Phantosanucca's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[A&K Battle Rocks]

Heh, Hammer Bros.

I imagine it isn't easy to have the name "Joseph Blanchette" at Newgrounds. Ever since your earlier works, it seems no one can be pleased anymore. Everyone's expectations from your earlier works are so high up that anything remotely new or different is just upsetting(truth that Newgrounds will always be a little Indie). I think the people here are a little unmerciful in that regard.

No, this particular flash is not a histerical, side-splitting, knee-slapping film that we apparently expect from you EVERY TIME. But it's a cute, simple little narrative that does not require flashy, ultra-detailed graphics, sound effects or even dialogue. It does its job, and it does it well. And it entertained. I think it says something about this flash that it made me take the time out to write a review here for the first time in over a year.

It's nice to see an otherwise big-name flash artist take the time out to do something like this. It would be wrong of us to expect a parody blockbuster every time, and it's these little artistic diversions from which creativity spews forth at an unchallenged rate. It's a nice little portfolio piece.

~A.W.H.

[Hunter Zero Ep.3]

Took you long enough. =P

I like how you give time for some dialogue between characters, even unimportant ones like the soldiers and operators. Unlike every other episode in these series', this one doesn't dwell on violence or action, giving us a much-needed chance to get adjusted to the characters involved. Although there are a couple of questions that feel unanswered.

There is no explanation as to how Bass was revived, or how he was put under Sigma's control. Also, why is no one questioning Sigma's supposedly good intentions? In fact, how did Sigma come back from the dead? Blues almost gives the impression that he's suspicious, but the flash never really explores it, or any of these questions. Of course, it does validate his suspicions through flashbacks, and in small snippets of dialogue.

Speaking of which, there has been a tremendous jump in quality in the voice acting. It's still pretty cheesy, but at least now all of the characters sound the way they -should-. Megaman actually sounds younger than his brother, Elecman and Quickman are given more interesting personalities through their voices, and this helps contrast with the rest of the cool-as-nails characters. It sounds like the actors are actually TRYING, although not always successfully hitting the mark.

Again, because this episode focuses more on dialogue and anticipation, it creates a better stage for the inevitable anime-esque battle sequences that occur. It could've used some more sound effects, and the scrolling background layers scenes felt a little choppier now than in past episodes. But it's clear you're trying to accomplish something here, and you have a certain nack for dramatic presentation and proper pacing, even if the characters aren't of your own property. It makes for a commendable fan-fiction.

~Phantos

CheveLoco responds:

This 3rd episode was aimed to answer most of the plot questions most viewers would have BUT not all of them. Just because everything wasn't covered in this episode doesn't mean they won't be covered in the next 2(many seem to think the 4th will be the last episode but this is a 5 part series)

Sigma didn't come back from the death, maybe you don't know but this is the final part of a trilogy of series i created(starting with Megaman and X:Final battle) as a matter of fact i would reccomend to watch them all to fully understand the story i'm trying to tell, otherwise you won't understand some simple details in this story, like why Blues is the only one suspicious about Sigma, or why Sigma is not back from the death as you seem to think.

[Framed Randomly]

"I've seen worse at Newgrounds..." [4.5/10]

This kind of flash, with just a bunch of random frame-by-frame animations of lines turning into stuff has been done to death. The animation was skippy(being that it was only at 12 fps), and could've used more frames. The music was your run of the mill bad techno from the audio portal, but you made use of what you had to work with.

I've seen far worse at Newgrounds(particularily in the last 5 minutes), but you could put a *little* more effort into your next flash movie. I'd suggest working with an actual plot next time, and really focusing on how your movie looks and sounds. Keep at it, and you'll be a pro in no time at all.

~Phantos

[MK vs. SF]

"One of the but better sprite movies..." [7.5/10]

At first glance, this would appear to be "just another lame sprite movie that uses inspiration from The Matrix". But it wasn't until I actually sat through it that I saw this is high above the norm. Definitely the most fluid sprite movie ever made, you tirelessly placed as many sprites as possible for the 4 fighters. And it's not all sprites either, as we're treated to some VERY professionally-designed text-boxes and menu screens.

