Movie Review: Mythica: The Dark Spore

Mythica: The Dark Spore a.k.a Mythica 2: The Darkspore
Arrowstorm Entertainment, Camera 40 Productions, USA, 2015.

Adventures of wizardess Marek and her friends continue. Warrior Thane (Adam Johnson), half-elf thief Dagen (Jake Stormoen) and priestess Teela (Nicola Posener) are celebrating the victory of the previous quest but the feast turns into a wake. Teela's sister Caeryn (Natalie Devine Riskas) is murdered and everyone gets depressed. Thane starts drinking again, Dagen continues womanizing and Teela leaves. Marek sees terrible visions about evil necromancer Kishkumen (Ryan Palmer). Wizard Gojun (Kevin Sorbo) returns and tells that Marek is a necromancer too. The stone that the Priestess Sisters were protecting one part of the Dark Spore that the evil necromancer Szorlok (Matthew Mercer) seeks. Szorlok was beaten by Gojun and he is still weak but gains power with each fragment of Dark Spore he gets.

Szorlok

Kishkumen

To avenge Caeryn and stop necromancers destroying the world, the team packs up and travels to ruined city where the second fragment is hidden. Old enemies from the previous film, pimp and crime lord Peregus Malister (Robert Jayne) and Marek's former slave master Vagamal (Michael Flynn) plot together. Peregus sends female bounty hunters after her. They and angry fairies, orcs, swamp wights and a dragon make the life hard for the adventures. Marek's dark spells endanger the whole group's life and the team spirit is strained to the maximum. The only one who understands her is a rescued hunky dark elf Qole (Rocky Myers).

Thane, Teela, Marek, Dagen and Qole

Vagamal

Qole

The first "Mythica" was a fresh swords & sorcery adventure and the sequel is continuing the trend. The first film introduced the characters. In the second movie the adventure starts to gain epic momentum and the storyline gets darker undertones. Can Marek control her corrupting powers or will she become a servant of evil? The scene with the fairies is goofy but somehow it balances the darkness of the second half. The characters get more complex now and Melanie Stone's character Marek is spunky but like all his friends she has her internal struggles. Thane is honourable but hot tempered and drunkard, Dagen is a devil-may-care ladies' man but struggles to be taken seriously and Teela is torn between duty and love.

The budget is low again but there is a impressive number of extras in the battle scenes, and the action scenes look well done (TV-movie level that is). The cinematography looks nice and the sceneries of Utah makes a good background for a fantasy setting. The self-irony of SyFy and Asylum productions is unknown and Arrowstorm crew and the actors take creating the fantasy world seriously.

Dragon with a touch of Dark Spore's powers

Necromancer's temple could be from a cover of a metal cd

What is nice also is that also the music has been put effort into. Here's Kristen Jensen's theme song "Tell Me" from the movie:

Rating: Good

Starring: Melanie Stone, Adam Johnson, Jake Stormoen, Nicola Posener, Rocky Myers, Christopher Robin Miller, Kevin Sorbo, Natalie Devine Riskas, Robert Jayne, Matthew Mercer, Brogan Johnson, Ryan Palmer, James C. Morris, Kali Wright, Michael Flynn, Larissa Beck, Oscar Sanchez, Isaac Faller, Helena Peacock, Clare Niederpruem, Kynan Griffin, Nyk Fry, Griffin Bonacci, Dave Bresnahan, Andy Fernuik, Crystal Harris, Andrew L. McClain, Duke Warren
Director: Anne K. Black

Movie Review: Maleficent

Maleficent

Roth Films, Walt Disney Pictures, USA, UK, 2014.

Young fairy girl Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) lives in peaceful fairyland of Moors. Young boy Stefan (Michael Higgins) tries to steal a jewel but he steals Maleficent's heart instead. When Stefan (Sharlto Copley) grows up he becomes ambitious and forgets Maleficent. King Henry (Kenneth Cranham) starts a war against the fairies. Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) and the elves fight back and drive away the humans. Stefan wants to be the next king so he betrays Maleficent. Stefan gets the princess and the kingdom. Maleficent grows bitter and wants revenge. 

