Oh god. Where to start. Well, here's a bullet point list of my thoughts... Spoiler * "Kin-tow-ber" * Terrible CG that doesn't mesh with anything. Some of the explosions get special mention. * The atrocious Sonic model, which deserves special mention all by itself. Why did they continue with using it after it was shown and everyone hated it? * The plot... didn't seem to go anywhere at all. We get an RA2 invasion opening with the fleet of 7 Egg Carriers and the big one, we fly over a very deserted city, with some random people looking up - who appear to be the only ones there.. then there's a kidnapping, then some news stuff (AVGN? Also Doug Walker as a GUN agent (whose reaction after Sonic left is, to be honest, a near-perfect mirroring of mine for the entire film)), I will admit that getting the cameos he did was kind of cool... Oh, speaking of: * HEY I'm GAMMA, I'm NOT SO GAMMA, AND WE'RE THE GAM GRUMPS + - sorry XD * Oh, right, yes, plot. Some random guy gets electrocuted by Doctor Claw Robotnik (robotic-izer: wat?! How did no-=one catch the pronounciation on this), then Sonic runs around, trashes some shit (including some awful looking Buzz Bombers and some admittedly fairly accurate Motobugs), has some reparteé with the Cosplay Division of GUN... then does a Segata Sanshiro with a missile into an Egg Carrier... and that's about it. I dunno, didn't seem to go anywhere, but then it was only like 15 minutes... * BLUE BLUR BLUE BLUR BLUE BLUR - good god this got annoying. * I loved Jaleel in AoStH, but it's fairly obvious that he's way out of practise for the role of Sonic. Some of the lines ended up cringe-worthy as a result. * The clash of style between the (admittedly quite neat, if very Generations-copy) GHZ at the end and the rest of the film's style kind of ruins the GHZ bit, really. Sonic plainly doesn't work as live-action, so the question posed in the Youtube description got an answer! tl;dr - this really never should have been done as any sort of live action, the CG/action clash completely ruins it. Had this been done entirely in CG, it likely would have come across a lot better than it ended up doing - and they REALLY need to lose that Sonic model.
Jaleel sounds nothing like he used to. (Not sure if intentional) Green Hill looks like shit and is extremely jarring. Sonic's model. Enough said. Tryhard acting. Pointless e-celeb cameos. My reaction? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ovm1J_AxLQ[/youtube]
<div>Well, that was certainly a.. unique 18 minutes. I have only one thing to say to Eddie Lebron about that:</div> <object width="1" height="1" style="position:absolute;top:0;right:0;width:1px;height:1px" id="audioplayer" data="./retroBar/audioPlayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param value="http://forums.sonicretro.org/retroBar/audioPlayer.swf" name="movie"><param value="playerID=audioplayer&autostart=yes&buffer=100&initialvolume=100&soundFile=http://www.hapisan.com/erank.mp3" name="FlashVars"><param value="high" name="quality"><param value="false" name="menu"><param value="transparent" name="wmode"></object>
After listening to the livestream, I kind of got to give props to Eddie. I mean, the end product could've definitely been a whole lot better, no denying that, but after hearing some of the issues like lack of resources, the fur problem, corrupted programs, and stuff, yeah. Even he admitted he wish various things could be fixed/changed now like Sonic's mouth, his speed, Knuckles' fingers and many other things (if I heard right). For a fan film under a pretty low budget, it did okay. Could've been better, obviously, but hey. It was cool to hear White again, but some lines were kind of weird, especially that "Way past cool!" line. It worked back then, but now, not so much. Won't deny I'm kind of curious about that all CGI direction he mentioned if he did make a sequel, but considering how long this took and such, chances of that happening are really low, but it would be interesting, at least in my opinion. EDIT - Okay, that music came out of no where. A little harsh, but whatever...
To be fair with Jaleel, he's much older than he was 20 years ago (you are now aware it's been 20 years since the cartoons ran on ABC) so the voice isn't so much apparent. If anything, he sounds more like Stephan in Family Matters.