The music was a treat for the ears too... It's just too bad you DIDN'T LIST THE SONGS USED! Keepin' all those mp3's to yourself, eh? :P

The low point of the film is the "plot". Not only does it start off at a point which is clearly not the beginning, we aren't really given a whole lot on what happened before(aside from that one text box at the beginning). And the characters, like all sprite movies, fight for NO REASON... Well, Ken explains why he fights at the end, but it's not something you wouldn't find in any dumb action movie.

Back to graphics, the sprites can be from a really good looking game(like Street Fighter Alpha or Megaman X), but they're only as good as they are used. The choreography in this flash is some of the best I've seen in any flash movie thus far. I specifically like the scene where Ken and Raiden find millions of ways to evade their own attacks. It's not only VERY tense, and magnificently pulled off, but it's such a refreshing change from most sprite movies. Very good move on your part.

So, long story short, what you lack in story, you distract with clean, fluid sprite animations and an impressive collection of unidentified music. One of the shorter, but better sprite movies ever made. I hope to see more projects from you in the future.

~Phantos

[Mask]

"An Enjoyable, if cliched film." [6.5/10]

This film is interesting... It appears as though you wanted to make an artistic film, but it tended to borrow the more memorable "artistic" aspects that have ingrained themselves into our culture. It comes off as uncreative, which conflicts with the creativity you wanted to portray.

First of all, using the most overplayed medieval song of all time remixed with electric guitars is a rather uncreative move. Why not search for less mainstream but no-less powerful songs with the ancient celtic feel to them? Green Sleeves(the song featured) is to music what Dracula is to horror movies. When it first appeared, it moved people and awoke powerful emotions in us, but after so much time and after so much parody, it's no longer credible. It's almost goofy to hear it now, which conflicts with the mood of your plot.

Also, the whole "swordfighting your inner demons" twist has been done to death as well. As is the "Oh, it was only a dream" twist. Inspiration is ok, but only when one doesn't go overboard with it. This only works when it is a parody, like I mentioned before. This is clearly not meant to be a funny movie, so the entire collection of cliched "artistic" touches just feels tired.

But it's not like you aren't trying. You've CLEARLY got talent, and you know what you want to do. You not only know how to draw correctly, but your animation skills are very developed as well. Although I could spot a couple of scenes where you just moved a still picture around to show some sort of anxious movement, you admitted that you didn't have all the time in the world to work on this, so a flaw or two is forgiveable.

Again, your only real "issues" are with the expression of the film. It conveys sequences, stories and events everyone and their mother has seen used mercilessly. Instead of looking at the more popular or famous examples of dramatic techniques, I would suggest looking towards more independant films. The kind that don't follow all the guidelines of what a film should be. Rules were meant to be bent, eh?

Anywho, I can't say it was a bad movie, or even a mediocre film. But you gotta set aside some time to really flesh out something original and unique for yourself. If you can find a way to colour and/or shade in future movies, that will help too.

An Enjoyable, if cliched film. Keep up the good work.

~Phantos

[Nim's Winter tale]

"...a wonderful and imaginative flash..." [9.0/10]

I'm usually reluctant to check out a lot of flash movies presented on the front page(as of late, the ratio of good-to-bad films has peeked into the latter category), but I'm glad I took the risk this time. Nim's Winter Tale is a wonderful and imaginative flash movie.

Too often I see flash movies here that absolutely HAVE to have something happening(or exploding) in almost every frame. The better films tend to take things slower, but never to the lengths you've gone to to provide dramatic pacing. I LOVE how it takes it's time to invite the viewer into the little world you've presented. And I think it's even better that you don't feel it necessary to have all of the whimsical, mythical characters you've introduced in pointless conflict with eachother. More cool points.

