ANZAC

Kieran Barnett is relevantly new to the world of brickfilmering, and his first films shows that his name will be known by many others very soon. His first film, Creative love impressed me with its depth for a min long short. After watching it, I've been waiting for when his new video shows. Now, it has.

His new film, ANZAC is about a soldier in battle during a beach landing. I thought it would be a thoughtless war action film, but it shows what is going though a soldier's head, and the sacrifice that they make for us. The voice acting quality was fine, but the sound effects drowned it out at times. The animation was great, but the one shot camera technique wasn't done right. The camera were blurry at times.

As well, I was disappointed by the fight scene. There was no muzzle flash. The soldiers were just moving their guns up and down. And when they were "shooting", they looked like they were humping the air. They kept doing it, so they must have enjoy it. Overall, it's a decent short. It's in a contest now, so I recommend it for you guys to vote for it. Vote here!

3/5

Perpetual Twilight

At first, I thought it was a twilight fan film.

Thankfully, it's not. Perpetual Twilight is about the struggle between elves and vampires for a power source. It was made for a contest on bricksinmotion on contrast. The award was well deserved. I won't say too much on the plot as I plan not to reveal any spoilers in my reviews, but I can say it was well written and detailed. No stone was left un-turned. The music fit in well, so kudos to the composer. The cinematography in the film was amazing. It really brought in more life in the sets, which were very well designed.

Of course, the film had some problems. The film had these, like tracking shots, similar to the ones in Gravity, but it was not effective. It was cool, but in a few shots, it would zoom in on a wall, then return back to the action. This technique was only effective for the fight scene at the end, which was awesome. There were minor set bumps and light flickers, but it would be hard to notice.

The music somethings overlapped the voice actor's lines. I had a little trouble hearing what they were saying. Speaking of the actors, the female asked the council a question:"All the favor?", then a microsecond later, she says "It's decided". The line felt rushed. But despite the flaws, this is a great watch. You will keep your eyes on the screen from beginning to end.

4/5

Gray Latitude - Part One

With those unfamiliar, Gary Latitude is a brickfilm announced a few years ago to be made by Nick Durron. The trailer was quite interesting, a sci-fi mystery. It was recently canceled, yet Nick decided to complete it, and release it to us.

I am a fan of Nick's work. All of his brickfilms have such amazing and intriguing stories, at the skill level to rival a certain writer named George Orwell. But sometimes, even the best has weaknesses. Nick has only released part one of four, which is great because if it was only part one, I would give him 1.5 stars out of 5!

Let me explain. In the story, Peter Gray has to face menacing forces in the late 19th century in New York city. I didn't like the setting. How come terrible events always happen in New York? Marvel destroyed that city countless times. The tone of direction shows that this film would be dark, with the amazing unsettling music, but at the end, the main character mocks death, funerals, and rain. The joke was unnecessary and threw me off. At the beginning, there was a murder. Fine, if it was a cop investigation. Since the film is about someone who knew him, a scene should have portrayed them interacting.

The talking scenes were long, and boring.  The mouth movements were great, yet he could have used facial expressions. A happy face at a funeral? The kidnapping scene seemed rushed. I felt it could have been better executed. To be honest, I watched the film four times half way. It was hard to stay interested. The quality is less than your previous work, but since you made it a few years ago, I won't hold that against you. I just hope part 2 is better.

But this is still an interesting watch. Great acting, music, direction, animation, and special effects. I'd only recommend it once I've seen the whole time.

3.5/5

Literal Man (Go-film)

Literal Man is a nice little short about a superhero who has to beat a villain, and he literally does everything people tell him to. Just tell him what the do straight. No hidden messages or anything. No, but honestly, I like this. The animation was incredible from the beginning, and the sound quality was great. I only wish it was longer. But now, the negatives. Blue: the background in every scene was an unnatural blue, which I found annoying. The sets were okay, but I feel much more detail could have been added. It didn't look like much of a construction site.

There was a minor set bump during the drive thru scene, but It's hard to notice.  To be honest this idea has kind of been done before. The "It's a bird, it's a plane..." line is used so much, I hate superman now. As well, the basic story is that there is an absent minded hero that annoys the good guys. There are many brickfilms that have a similar story. The only thing that sets this film apart is the animation quality. END films, you can make so much better animations than this, and once you do, I'll watch it in a heartbeat.

3/5

Henri & Edmond - Copyright

Yeah, I'm reviewing brickfilms now, in an effort to post more on this blog, and generate more interest in it.

Henri & Edmond - Copyright has been praised as one of the greatest brickfilms ever made, and with a sequel coming out later, I decided to watch the film for the first time. It was so worth 30 mins of my time. After downloading a mp3 file of a song, Henri is tracked down by a copyright protection agency. His best friend Edmond, the fireman is the only one who can help him. The description seemed to be simple, and I felt that I would been bored, but that wasn't the case.

The screenplay was surprisingly very well written. The film's animation was amazing, combined with excellent lighting and very detailed sets. The voice actors were great, sounding very professional, and combined with the English subtitles, and minifig movements, it made the brickfilm 10x funnier. A brickfilm being funny is rare, as most are 1 minute shorts with a stupid fart joke, or something. The way the characters broke the fourth wall was a great way for the viewer to feel that they knew the characters, making them want our heroes to succeed in their quest. I like Herni and Edmond's relationship in the film. They are a great comedic duo together. The soundtrack was great, with the original song a nice little thing to listen to. There is not much to say that hasn't already been said, but it is clear that Maxime Marion put a lot of effort into this film, and I congratulate him . The success he is getting for this film is well deserved, and I are personally excited for the sequel.

5/5

Here's the film:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

The film that started off the summer blockbuster films of the year. Two years after the first film, this film follows Peter having relationship problems, daddy problems, and super villains problems. Three villains, just to be clear. Spider-Man 3 was terrible because the villains weren't really developed enough, and I feared that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would do the same. I was wrong. IT WAS TEN TIMES WORSE!

First, the positives. Andrew Garfield, in my mind, is still the best actor the play Spider-man. Like him, or hate him, we are stuck with him until 2020, when his contract is over. His chemistry with Emma stone is one of the film's strong points. Dane Dahann is one of my favourite actors, and soon, when people ask who played the green goblin, they won't be saying James Franco.( Not dissing Franco either, just saying)

Now the negatives, which is alot. I didn't like Jamie Foxx's Electro. Not racist, since I'm black. Anyway, the character is practically a baby, who is obsessed with Spider-Man. This kind of behavior should put Max in a mental hospital. The sloppy dialogue that Jamie was given makes this one of his worst performances. Speaking of dialogue, the whole script was bloated, filled with characters. Rhino did nothing for the film. I know they added him to get us pumped for the next spidey film, but the way he was introduced to us was pointless.

The special effects are top notch, but the fight scenes were very short. For the longest Spidey film ever, you would expect a lot of violence. Marc Webb has made it clear he can't direct action. The fight scenes didn't have spidey throw a single punch. Just swinging around, and throwing things with his webs. The Green Goblin fight was sad. Just pushing, and well, pushing. The next spidey better be good, or the franchise will fail, Sony loses alot of money, and the rights go to disney.

2.5/5

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence