Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie

Well, it finally arrived, after years of waiting. Sadly for James, it turns out that many people didn't like his character's outing to the big screen. However, I can't help but thinking a lot of the disgruntlement is misplaced. Don't get me wrong, it's not what most people would consider a good film, but I think I should offer an explanation of why it turned out the way it did.

First, this is more of a Cinemassacre feature than an Angry Video Game Nerd feature and you will be more inclined to like it if you have spent your time watching the endless movie reviews on the Cinemassacre website. James is a fan of what a lot of people would describe as trash and a lot of this film contains schlock content - dumb characters, corny jokes and silly special effects. Bad / over the top acting and silly dialogue therefore isn't really the point for this type of film - it's a given. If you don't like this sort of thing, then you aren't going to like this movie, period.

The reality, though, is that people love the Nerd character first and foremost above Cinemassacre and sadly he does suffer mildly in the context of this movie. His dislike of E.T. is taken from an amusing irrational hatred into irrational behaviour and his insistence that he won't review the game is a card played a little too strongly. Still, I really don't think the criticisms that there are ego issues going on here are valid. The Nerd is an enormously popular character and people have flocked to cinemas nationwide across the states to support their hero. James showed his popularity in the movie for the purposes of a joke, being that the fictional public assumed that the Nerd videos are for comedy/fun (which obviously they are), which dismayed the fictional Nerd character who simply hated the games - he is famous for the wrong reason. I think this has been wildly and widely misinterpreted as James stroking his own ego and I think that's unfair. It's driving to the plot point to the film.

The plot, of course, is ridiculous and silly. It's a fun concept but gets bogged down by being the film being too long, which makes the plot too slow. Things do get rather confusing towards the end as the Nerd's companions go off on their own mini-adventures but to no real consequence. People just want to see the Nerd. As for the ludicrous monster that appears towards the end, we are right back in Cinemassacre territory with plastic models and men in rubber suits - the ridiculousness is the point.

Regardless of the target audience, the film is at least partially a comedy and it does raise a few smirks. As the laughs are more frequent and punchier in the Nerd episodes, this has left a lot of people disappointed. What we all love is seeing the Nerd spit venom at "***** games", but he's not doing that here until the credits of the film (which is probably the most entertaining and interesting part). The various cameos and fan moments are kind tributes, but are mostly goofy and unnecessary.

I suppose I can summarise by saying that this is not the Nerd movie many of us were hoping for, but just a B-movie starring the Nerd. It was an ambitious project in which an amateur film-maker had the means to pay homage to the films he loved. Unfortunately this was at the expense of the character that the audience loved, which is what everyone really wanted to see. However, I have a huge amount of respect for the project as a whole. What James has achieved with his Nerd character is impressive and a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this movie. There's a lot of heart here and that context gives it a special charm. Standing it by itself though, against slicker and meaner films, it's an easy target for criticism. But to do so in the overly aggressive way that others have is to miss the point entirely.

That's what I think anyway.

I know it is not a big production movie and I really enjoy that it knows it is a low budget film and makes fun of it, but it is just boring. It is slow, most of the jokes are not that funny, nor corny enough to make them memorable. Having a "Jar Jar Binks" didn't work for Lucas, and also didn't help The Nerd to have Cooper Folly. I think he could have done something different that would be more entertaining for that character.

Again, the effects are cheesy, but that is fine with me. I really like the location shots and I think they did a lot with their budget and the effects really matched the tone of the movie. The main problem is that it is too freaking slow. Probably I am being harsh because I watched Wayne's World a few weeks ago and I was expecting something more on that style, or probably their jokes were not over the top enough to be funny.

Honestly, I hope the nerd comes back to direct a movie and I really hope that this movies opens a lot of doors for him, but hopefully next time someone else will write it. Also, I don't see a bright future for the other actors.

Whereas other low budget films like "Tokyo Gore Police", "Vampire Girl VS Frankenstien Girl", "Machine Girl", "Bad Taste" and the original "Evil Dead" were very low budget, they are memorable because of how extreme and screwed up they were.

They have moments that would have you talk to your friends about; "Oh there's a moment where this gruesome scene happens" and so on.

AVGN The Movie has nothing screwed up or extreme about it.

It doesn't have any exciting scenes that you're dying to tell your friends.

It is cool that James has finally made his first feature film. But he's not a professional filmmaker, he's more of an internet video maker.