And this sleepy, dream-like story has some terrific visuals and an even greater soundtrack to back it up. Hearing that aural, almost medieval sound makes the entire experience all the more terrific.

What else can I say? This is just an exquisite flash movie.

~Phantos

[Blackman Dead]

"Technological issues scar presentation." [6.5/10]

This had a lot going for it. A compelling and profound poem brought to life with impressive visuals and style, but there is one thing that keeps it from attaining the greatness it deserves. The sound. While you used all the right sounds necessary to create the mood, and while the voice actor doesn't have a horrible voice, whatever he used to record his lines must have been a very shoddy microphone. NO VOLUME CONTROL in this film as well, and because of the lackluster technology, the speech and the sound effects come off FAR too loud and distorted. The music was quiet and subtle, but surrounded by sound effects and speech which don't just overshadow it, but nearly obliterate it. If it was intentional, then I can understand what you were trying to go for, but it didn't sound professional. Quite the contrary. The speech and sound effects were elegantly used, but had the same quality as those horrible flash movies where they guy screams too close to the microphone and you get that ear-drum bursting sound, not unlike an orangutan mating with an acchordion. Which is a huge shame, because this is a movie in which the sound makes or breaks it entirely.

Sure, we have gorgeous visuals that never get too pompously overused or emphasized, and don't have to use too many tricks to get the point across, but graphics are only half, maybe even only 1/3rd of a movie. You chose to present the message of this film through speech, but the recording software you used just worked against you. We have to listen to a great poem, from a man with a decent, fitting voice, through horrible recording technology. It's like, haveing 15/20 vision, needing glasses, and misplacing or accidentally stepping on them right before going to see the Mona Lisa.

Regardless of the sound problems, at least you TRIED. It's not like you put 30 seconds of effort into deciding/performing the vocal portion of this movie. It's clear a great amount of effort and heart went into this, and I can't overemphasise how well you get the message and the meaning across through this flash. It's just the technological issues which scar it's otherwise perfect presentation. :(

~Phantos

PS: Have you ever read the poem "Strange Fruit"? It's one of the more memorable poems based on the persecution of African-Americans. So memorable, Billy Holiday performed the song version as I recall. It too is a pretty gripping touch on the horrible things these people had to suffer through, just because they were different. :(

[Broken Saints FINALE]

"...resolution..." [10/10]

I've been meaning to write a review for this series ever since the rest of the episodes began being submitted to Newgrounds, but I never got around to it. So I promised myself I would at least put in a review for the last episode, as I feel one cannot review something until it is over, and the viewer has fully experienced it. And what better time to write a review than the release of the Broken Saints Finale?

First of all, congratulations on gettin' this series to DVD. I'm sure the experience must be far greater with voices(+20 cool points for getting the guys who do Megatron and Cancer-Man :D). And rest assurred that if I had a credit card, the first thing I'd do is order a copy all for me(maybe a couple for my friends who are too lazy to watch the whole series online :P).

Now then, on to more pressing matters. I'd say the biggest complaint many of the people* at Newgrounds have, is that there isn't a whole lot of animation. Well, the difference between this and other flash series is that this series is about 95% hand-drawn/painted and then scanned. And another thing to keep in mind is that some people are better at animating moving pictures, while others are better at making terrific still drawings. This series uses the style of the latter option. Instead of using crazily animated single-colour creatures jumping around shooting lasers, what we're treated to is something that doesn't require smooth-as-silk motion. This series offers brilliant still art scenes manipulated through Flash, amidst a breathtaking plot, and a monumental and entirely original soundtrack, things many flash artists/authors can't even imagine having, let alone using, in their wildest dreams. The direction and the flow of this series is one that puts theatrical films to shame. Many people** here, I believe, are taking this for granted, with stupid reviews which follow the basic patterns of: "iTs 2 muhc intellgient talkin so i hate it! FAG! lol" and "Whoa, cool flash. You should make a series out of it. :D" -_-;

There have been counts of great artists leaving Newgrounds and refusing to post any of their newer works because of the demented people*** who give horrible attempts at constructive criticism, treating the reviews as if it were some sort of chat-program, where poor-spelling and complete ignorance are commonplace.

