Darkon (2006)

Warning: the following review is simply harsh. No apologies--you've been warned!

In a land, not so long ago, there were losers. These losers are mad at the world. Content to whine instead of taking action to fight against those who have done them harm; instead they meet on weekend to bash each other with foamy swords while wearing face paint.

Darkon is a bemusing and highly irritating documentary that centers around a live action role playing game put on by unattractive people. These fantasy world of Darkon contains ancient hexes of land where an amalgam of orks, centurions, elves, Jedi, knights, maidens, hags, and Skeletors habituate. It's a fantasy world where slightly-to-obesely overweight white males 'battle' each other on an underused football field.

The participants interviewed over the course of the film begin as interesting folk and then they begin to whine about how society has treated them. How they can't get laid or blown. How they can't seem to rise out of their parent's basements. How they suck. That is where my sympathy reaches its end.

While these battles and this film even, are not undertaken lightly: costumes, weaponry, heraldry--it's all incredibly detailed--I can't shake the fact that all these people need a smack in the face. They all need to be told to 'suck it up and deal'. Life is not a fantasy and while you choose to bury your hurt, fear and insecurities inside Mordam or Laconia, your life is passing you by.

Darkon is nicely constructed and in the first 30 minutes, you will find yourself caring for this misfits. But after an 60...you'll be frustrated, as I was. Guess I just don't 'get' it. What was perhaps most maddening {and this is my OCD talking} is the historical inacuracies of the role playing. Dude!! You can NOT call on Zeus and Poisiden during the 1700s. Please could you get your gods straight?!

As I see it, Darkon is fascinating look at LARPing and it's complex rules, rituals, and customs. It's weird, but it's an interesting social commentary too. But, sadly, this film makes fodder out of these self-exiled misfits. It was all too easy. I will not recommend this film to anyone--not even the most hardcore.