MRat's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Larvae]

Somebody's been a busy bee!

This was simply glorious, in every sense of the word. I am in love. My heart goes out to you, good sir, for I am in your debt.

The art and sense of flow and style was remarkable. Awe-inspiring even, and more over I sensed a number of separate levels growing and expanding in this. Fantastic choice of music from our pal, Nathan.

I'm now off to observe more work from you.

Ansel responds:

i WAS a busy bee. I've worked on this like all day every day this week. IT WAS WORTH IT

[I Am Metal Slug]

Eh, could use a lot more work.

I know I'm going to catch endless heat for this, but oh well, reviews should be reviews not things like "LOLROFLMAO THAT WAS GREAT *votes 10*"

Here's the breakdown:

First the drawings were really bland. Lacked ingenuity and even basic understand of the most rudimentary art fundamentals like anatomy or perspective. Especially perspective. Your background was simply horrifying. Go set up a room the way you had this one set up, and you will see that none of the staging makes sense.

Secondly the joke was one that any Tom, Dick, or Harry could of thought up in 10 minutes while taking a dump. I skimmed some reviews, seeing is any of them had any merit at all (none that I saw did) and even in these reviews plenty of people mentioned they thought of the same joke. Oh, and I didn't think it was funny either, which is a big thing. It was some silly pun. I know that in your author's comments you mentioned that you're aware a slug is a bullet, but just because your aware does not excuse the error in your joke. Mistakes like that kill the humour all the more for me.

Third the animation. It was, well, hard to even watch. Stiff tweens with no easing does not a good Flash make. (I'm aware of the backgrounds grammar in that sentence, it's a play on a classic line that I doubt your familiar with.) The movements lacked any exaggeration, stretch or squash, or anticipation at all. None of the basic principles of animation are met. The movements were so boring and robotic.

Fourth is the sound. This was fine. No big issues. Your voice acting was very passable. A little forced and drab, but hardly anything to get worked up over at all. Your music choices were solid and fit the piece just fine.

Also, I agree with Nami-Oka, it was pretty darn stupid, but stupid isn't necessarily a bad thing. It irks me however that you would demand an honest, and at least critical reviews be marked as a abusive, yet let the mindless fan banter remain as it does.

I give you a 4 out of 10 for you solid soundwork, but failings in all other realms. Feel free to respond of PM me with ignorance, though I hope you will respond with something thought out.

BMack24 responds:

ouch, man. ouch. well, ok, here's the breakdown of your breakdown:

1) i've never really taken any good art classes. i'm about to be an art major in college, where i'll hopefully learn to draw better. my current drawing skill is mostly self-taught. while drawing the guy particularly, i did think that he looked kind of weird, but i wasn't sure how to do it better or correct it. i appreciate your input, you being an established flash artist and all, but it's still kind of unfair to bash me for my art like that when you don't know my artistic background or training. and it's only my second completed flash (compare the difference between this and my first), i have nowhere to go but up.

2) i know it's just a silly pun. i don't think it's all that funny myself. if you saw the review responses you'd know that i figured everyone would think it was stupid and lame when i submitted it. what happened was, i saw a slug, thought of metal slug, and thought of a slug made of metal. that's it. if someone else had animated it first (i made sure no one had) i never would've done it. i didn't even write a script for this thing; i just recorded the lines as i thought of them. hopefully my future submissions will be written better and more thought-out.

3) i have very little art training, and zero animation training. all of my current animation skill is self-taught. and, believe it or not, i actually did use a good bit of easing. and like with the art, i intend to improve with the animation.

4) glad you at least think the sound's good. not an experienced voice actor either.

5) i only made the 'abusive' remark because she said it was 'stupid' without giving any indication why. it's not that it was critical, it was just mean. i'm actually surprised i haven't had more critical reviews like this one.

so there you have it. i appreciate your criticism, but i resent all your insinuations of me being incompetent and ignorant. this is only my second flash and i really am surprised (pleasantly surprised, but surprised nonetheless) that it did even this well. maybe you're one of those people who hate video game parodies because they usually get undeserved high scores. well trust me when i say that i don't intend to make this a habit. my current project is 100% original. so sorry you didn't approve, maybe you'll like my future submissions better.