Young Maleficent

Maleficent

Stefan

When Princess Aurora is born three amusingly inept fairies (Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple) bring gifts to her. Maleficent crashes the party and casts the Sleeping Beauty- curse. What then happens is quite different than in the original story. The three fairies raise Aurora but actually it is Maleficent and her raven Diaval (Sam Riley) who protect the child Aurora from hurting herself until the curse can take its place. When getting to know Aurora (Elle Fanning) better Maleficent wants to cancel the curse but it is already too late. 

Aurora

Thistletwit, Knotgrass and Flittle

Diaval and Maleficent

Reinterpretation of "Sleeping Beauty" is a charming fairy tale that makes an interesting twist to the well-known story. It is something Tim Burton could have made on his best days. The strongest role is Angelina Jolie's who ranges from wounded brave warrioress to mischievous evil witch to compassionate godmother. She is absolutely great and steals the show. The other actors do their best but are mainly supporting actors to Jolie's show. King Stefan becomes a Macbethian lunatic and Aurora is a sweet princess. The tone goes very emotional without forgetting humoristic reliefs obviously from the goofy three fairies but also dead-pan mirth from the raven-dude. It gives a good background story and motivation for one of the classic Disney villains, and also an alternative view of what happened. In the Disney style the fairyland has a population of happy and cute little creatures but also bigger and scarier creatures. It was also great how the bright and happy fantasy land turned darker when the curse was set. The effects are on par of the fantasy movie standard that "Lord of the Rings" has set, and so far it goes that couple of the wood fairies look like Ents. I also liked Lana Del Rey's version of "Once Upon a Dream" in the end.

Wood fairy

Rating: Very good

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley, Brenton Thwaites, Kenneth Cranham, Sarah Flind, Hannah New, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Ella Purnell, Jackson Bews, Angus Wright, Oliver Maltman, Gary Cargill, John O'Toole, Harry Attwell, Anthony May, James Hicks, Stephan Chase, Mark Caven, Chris Leaney, Jamie Maclachlan, Shaun Smith, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, John Macmillan, Tim Treloar, Peter G. Reed, Marama Corlett, Liam McKenna, Steven Cree, Janet McTeer 

Director: Robert Stromberg 

Movie Review: Enchanted

Enchanted

Walt Disney Pictures, Josephson Entertainment, Andalasia Productions, Right Coast Productions, USA, 2007.

Evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) of Andalasia wants to prevent her step-son from getting married. Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) lives with her talking animal friends and dreams about prince. Conveniently Prince Edward (James Marsden) is nearby hunting trolls. Quick wedding is planned but Queen wants to stops it and pushes Giselle into magic well. She arrives in modern day New York where no one lives happily ever after.

Giselle in Andalasia

Giselle in New York

Divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and her daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) see weird princess trying to break into a casino. They take her home for a night. The apartment is messy so Giselle invites animals to clean it up. Robert's girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) visits Robert and gets the wrong idea. Straight-laced Robert tries to send Giselle away.

Robert and Morgan

Giselle's animal friend

Nancy

Edward and chipmunk Pip (Jeff Bennett/Kevin Lima) come to search for Giselle. Clueless Edward tries to figure out modern technology and battles with a bus. Queen sends also Edward's untrustworthy squire Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) to stop the Princess with poisoned apples. Meanwhile Robert begins to like cheerful and innocent Giselle.

Edward

Nathaniel

Party!

Partly this is postmodern fairy tale and partly traditional romantic comedy with fantasy characters sent into real world. Traditional animation looks good ans Disney cliches are cleverly twisted and parodied. There are huge amount of references to other Disney movies. The ending is like a pastiche of Disney endings with some alterations. Amy Adams is fun and cute as Giselle, she was perfectly cast in the role. She can also sing well, performing couple of musical numbers with CGI animals. James Marsden's goofy prince steals the show in couple of scenes. Patrick Dempsey is the straight man of the show. "Enchanted" is a cheerful movie that leaves a good feeling.