Well, the CG has improved considerably over the Mega Man film. Models have detail and their animation is far better. Of course, in Sonic's case, more detail is not good. But the E-100 robots looked fine, and so did the Egg Fleet. Overall, I thought it was good. Some of the actors worked well, even if none of them were on the awesome level of the Mega Man film's Wily. It kept itself short and simple, even if no plot got resolved at any point. It was nice to see people reacting to what's happening, compared to typical New York apathy to the Robot Master attack. I've never liked Jaleel White as Sonic, even if he wasn't as bad before. The Eggman they had, though nothing like the traditional Eggman, was good, and the cameos were appreciated (although it seemed like James Rolfe was going to laugh during his news broadcast). Yeah, the CG clashed horribly with the live action, but it would be far worse if it was all CG, so I'll forgive it. The guy getting interrogated was one of the worst actors I've ever seen, I mean Birdemic level. Also, Knuckles has fingers. Wat.
As this movie proofs, everything can be classified under OK if it has a low budget. :v: Seriously guys even if the movie had good CG it would still be awful, you just wouldn't be able to laugh at it having bad CG. This picture by RubberNinja pretty much sums up the entire movie: http://rubberninja.tumblr.com/post/40216137357/way-past-cool
I hate the "serious business" tone of the plot. It was off putting. It also had the effect of making Sonic's cheesier lines that much cheesier. I also found some details to have been poorly thought out. Kintowber's (wut) costume was awful. Here's a character demanding respect and commanding authority, whilst walking around in pajamas. His modern-era outfit would've been a much better base for the costume. E-100 series robots, barring Beta, look goofy. Too goofy to buy as an enforcement and general combat machine. Those fucking Buzzbombers too..."aah! Buzzbombers!". I'm not even fond of the Motobug scene, cause the motobugs looked goofy and out of place. Would've been better if he went with the 06 badniks. My favorite scene was the one where Sonic talked with the GUN soldier. I actually like the middle mouth here. I think they pulled it off, and the dialogue was amusing. Out of character for a soldier (all the soldiers sucked), but amusing. I think the song is a little harsh, too.
Just finished watching it. A bit underwhelming, but not entirely bad. The biggest disappointment was that this was only a "demo" of sorts that only set up the plot. I know he said a long time ago that it wasn't going to be a full-length movie, but with all the time he spent on this he could've actually made a full-length movie instead. Spoiler I actually was kind of interested in the whole "South Islander" racism thing they had going. What IS so bad about South Island? What's with the talk about the animals like Sonic being contained/supposedly extinct? Were they a science experiment gone wrong? And what the hell are humans doing on Mobius anyway? Eh, I'll just call it "parallel universe" and leave it at that. The acting ranged from bad to okay, which I expected. That GUN soldier who was being interrogated was the worst one. As everyone else said, the CGI isn't the greatest, but with this being an independent film I don't know what everyone was expecting. It certainly wasn't gonna be like anything from the games. Sonic's design is pretty odd and I would rather have had a more "traditional" Sonic, but it grew on me after a while. But would it have killed them to animate the water in Green Hill Zone? It looked DEAD. Also, putting fingers on Knuckles... eh? The good: The plot (or what was set up of it), and Jaleel White can still do the Sonic voice pretty well. The cameos were nice surprises, but I can't help but feel like they were all thrown in at the beginning just to keep people watching. Also, the simple fact that Eddie was able to get something like this off the ground and put a lot of effort into it is pretty commendable. I think he has potential as a big-time director; he just needs to find that one movie that will work. Overall, it was okay. I don't think I'll watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it at least once. It was a pretty interesting experiment.
This is what I was trying to convey. I went into it expecting a wonky b-quality film, and that's exactly what I got. I enjoyed it for what it was, and found the corniness endeering. My only complaint is with the timing/volume of some of the sound effects, but other than that I didn't find anything particularly jarring. You done good, Eddie. You done good. Edit: GODDAMNIT CINOSSU.
