MovieChat Forums > Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014) Discussion > To all the people complaining about the ...

To all the people complaining about the 'fake' special effects.


I'm seeing a lot of comments and and IMDb reviews here complaining about how the special effects in this movie are fake. Comments to the effect of, "Oh it's so obviously it's a miniature! It's so fake! It's bullsh!t".

You guys are aware that it is a comedy, right? Surely you are aware that the cheesy effects are on purpose and all part of the joke, right?

Complaining that the effects are "fake" in this is like complaining that the effects in Team America: World Police are fake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIPljGWGNt4

It's the entire joke guys. I mean, if you're complaining that they weren't funny, well, then that's your opinion. But complaining that they're fake? Surely you can't be that oblivious.

The Giant Paw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUB6PgwVoCA

reply

[deleted]

Dude, even if he had a budget of $100 million, that effect would have looked exactly the same. Because in the words of the great Rainier Wolfcastle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk

The Giant Paw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUB6PgwVoCA

reply

My favorite was the cooking steamer as a missle silo, I about lost it

reply

Wait, are there people actually complaining about the miniatures looking bad? I haven't been on these boards too much (because IMDb is just far too negative and irritating when something is first released), but I can't even believe anyone would be that stupid. Especially when it's clearly the joke.

And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?

reply

These people are idiots who clearly don't understand Rolfe's sense of humor at all. He actually spells it out in the movie:

"Even my dreams are low budget!"

reply

People actually complained about that? AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHH thats friggin hilarious!!!
what stupid people.

Honestly, if you can't afford to make it look better than a toy van and some firecrackers, don't write a van blowing up into your movie.


he could have, but he grew up with decent movies where it required you to use your imagination, and used the style of effects he enjoyed.

reply

Using miniatures was funny.

Not laugh-out-loud funny, but it was a nice touch. Using unconventional objects for a miniaturized world to substitute as real-world items was clever, to say the least.

That being said... the overall movie was just lackluster. I don't know... maybe it's just because James Rolfe finally fulfilled his dream of making a feature length movie and he's now got it out of his system.

Maybe only the die-hard fans will appreciate it.

Personally, I'm more disappointed in that it just wasn't that great of a film. Regardless of the effects. It could have effects done horrible like 'Birdemic' for the sake of hilarity, and it wouldn't have mattered... the structure of the film kind of was a... mess.

No character development, messy plot, and almost 2 hours? That's reserved for a Marvel film, not AVGN.




reply

I never cared to criticize things like effects, editing, camera angles or any of the technical stuff, as long as it isn't getting in the way of telling a good story.

I can appreciate nice visuals (but my concept of what that means might differ from the usual view - I don't appreciate the dull, gloomy, dark, grey, colorless smudge that is nowadays so popular, 'nice' at all, for example), but I'd rather concentrate on the story, the atmosphere, the action, the martial arts, and whatever else is displayed on the screen. Credibility is one thing that I pay attention to, because immersion can be smashed so easily and quickly, by stupid mistakes.

Heck, I don't even care whether the acting is good or not, for the most part - as long as it doesn't become disurbingly and immersion-destroyingly awful. In many japanese musicals, plays, TV dramas, movies and other visual stories, the acting can sometimes be really amateurish and atrocious, and the 'fake laughing' can be so crudely done that even Seinfeld's 'fake laughter' sounds professional.

But it can all still be completely enjoyable and immersive.

So, I don't really care about the effects - it did sort of make it look kind of laughable and immersion-destroying to see the model of the truck on fire - the flames were way too big for the car to be real, proper-sized van. But it did drive (no pun intended) the point across, so I don't care.

If the story is good, and it's presented well and in a pleasant, easy-to-enjoy manner, what difference does it make, how the effects look like?

And of course same is true, if the story is awful, and presented in a boring/hectic, difficult-to-enjoy manner.

Story is first priority, presentation second priority, the rest does not matter much. If the priorities are good, the movie can stand a few bad effects easily.

Frankly, I don't care HOW the effects are made, and whether they are good or bad - they could be drawn on cardboard, for all I care. This was actually proven by the Robocop remix - there were really varying ways of showing the scenes of the original Robocop movie, some of those ways were disgusting, some of them were really amateurish, some of them were boring, but the movie was still a good and fun watch, and I could follow and enjoy the interesting plot.

I wouldn't mind if every movie was made in such a way (minus some of the worst bits, perhaps, like the 'dance poem crap' and such - though I can't remember much about those parts, because I skipped them as soon as I was disgusted by them).

It'd be fun to watch more movies where some scenes are done with pixel art (though the pixelling and the artwork in the Robocop remix could have been much better - they should have played some Westwood DOS games to see how beautiful lores graphics can be, and how nicely they can be animated), and some scenes with a cartoon style, and whatnot. It gives a refreshing quality to it..

..AS LONG AS THE STORY IS INTERESTING AND GOOD.

Of course in the modern times, this would probably be used just as a visual gimmic, an excuse not to create an interesting story. A bit like they did with the awful Keanu Reeves drug-movie with all the rotoscoping, or Memento (which at least uses the gimmick to serve the plot by creating 'amnesia' for the audience in a way, but which falls short when you watch the movie in proper order - it's not that interesting a story).

Effects? Make them ANY way you want, I'll watch it, if the story is good and presentation doesn't get in the way.



reply

Frankly i loved the effects. Seeing the a toy van roll down hill and explode was hilarious. It was like watching a Ed Wood movie. Obviously they didn't have the budget for scope of the story they were trying to pull off.

reply