Evil Queen

Dragon Queen

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#29. Movie with magic)

Rating: Very good

Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey, Susan Sarandon, Julie Andrews, Jeff Bennett, Kevin Lima, Emma Rose Lima, Teala Dunn, Fred Tatasciore, Courtney Williams, William Huntley, Samantha Ivers, Elizabeth Mathis, Edmund Lyndeck, Tonya Pinkins, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Tibor Feldman, Jodi Benson, Matt Servitto, Christopher Maggi, Muriel Kuhn, Marilyn Sue Perry, John Rothman, Marlon Saunders, Paul Klementowicz, Michaela Conlin, Cathleen Trigg, Paige O'Hara, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Canedy Knowles, Lillian Lifflander, Matte Osian, Judy Kuhn, Joseph Siravo, Margaret Travolta, Tony Machine, Jon McLaughlin, Helen Stenborg, Anita Keal, Kater Gordon

Director: Kevin Lima

Lohikäärme Justus ja Taikuri Savinen

Lohikäärme Justus ja Taikuri Savinen 

(rough translations: "Justus the Dragon" and "Clay the Magician") 

YLE, Finland 1977-1991.

Introducing classic Finnish children's TV shows from 1970-90s! 

"Justus the Dragon" and "Clay the Magician" are nostalgic clay animations made for children and shown originally in Finnish TV. The DVD contains 8 episodes of "Lohikäärme Justus" (1983) (translated: Justus the Dragon), five episodes of "Justus maailmalla" (1991) (translated: Justus goes abroad) and five episodes (of total of 15) of "Taikuri Savinen" (1978) (translated: Clay the Magician). The series were animated by Tuula Pukkila. Unfortunately there are no English subs. All series fully utilize the properties of modelling clay and the characters can curl themselves into a ball or disc.

Both series were voiced by Erkki Thil (all episodes) and also Riitta Räty (some episodes of "Justus goes abroad.") 

Other animations by Pukkila include clay animation "Pallerot" (Small Spheres), quite experimental show that has small spheres dancing and forming flowers and other objects. Sadly "Pallerot" is nowadays quite forgotten series. 

Justus the Dragon (Lohikäärme Justus)

"Justus the Dragon" was scripted by Lea Himberg. It is the story of small friendly dragon whose wings have not yet grown. Justus changes colour depending on his mood. Justus lives in mountains with his friends Mountain Goat and group of intelligent flowers. The series has themes of friendship and helping others.

Justus and the flowers

Mountain Goat

1. Justus can't fly (Justus ei osaa lentää)
Justus practises flying but his wings have not yet grown. Two other dragons fly away for dragon convention. His friends Mountain Goat and the flowers cheer up the sad dragon.

Adult dragons

2. Justus gets sick (Justus sairastuu)
Justus goes swimming and catches cold. Mountain Goat goes to find medicine.

3. Justus and little people (Justus ja pikkuihmiset)
Justus and Mountain Goat hide when humans arrive to mountains. Two kids are lost in the mountains and need help.

Little people

4. Justus exercises (Justus voimistelee)
Justus wants to fly so he straightens his muscles.

Justus exercises

5. The quarreling flowers (Kukkien Tora)
Sun is shining and the flowers argue who will get most of the sun light. Justin sings a song for them.

Justus plays a song

6. New friend (Uusi ystävä)
Justus meets caterpillars and butterflies. Mountain goat gets a girlfriend but Justus is jealous.

7. The return of the dragons (Lohikäärmeiden paluu)
The other dragons return but both have injuries from flight accidents. They bring flight manual to Justus.

8. Justus flies (Justus lentää)
Justus finally gets his wings.

New wings!

Justus Goes Abroad (Justus maailmalla)

A sequel series to "Justus the Dragon." Now Justus can fly so he goes to explore the world. He meets different people who are often first afraid of him, but soon they become friends. This series has more human characters and more variable backgrounds.

1. Justus goes abroad (Justus lähtee maailmalle)
Friends of Justus warn him not to get in trouble when he flies to explore the world. Justus does not listen.

2. Justus in the land of windmills (Justus tuulimyllyjen maassa)
Air pollution makes Justus temporarily blind and he has to land in Netherlands. He gets caught in windmill but the locals help him.

Dutch people

3. Justus and snow (Justus ja lumi)
It is cold and Justus falls into a snowdrift. Two skiers help him.

4. Justus in Peru (Justus Perussa)
Justus goes to Machu Picchu where he first gets cold shoulder. There are strange earthquakes but Justus saves the day.

Peruvian people

5. Justus goes to foreign mountains (Justus lähtee vieraille vuorille)
An old lady asks what it is like around the world. Justus finds mountains with other dragons.