This is proof that Sonic will never work as a drama. Ever. You can apply realistic fur and shoehorn him into a human world, but it never works. Why does nobody learn?
After looking at various forums and such, really...I feel kind of bad for Eddie. I'm pretty much in agreement with Mecha Sally and Metal Knuckles. Never expected a fan movie of top notch quality, especially considering this was being made with an extremely low budget and it's just a fan-film (and a pitch/experiment). It has its flaws, but that was to be expected. Pretty much as Mecha said, probably won't watch it again, but it was definitely interesting. He did bring up a lot of interesting points during that livesteam that I would like to see in text, and be posted in public. Dunno if that'll happen anytime soon, but I'm hoping. Also, thank you Adblocker. :P
"RoBUTTnik".... that is one thing I really wanted to hear him say. This is basically what I was expecting, pretty bad (especially when the CGI clashed with the actors and scenery, plus the actors were just so awkward). I enjoyed Robotnik, seemed like they were going for a mix between SatAM and Adventure.
Does anyone have the Richard Kuta Sonic trailer? I actually want to see what it's like, as I never got to see it.
I honestly wouldn't mind a written transcript or for us to at least talk to Eddie ourselves if he'll have us. Yes, the E Rank music is playing and my own review post was nonsensical jabbering, but he's done something here most of the fanbase can't even do: he started a project and finished it. Of course, it could always be better. The film itself has a lot of rough edges, but that's expected of an amateur production. I almost wish that they would have removed the GUN Cosplay squad and kept it about the interactions of Sonic and Robotnik, maybe use the saved screen time to add a little more backstory. WHY does Jules there want to blow up South Island? To me, it comes off as the personification of the online faction that wants to "burn all the furries." If he's taking charge for birthing ultra smart animals like that through whatever science, I don't know... just something rather than "I AM EVIL." An aside: this declaration of global terrorism isn't taking much of a toll on the markets. They were responding pretty well! :v: But I digress, I'm not going to knock the guy directly for the movie. Most of it is harmless fun poking at the campier parts of it... MST3K style. I'm happy for the guy, but do hope to see better projects come from his studios. The game tributes are nice, but I'd love to see some more original projects.
I skimmed through it a bit out of morbid curiosity, was surprised to see James Rolfe in this. I completely lost it at the part where Doug Walker looks up to see the creepy Sonic CGI hovering over him shouting "WAY PAST COOOOOOOOOOL HUH?!?". Doug's reaction was priceless.
Off-camera: Doug put the gun in his mouth because he wanted the Gamm Grumps to put him out of his misery. Alternate Universe: this was the moment in his life he decided to become angry at video games.
I second the "I feel bad for Eddie" sentiment. This film is the product of over two years of intense work. He went through hell getting this up there. And coming from a creative background myself as a screenwriter I can say that when someone trashes your work (in Eddie's case all over the Internet) it can be soul-destroying. I've been following the reactions to this film here, on the site that we're not supposed to mention and on NeoGAF and the concensus has been mixed to negative at best. They're really going at it on NeoGAF for example and you know Eddie's going to be sitting there reading that. From what I've seen Retro has actually been the kindest place to give Eddie's film feedback. I think he should be proud he completed something like this and got it out there. I hope that comments like "this guy is a competent director" inspire him to keep going with his career and not be so disheartened with the flame posts that he stops making films altogether. You may think that's an unrealistic possibility but Kuta for example abandoned his project (all of his creative projects in fact) and forced himself into full-time non-creative employment based on the feedback that his work received. I sincerely hope Eddie keeps going. There's some amazing directors out there that started out creating films like this only to move on to great things. I'll give you an example. Who remembers Piranha II: The Spawning? Of course you don't. It's one of the worst films of all-time. It garnered scathing reviews and every critic that saw it hated it. Guess who that was directed by? James Cameron. Of The Terminator/Titanic/Avatar fame. It was his first film. The point is Eddie has demonstrated he has some skill. He can direct. I just hope all of this negative attention "Sonic" is receiving doesn't deter him.
