Mythica: A Quest For Heroes Movie Review

A while back the Dungeon Crawlers team had the opportunity to go on set and get a behind the scene look and interview some of the cast members of Arrowstorm’s upcoming release Mythica: A Quest for Heroes, which is the first of a projected five film series. Just seeing what we did that day while on set we were excited to see the finished project. Mythica in two simple words is vibrant and lush: the interiors bristle with detail, and the lighting really gives atmosphere to the movie. The music is suitably exciting. The script, by Jason Fuller, director Anne Black, and producer Kynan Griffin, pulls together a rich and exciting fantasy world. And the CGI in this film extremely well done for an indie fantasy film.

But what I really like is what Arrowstorm has done with the attention to details with each of the characters in the film, particularly the female ones. The protagonist is a young slave girl named Marek. Marek unfortunately has a club foot, a defiant attitude, and is learning magic on the down-low from a nearby wizard, Kevin Sorbo. When she finally has enough of her brutal owner she runs away, determined to seek a life of adventure using her magical skills. Marek is played by wonderful Melanie Stone who we got to interview while on set and she is just as amazing on screen in this role and she was in person. In Mythica she is flat-out terrific; she provides the emotional anchor the film needs.

After Marek runs away from her brutal master she visits a tavern known through out the realms as a lace where mercenaries gather to hire out on bounties for various mythical creatures and is ran by a rather interesting Dwarf. While there the priestess Teela entered asking for adventures to help her rescue her kidnapped sister. Non will help her due to the high risk and low pay, that is with the exception of Marek who is itching for a chance to prove herself and Teela has no other real choice.

Teela is played by Nicola Posener, who did an amazing job in Dawn of the Dragonslayer, and is just as amazing in this film as well. What I found interesting and a bit refreshing was that the central relationship in this film is the one between Marek and Teela. There are moments when you know they just want to throw a punch at the other and then there are scenes where one scarf pieces herself for the other. Throughout the whole film Marek and Teela behave like reasonable adults in a crisis, not like female characters written to be ogled by men. Which is beautiful!!! It's refreshing to see this in a film.

Let's not forget about the two main men in this film Adam Johnson and Jake Stormoen. Marek recruits a drunken soldier (Adam Johnson) and a smooth-talking thief (Jake Stormoen) to join them on their quest. Each of these actors have their moments; the thief Dagen is the flashier role and Jake does an amazing job at pulling off the quick talking and devious rogue. I did chuckle every time a battle commenced on screen because the sullen warrior Thane would immediately rush into battle with no though for himself and usually end up getting mortally wounded like most D&D characters all of us have played at one point over years and then would desperately need the healers magical skills to bring him back from the brink of death him. The great thing about Thane's character is that he's secure enough that he doesn’t resent her; he accepts her help graciously.

The action is handled with skill by director Black, who really understands the importance of the quiet scenes between characters. There’s one exchange between Marek and Teela, where Marek asks Teela to heal her club foot and the two actresses bring this scene to life with grace and poignancy.

Overall Arrowstorm Entertainment really leveled up there game with this film. The acting is brilliant, the characters are the kind of characters that find yourself cheering for, the CGI has improved from previous films, the background and settings are extremely realistic, and the story is just one that has me asking where's part two? Unfortunately this adventure will have to wait until the release of the next film but until then we can enjoy this film worthy to go on my shelf next to my other fantasy favorites,

Mythica: A Quest for Heroes will be released on DVD in 2015. So keep an eye on Arrowstorm's website for more info.