[Mastermind 3]

I've got hand it to you.

You've really got that red colour scheme down. Looks really nice. I also enjoy the jokes too. I guess I should mention that.

My tip on what to work on? Make the lipsync a little more exaggerated and try experimenting with some unqiue mouth shapes and stuff to give even the little details like that some flair.

The-Swain responds:

I save the FBF synching for Blockhead, with Mastermind I mostly use symbol frames. If I hadn't done it this way, we might have seen this cartoon done some time next week :(

BTW anyone who votes this as a helpful review will earn my undying appreciation <3 Thx guys, I do agree with MRat on this.

[Robot Frogs]

A gripping commentary...

... on a serious dilemma. I am please to see I am not the only concerned citizen who has taken notice of this terrible occurrence. It's incidents like these that cause the downfalls of empires. Rome, the Byzantine, MTV. The evidence has been laid out in plain sight time and time again by history.

I appreciate the action you've taken.

[RWD: 010 Mario12]

Hey Nick.

What's up my man? This was the greatest thing I watched today. Even better than Walk in the Park, which is saying something.

Brilliant art in this. Great colour choices and your linework is always so perfectly smooth and organic. I'm really impressed with how this turned out. Very smooth too. Plenty of glorious inbetweens, it would seem. Just love it.

Also, every single reviewer who henceforth complains like a whiny bitch about "lies" in the authors comments or that this is pointless shall be marked in my books as a fool and shall never earn a single grain of respect from me. This is obviously a terrible punishment because I am God himself.

[Kancer]

I too have cancer...

and this lovely little film has helped me too finally muster to courage to let the world know! I HAVE CANCER!

Thank you, Timlingins Frommeyer-san, for without your love and care I'd be a hollow shell of a man locked in an eternal war with my own soul and desires to be a free and open spirit. No more though, no more.

[2girls1cup Mario Reaction]

That video

makes me so horny, even now.

I love that you did a little FBF on that blood there. As you know, I'm bored with sprites these days. Bored to death. But it was just fine for what it was, so I'm not going to mark you down, THIS TIME FOO!

[The TV Commercial]

Another ConAir masterpiece.

Wow, first off, I get special thanks? Haha that's awesome. It's great to finally see this reach fruition. I've been waiting, as you kow.

It may be weird, because your jokes are so simple, but think your probably the most hands down hilarious guy on NewGrounds. Just like Small Talk, this is the essence of life captured, and it's funnier than you'd think.

Anyway, it was brilliant. The fish eye view was off, but it wasn't bad enough to detract from the film.

Great work, my friend.

ConAir responds:

Yeah I've heard that about the fisheye type shot, guess I'll have to put a little more work into those in the future. I think my problem was that the ceiling seemed a little low over the speakers head and it felt really enclosed. Anyways, (special) thanks for the review.

[Orange Rhymes]

Pure Genius!

As short as it is, it shouldn't be a second longer. This is absolutely perfect in every way. Not a single complaint from me. NOT ONE.

This is possibly the most positive review I've ever written. This is up there with the genius of ConAir!

AlmightyHans responds:

omg.... too much honor! I THANK YOU!!!

[Alex Seryoua: Episode I]

Here it is, finally!

I've been eagerly anticipating this release. It's easily your best work to date. Really good direction to it and the atmosphere works very well.

The transition from the commotion of the facility to the dead silence of the moon surface is simply perfect. I could have asked for a better moment. Despite how odd it is, the jpeg image of the Earth rather than the drawing actually delivers a really nice effect I find. It really drive the distance and absurdity of her situation home. I like that about it.

My only complaints are they really stiff and flat character animation on Alex. The tweens are very, well, tweeny and lack personality or drive to make her feel like an actual person. She seems like a character the way it is right now, and not someone to sympathize with.

So yeah, the big thing to work on for me for the next installment is to get down and work out yuor character animation so that it is much more fluid and dynamic. One of the most important aspects to animation people is for their personality to be in their body language. Just like live-action acting, your animated characters too best convey themselves as really people with personalities and life.

Still, for everything else, I'm slapping a 10 onto this.