The jokes in this are quite poor. Since neither James or Kevin are professional comedy writers, we have some really lame jokes that are obviously from first timers who have never written comedy before.

James himself is not an actor and yes, his bad acting adds a charm to the Nerd. That's fine for 15 minutes, but when you keep up the bad acting for 2 hours, the charm wears out very fast.

Yes, the overuse of the Nerd making references to fecal matter is just tiresome. It was tiresome in the show and it is no better here.

The cinematography is lame and feels like a straight to DVD film than an actual movie. Even the trailer looked cheap and bad.

This movie looks more like something you would see on the Sy-fy channel than a theatrical feature.

The special effects in this movie are bad, but are intentionally so for the sake of comedy, like in Austin Powers, Team America, The Lego Movie, Harry Hill's work and The Young Ones. But those movies and shows were actually funny.

Here, the joke doesn't work. It could be the really bad HD and straight to video feel that puts off the charm of the bad effects.

Also the sloppy editing. There are some unfinished looking shots here.

The movie is self aware it's low budget and tries to make fun of itself, but it's just not funny. I'm not a fan of self deprecation. It's too "winking at the audience" for me.

I will have to admit, the score is very good. The opening theme is amazing and I like the theme "Birds Before Nerds".

If this was an internet movie like the TGWTG Anniversary specials, it would've worked. But here, it's an internet movie trying to be theatrical and fails.

AVGN works as an internet series, but not as a movie.

The Good- The plot of the movie (as ridiculous as it is) is actually interesting and somewhat intricate. Some of the modest effects work well and even when they don't it's funny anyway. There are a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments here.

The Bad- This movie is at least 20-30 minutes too long. Story arcs languish horribly instead of moving from point A to point B. The quizzical move to insert some generic sidekick instead of longtime friend Mike Matei is beyond me. The chemistry would have been far better had they gone that route. The jokes come at you like a tired pitcher's fastballs, no zip on them whatsoever. It's basically patch work AVGN phrases slapped together in a different order. The script could have used some tightening up and the dialog could have used a lot of work. There are some interesting set-ups that could have been funny but they let those opportunities go by the wayside. Also, he doesn't really seem all that angry here, it's more like the grouchy video game nerd.

The Deal- If you are sick in bed with the flu, then this wouldn't be the worst way to spend your time. It's ironic that he dedicates the movie to his fans and gives them a diluted version of the character. It is impressive that he got the movie made at all. And you can see James's influences throughout the film. The passion is there. However, the ability to pace a movie is not (somewhat surprising). It's not an awful movie, but much like a senior citizen with a walker, it takes awhile to get where it's going and when it does it's not sure what to do. Or, in the spirit of AVGN, it's like being constipated on the bowl for a half-hour and when you finally crap it comes out slower than words out of a post-retired Muhammed Ali's mouth. I think the AVGN well has been tapped.

The only thing worse than the actual movie itself is the fans praising it. Having been a fan of the AVGN and James Rolfe's films/reviews since 2006, I've pretty much grown up with the nerd. I started watching when I was around 13 and now I am 22. That being said the movie simply was a let down. For all the build up, all the hype, and the anticipation of the nerd reviewing what could be debated as the worst game ever created in "E.T.", it simply was not a good film. There were some enjoyable moments, like Nathan Barnatt's cameo, or Doug Walker's cameo, but aside from that there really isn't much too talk about. The jokes were the same things you'd see in your average episode of the webseries, the script was decent, but in the end juggled too many ideas and ended up being very convoluted. For what it's worth, with a budget of 300k there are worse movies out there, and if you're a fan you will find some enjoyment out of it. Personally his films like "The Deader the Better" or "The legend of the blue hole" were much more enjoyable than this. Maybe it's a growing up thing, maybe I've grown past the humor, or maybe it just feels dated, I'm not sure. The film left a very sour taste in my mouth, and I would have much rather seen multiple AVGN episodes as opposed to this mediocre film. Seriously though why do the fans have to ride his dick so hard? If you keep telling someone something is amazing when it's not, they'll continue to put out the same mediocre crap. It's out of criticism that they decide to work harder and put more effort into creating something great. To the fans that give this film 10/10, you need to learn to form your own opinions and not be another sheep in the heard. Don't ride his dick, look at this film honestly. Especially when he can be so critical of other peoples work, but doesn't have very many critics of his own.