Clay the Magician (Taikuri Savinen)

"Clay the Magician" stories have ecological themes. Clay tries to maintain the balance of humans and nature. Clay's spells do not always go as wished but luckily he has a magic ball that helps. Being made earlier than "Justus" the animation style is not yet as refined and the human characters look very much the same.

Clay the Magician

1. Elmo the animal searcher (Elmu eläinten etsijä)
Elmo tries to find animals but does not find any. Clay creates a tree that is full of animals.

Clay and Elmo

2. Rick the trekker (Riku retkeilijä)
Clay's bunny friend is stuck in an empty can. The forest is full of trash left by Rick.

Clay and bunny

Rick throws trash in the forest

3. Tate the road builder (Tate tientekijä)
Tate is building a road that goes over foxes nest. Clay intervenes and suggests an alternative route.

Tate builds the road

4. Noise barrier (Meluvalli)
The road traffic is noisy and disturbs the animals. Clay must create noise barrier. However he first misunderstands the concept: the barrier is not supposed to be noisy.

5. Dream about city (Uni kaupungista)
The bunny has a nightmare about city without trees and flowers. The dream seems to be accurate. Clay paints the gray houses more colourful.

Bunny in grey city

Happy citizens

Movie Review: The White Dragon

The White Dragon (Fei hap siu baak lung) a.k.a The Flying Heroine: Little White Dragon 

China Film Co-Production Corporation, China Film Group, China Star Entertainment, One Hundred Years of Film Company, Singing Horse Productions, Hong Kong, 2004. 

Black Phoenix (Cecilia Cheung) has reluctantly joined the world of martial arts. Masquerading as White Dragon Jr., she has to fight blind assassin Chicken Feathers (Francis Ng) who has a contract on Second Prince Tian Yang (Andy On). Chicken Feathers is like Zatoichi, only goofier. 

Black Phoenix

Chicken Feathers

A week ago Phoenix was a rich and spoiled student. She dreams of Second Prince who also begins to like her. The prince has older brother First Prince Tian Sheng (Liu Lei). Chicken Feather kills schools lecherous principal. Martial arts heroine and school's janitor White Dragon (Nei Suet) tries to catch him but fails. White Dragon gives her powers to Black Phoenix, the sequence looks like Windows XP copying bar.

Rock 'n' roll

Second Prince Tian Yang and Phoenix

Phoenix gets acne. Only way to cure it is to make good deeds, Robin Hood style. When Chicken Feathers targets Tian Yang, she must try to fight against him. Phoenix begins to sympathize Chicken Feathers when he treats her broken leg. She plays her flute to describe the surrounding world to Chicken Feathers. Chicken Feathers has only one friend, physician Deer Tail (Shiu Hung Hui) who arranges him the contracts. Phoenix tries to solve the conspiracy and save both Second Prince and Chicken Feathers.

The story varies from sentimental drama...

...to silly comedy

Starting as a wuxia-film, the film then morphs into high-school comedy. This is partly a parody of Wuxia-films with some contemporary references. Phoenix plays lute like a rock star, McDonalds sells buns and there is basically medieval China's equivalent of Louis Vuitton. However as the movie switches the genre from wire-fu film, to comedy to romantic drama and back to wuxia drama, the result is uneven experience. Although mixing comedy, romance and action is usual in Hong Kong films, the seams are a bit too obvious. Still the main love story is sweet with some quirky humour so it is hard to dislike. The action scenes are acceptable, although not best of the genre as the movie seems to have quite low budget. The chemistry between the main actors is good and the story does not take itself too seriously.

McBun

Wuxia fight!

Rating: Good 

Starring: Francis Ng, Andy On, Lei Liu, Cecilia Cheung, Xiao Lung Ding, Avi K. Garg, Shiu Hung Hui, Zhangjin Shi, Nei Suet, Patrick Tang, Kitty Yuen,  Huang Xiao-Xu, Dang Chi-Fung, Xia Tai-Li, Meng Kai, Zhang Jia-Jun, Liu Jing-Cheng, Wen Wen, Hu Dan-Feng, Bi Yuan-Biao, Xu Chen Jun Lei, Shen Zun-Ying, Hu Xiao-Lin, Wang Yi-Qiu, Huang Di, Zhu Ming-Ming, Li Su-Qin, Zhang Deng-Ke, Dai Tian 

Director: Wilson Yip