Darkon ( 2006 ) Netflix Review

Starring:  Skip Lipman, Kenyon Wells, Daniel McArthur, Rebecca Thurmond,

Directed By Luke Meyer & Andrew Neel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462246/


     When the 2008 Role Models came out, the world was introduced to LARP at a more mainstream scale.  what is L.A.R.P. you ask?  Live Action Role Playing.  The entire "L.A.I.R." battles that Danny attended for his "Little" Augie, were exactly what you would see at a LARP event.  The whole LARP deal isn't something new at all.  The first LARP events began back in the 1970's.  Inspired from Genre fiction and table top role playing games, LARP soon took off and spread internationally by the early 80's.  Combining fantasy stories/realms and dressing the part, LARP events offered something different from the everyday grind of reality.

     I can remember some of my neighbors participating in a LARP community.  I tagged along one weekend and was amazed at what I saw.  People dressing all medieval with clans and tribes speaking as if they were straight out of those times.  It reminded me of a HUGE community theater putting on a more violent play than normal.  Everybody dressed for the part and would give you a TON of grief if you tried to brake character or used ANYTHING modern.  Some people scoffed at these functions and called them nothing more than live action DND.  I personally found tho whole scene interesting and supported their functions.

     The Documentary Darkon follows one such outfit in Baltimore.  The story revolves around 4 central people and their characters in Darkon.  Throughout the film we see a separation from two clans.  One fronted by the more level headed Bannor ( Lipman ) and the other more aggressive head Keldar ( Wells ).  Keldar's clan is all about dividing and destroying all, with a jaded sense of diplomacy.  Tired of Keldar's clan and their bully tactics, Bannor decides to split and gather more like minded clans in overthrowing Keldars strangle hold on the world of Darkon.

     The other side of this Documentary is the human side, which at times seemed to drag on.  Yes, we all know what a drag reality is and how fun it is to dress up and play pretend, but the story was about a LARP group and not about the struggles of living with mom in her basement with a child, like one of the characters did, but at the same time I want to see more of Darkon.  I also understand that building the armor and outfits are taken very seriously and rightfully should be, but like I said at times they seemed to focus on more of the reality side than the actual game.

     For what its worth though, Darkon delivered a solid watching experience.  I was amazed at how these battles went down, and how an average soccer field can be turned into an all out attack.  Watching Lipman shed off his character and play dad was very commendable, especially when after 1 defeat by the hands of Keldar's clan only seemed to light a fire under Lipman and make him literally bring his character into the real world with battle practice and turning a kitchen table into a Warhammer/Napoleon type of map.

     If happen to have a RPG gammer friend, or you happen to be one yourself, then check out this fun little romp into the world of Darkon.

-Mr. What?- ( * * * )