Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie

I'll come out and say it, I'm not a fan of Lewis, his character of Linkara or the Atop the 4th Wall thing he does on Youtube. This movie really wasn't for me. But I watched it out of morbid curiosity and... I made it through the first two parts and said I'm not watching any more. It was bad. It was really bad.

The problems are too numerous to count. The dialogue is written with all the gravitas of a high school student. It's pretentious dialogue where people don't speak like actual people. Then there's the acting. Some of it is okay. Most of it is bad. I mean none of these people are actors and it shows. The worst one would be Kaylyn or "Marzgurl" as she's known online. She can't deliver a line that sounds natural. Others are hit and miss. I think the most enjoyable one was Brad Jones as the Cinema Snob.

The story is just self-indulgent tripe. I get that maybe as a fan of this you'd want to see it. But for anybody else it's amateurish at best and not in a good way.

I have been a loyal viewer of Linkara's Atop The Fourth Wall for years now. I tune in weekly for the new episode, and have done so from 2010 or so. I am also fairly familiar with the Channel Awesome members, particularly the ones that have appeared in the anniversary films Kickassia, Suburban Knights and To Boldly Flee, all of which I have enjoyed. After rewatching pretty much all of AT4W's storyline episodes during the past few weeks, I finally watched this movie. This is important to know, because I will review it as a part of that continuum, rather than solely on its own merits. It's not a standalone film, nor should it be. Even more important, it's not a big budget film made by a fleet of professional film makers, and can't fairly be compared to those. It's a celebration of Mr. Lovhaug's passion for his work, and clearly a labor of love.

I think the movie fits the show perfectly. In its own way it's better than the Channel Awesome films I mentioned earlier. It has less characters, which makes it easier to follow and more poignant when it gets emotional. It also has more of an original plot and it doesn't play itself for laughs too often. You can clearly tell Mr. Lovhaug knows his scifi, actions movies and comic books. He also clearly cares about writing and acting to the best of his ability. I think you need to have seen at least some of his show and the Channel Awesome films, and preferably be somewhat familiar with the other reviewers that appear in the movie. I do not see that as a problem. There are better and worse places to start every piece of media with a continuity, and if you want to get into AT4W, this is not your best place to start. The film gives character moments to both the guest reviewers and the residents of the show itself, but to get the most of those moments, it's better to know the characters beforehand. Some parts of the plot might be hard to understand without the context given in the regular episodes or the anniversary movies. Of course that depends on how good you are at accepting things as given. If it doesn't bother you that Batman and Superman exist and fight crime in capes, I guess you won't mind that an internet comic book reviewer has a magic gun, a spaceship and an evil robot duplicate. If you want to know the backstories of the items and characters, I have to direct you to watch the show first. But then again, if that caught your interest in the first place, you would probably enjoy the show. Lovhaug has marked the storyline episodes as such on his website, so you can just watch those if the entirety of the show seems too much to handle.

The film does share the same "problems" with the Channel Awesome films: almost everyone involved is a passionate, self taught amateur. These people are good at making reviews, so they can write, talk in front of a camera and edit. That doesn't make them film makers in the traditional sense. They don't have the budget for professional actors, SFX studios, make up artists, cinematographers and so on. That makes the movie seem a little clumsy at times. To me, it adds to the charm: these people aren't going to sit quietly in a corner, hoping they could one day make a movie. They make the movie, even though it will not be perfect. They are not professional actors in perfect make up, and they have had a very limited time to shoot the movie, and both are things that you can tell by glancing at the movie. Instead they are courageous, passionate people working really hard, which at least I can tell with that same glance.

Should you watch this movie without any context on a boring afternoon? No, try Mr. Lovhaug's show first. Should you watch it if you enjoy his other stuff or the anniversary movies? Yes, definitely, though I wonder why you would need me to tell you to do it. Should you watch it if you didn't enjoy his show or the anniversary movies? No. That would be stupid. If you know you don't enjoy his style of storytelling and writing, a strong sense of "this is for the fans" or need a movie to look like something you could see in a cinema, don't bother.

Linkara and Atop the Fourth Wall was always a bit of a grab bag for me. At the start there was actual care put into showing problems with the comic book. Maybe it was artwork, or problems with the story or motivation. Then as time went by it became less about that than just making lame jokes about panels. As Linkara's popularity increased so did the characters and the sketches. While he brought us the joys of Snowflame he also brought things like the "King of Worms". And that's where I gave up. It seemed to be more about Linkara and how amazing he was and not about the comics.

So when I heard that the AT4W movie had been completed and I saw the cast of Channel Awesome contributors I decided to check it out. I couldn't make it through the first part. I turned to the second part and maybe he'd have picked up something by then, get the preliminaries out of the way but no, the same problems exists. Namely none of these people can act.

It's fine for the little skits they do and I do like Brad Jones and Nash but the rest are a mixed bag. Allison is a little too over the top. Joe is always playing the same character. And let's be honest, Marzgurl can't deliver a line to save her life. The woman is a terrible actress.

No laughs, forced pathos, comic relief that didn't work, Marzgurl, it was a recipe for disaster.

Linkara, his entourage and a few of the Channel Awesome gang go into space to help the non-responsive crew of the first manned exploration of Jupiter. There's something going on out there... and it ain't right. The bland title notwithstanding, I always say, if I was at all into story lines, there's no doubt Lewis does the best ones. That's why I don't stop watching when his videos go in that direction. He masters comic book plotting. This builds on To Boldly Flee, you really have to have watched it and at least some of the show to follow along... and throughout this, I will be comparing the two. As far as movies of Treks to Stars go, this is not just Search for Spock with various Star Wars films thrown in, albeit it does resemble The Motion Picture, and nothing ever should.

This is to a greater extent about people, characters, and they have better arcs. It helps that it greatly limits how many TGWTG people he brought. Well, for the ride itself. Back on Earth, a number of them do get cameos. Their personas are all captured equally as well, and they're both chock full of references to their various fandoms and bodies of work. And this is actually feminist! Every women here has her own voice, is strong, in control of her own life, and isn't an object, heck, isn't sexualized at all. Simply because there's no reason for that to be in this. We have a far scarier, creepier villain, because he's taken seriously.

There are also stronger emotional performances and scenes, that, like the exciting action, is never undercut by an insistence on always being funny. There's depth where you wouldn't think there would be. It gets existentialist. This explores themes of the scope of what's going on, comparing it to their regular lives, and, as per Mr. Lovhaug's deeper stuff, it's smartly written, intelligent, not preachy, honest and self-analyzing. Honestly, especially early on, some of the jokes in this are dry, he left too much of his wit behind in the reviews themselves. Near the end, he joins a select club of especially awesome people. It's faster, more intense. Again we get great, cool FX, make-up and designs. Here, a little of it is pushed to the point where we can tell how they did it. They juggle the many elements well. This comes to a running time of 120 minutes, or 113 if you don't count the end credits.

There is some swearing, violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of those involved. 8/10

I found this to be good, the acting was great, the plot was very interesting, the effects were great, it was overall a really great flick. I really enjoyed the acting that is coming from Linkara, the blue armless robot's speech was also really inspiring. The Comedy was also really great along with the continuity from the Channel Awesome Anniversary specials in which itself is one of the best internet films of all time. The Bee gun is also really a creative idea and seeing the Atop The 4th Wall ship come to life was incredible on how something from a green screen turned into a reality which to me was really impressive.