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.

If you liked the trailers you will probably like the movie, but if you had doubts about the new characters and the writing right off the bat, you will probably think like me.

I'm a fan of the AVGN from the beginning and will always be a fan.

But that movie is not well-written. Not well at all. Some people that were at the Fantasia film festival reported that all jokes were met with roaring laughter, but I was at the same screening and did not experience that. The laughs were scarce and only a few jokes are really clever and well written in the dialogue. So most of the movie was silence and polite laughs once in a while. About 10 "real" laughs.

The writing is REALLY sub-par and underwhelming. Might that be the contribution of Kevin Finn, compared to James Rolfe writing alone his episodes of AVGN? I don't know and don't want to dump the blame too easily on one person.

It seemed like the wits, the cleverness of James scripts (usual AVGN episodes) were gone and all that stayed was a naive, unsubtle script and dialogues. Most of it is contrived, a little stupid and clichéd.

The effects are good and fun, there is some really cool model work there, and I found that the effect shots and the editing were really well done. I know a lot of things were done in post-production, but it doesn't show, the movie holds very well together.

If only the writing was there to support the rest of the movie and make it funny... That should have been the bone that holds all that meat together, but it fails.

The sidekick of James is naive, annoying and stupid. Not really the actor's fault because his lines are so bad... They should have went, after all, for Mike Matei. I know he's camera shy and everything, but I felt people wanted to see people they knew and would pardon a couple of acting mishaps if need be. We needed a cynical, witty sidekick, not a naive idiot making bad jokes over bad jokes. Sometimes the same bad joke like 5 times during the entire runtime (like his mother calling him over and over).

The nerd girl character arc is mostly boring and unnecessary. They could have cut 5 or 10 minutes from the movie for her alone. All her interactions with the bad guys are cringe worthy. Here again, I feel the actress is good but that the material is seriously lacking.

It's like they thought it was funny on paper with the quick repartees and physical humour, but it doesn't connect so the "uncleverness" of the dialogue and script REALLY shows.

It is unfortunate like I said because the movie by itself could be very fun! They could have cut at least 30 minutes of bad dialogue EASY if you ask me. The whole thing felt slow and didn't pick up quick enough. Should definitely have been more fast-paced and less relying on the sidekick and nerd girl. We were there to see James after all. Having a well-written better sidekick could have worked in though! :) I am still very proud of the final product as far as EVERYTHING else besides the dialogue, because it looks GREAT and feels GREAT.

It is only my opinion and I don't intend to offend, I still love James and his work. I will still support the guy in his future endeavours and WILL buy the movie to help him finance whatever else he might want to do.