough time to develop, and it does end with the movie. Unfortunately, the triangle doesn’t really help the original characters in that relationship get any closer. The second relationship is finally official. It’s not given many scenes, but each scene only moves the relationship forward instead of back.
Score: .5/1
Dialogue
Now that the world is at stake we can get suitably epic lines from our characters. It may be cheesy, but that’s just what the movie needed. And we are told more of the history of the world so there is more exposition here, although it is layered with flashbacks. There is also an uptick in usage for was seems to be the native curses. It’s not too distracting, it’s just something that stuck out. There are still a couple of lines that feel modern and they stick out as well.
Score: 1/1
Action
The fighting has some ups and downs. Overall its well done, besides cutting away with the edits. The problem this movie had was the larger fight scenes. Its supposed to be an homage to RPGs, so having five characters fighting off an army is expected. This doesn’t help with the pacing of the fighting though. They stop the fights to have characters make quips and give the villain time to speak. It ends up just slowing the fight down and destroying any tension that had been built.
Score: .5/1
Music
Overall the music fits the theme of the movie very well. The only place that it sticks out a little is during the chase scenes. It is not as bad in this movie as it is in the first one, but it is still noticeable.
Score: 1/1
Set Design
Most of the movie takes place outside of any city or town. What buildings that are shown in the movie are great and capture the medieval/fantasy feel. But the landscapes are where they spend most of the movie are great. The locations are not bright and give a desolate, wild look to the film. There are multiple traveling montages and the locations help give a sense of adventure.
Score: 1/1
Costumes
The costumes in this movie are great. The design looks great and look well made. Everything about them contributes to the fantasy theme. One downside are the costumes for the evil lackeys. Maybe they were going for thrown together outfits, but they just don’t look as good as everyone else’s costumes. The main character also wears a jacket occasionally that looks like a motorcycle jacket.
Score: 1/1
Special Effects
There are spells being used constantly throughout the movie. The effects are not perfect, but none of it is bad enough to break immersion. The dragon is many times better than the ogre from the first movie. That’s not to say its perfect by any means, but it is not the worst in a feature film by a long shot. The non-humans are back, and they still look great.
Score: .5/1
Tone
While there are some slower moments in the movie, most of the scenes are upbeat, funny and adventurous. This gives the movie an energy that is fun to watch. The slow moments are used to give some humanity to the movie and deepen the characters personalities and helps keep the action from becoming the focus.
Score: 1/1
Sword and Cinema 