Kayden Kross's drama "Muse 2" presents a paradoxical situation: Maitland Ward is really the only interesting character in this 5-hour plus soap opera, but is there too much of her on screen? For me, the combination of gonzo sex (culminating in a ridiculous orgy) with some serious, thoughtful discussion of philosophical and psychological issues doesn't work.
Following on the successful first movie (or web tv series if you prefer) about Ward as an influential sex educator, we get well-acted soap opera, but with characters one has trouble caring about. I found the issues quite topical, with the central one concerning an isolated male student Ernest (played by AJ) in Ward's college course who is influenced by women-hating anonymous internet posters, and charges Ward with raping him, based ridiculously on her having given the class a sex project assignment detailed in the first movie.
In addition, the backlash against the MeToo movement is well-handled, as well as various topics like comparing BDSM notions of a "power bottom" to current political wars as well as some provocative notions such as the Christian Church's (and missionaries) relation to Colonialism and its aftereffects, as well as the power of anger.
So what do these serious subjects have to do with porn? Kayden's script makes the connections clear, but other than Ward her characters are not up to carrying the water for such issues. There's a lesbian couple: Avery Cristy and Ivy Wolfe, whose relationship falls apart as each has an affair with a man (Ivy raising Ward's ire by bedding down with Ward's on & off lover but main man lawyer -and she needs one -Manuel Ferrara, while Avery acting in a sex play opposite Quinton James uses him for revenge against Ivy), then an unconvincing feud between diminutive Lulu Chu and Jessie Saint; and a rather silly bathos character played by Lena Paul supposedly twice as old as her classmates, laughably rejected by a creepy guy on a date and finding sexual solace with her college kid's best friend.
Plenty of defects abound in these scenes, such as Ivy Wolfe nearly unrecognizable (I finally got used to her after several scenes) with an extreme makeover look: Lena Paul seriously miscast, as she's seven years younger than Robby Echo playing her son; plus sloppy credits. Jay Smooth is credited for a role played by Jay Romero merely because they share that first name, and many actors in small roles get no credit at all -I identified just a few.
What emerges is Ward doing a performance reminiscent of porn's first superstar Marilyn Chambers, in the waning years of MC's career. She is heavily the center of attention, and makes noisy, fake orgasm shtick that reaches an embarrassing crescendo in the final reels' orgy.
KK & MW's next major collaboration "Drift" overdoes Ward's presence even more -enough already!