So you people**** are bored 'cause it has too much talking? Be glad this is here at all! By next week, the most intellectually-stimulating and groundbreaking movie showcased will most likely involve animals shitting and killing each other. Honestly, I tried to sit here and actually analyze this to come to a conclusion, but I already know that I have nothing but praise for this. Something as intricately-woven as Broken Saints only comes along once in a blue moon, maybe a lifetime. And I for one am glad that we had the privilege of witnessing the resolution to one of, if not THE finest flash movie series ever made.

~Phantos

* Morons
** Slow Teenagers
*** Ritalin Addicts
**** Huffers of Paint

[Roof Tiling]

[7/10]

I was kind of going into this expecting the same mind-renching horror and tastelessness of Milkman, so I was a bit surprised(and VERY relieved) to see that this isn't following the same path as the worst flash movie ever submitted by a talented flash author at Newgrounds. In many ways, it's almost the exact opposite.

Here we have entirely hand-drawn characters and backgrounds, in a unique, scratchy pencil and paper style. There's some decent voice acting, and some varied characters, and some cryptic writing to go along with it. While I'm not so sure what the basic plot IS, you were never one to go with a linear style of storytelling anyway, so you get what ya pay for... Or not... Since flash is free... Yeah...

*cough*

So uh, yeah, good job. I hope to see more stuff like this from ya in the future. :)

~Phantos

[Hunter Zero Ep.2]

[6.5/10] "Here's hoping things keep working out"

Well, it's been a few months since the last episode of Hunter Zero. It's good to see you're really taking the time to work on it. There was a bit of an obstacle with the arranging of the voices some time back, but it looks like things worked out...

Well, the first thing I noticed about this movie is that there is a lot of manual resizing in the sprites... While I can understand why it would be necessary, to make the images smaller to make the shot look like the camera is farther away, it ends up making the characters look a lot more pixely and distorted. Of course, I don't currently know a better way, so I can understand why it was done.

The bright side of the Graphics category is that you seem to be getting better and better with each movie, in terms of how sprites are used. You really know how to make a sprite movie look fluid and entertaining. And it all goes nicely with the music.

The music, 'though not quite as varied as the last few episodes, still sets the stage for THIS episode. However, as much as I'd like to say the voices featured perfectly fit the characters and situations... Unfortunately...

...

Well, considering this is just Newgrounds, and not a fancy acting school, it's understandable that the voice acting isn't going to be oscar-caliber. But it's hard to listen to voices that simply don't fit the characters(Megaman & Zero especially), when the writing is really something worthwhile. I actually enjoyed the movie more with the sound off, just reading the text. I just couldn't listen to people who could barely read the lines and not sound sub-par, when they COULD have emphasized the emotion in their lines better.

2 more things irked me.

1. The scene with Sigma... Was this supposed to be a look into the future? Otherwise, I don't see how it would be physically possible for Sigma, a reploid built in 21XX, to be in a base made in 22XX, set in the year 20XX, in which the original Megaman storyline takes place. That's a robot built 100 years AFTER the point in which this movie takes place, standing and talking in a building that shouldn't exist for another 200 years. I can see you've got something planned for us, but as of right now, it just kind of confuses me...

And the re-appearance of you know who... I think a better twist COULD have been made, considering this is a character who has "died" in the last episode of both Final Battle & Bass' Revenge. In FB, we took it seriously. In BR, we took it seriously. But now that he's back, AGAIN, it just loses a bit of credibility. If you were to kill off the character again, it wouldn't have the same effect as the last two series, because we'll just be expecting you to bring him back from the dead again... It's what I like to call the "Wily/Sigma Syndrome". Capcom keeps trying to make us believe the "new villain", but we know all the way down sunset that it's gonna be Wily and Sigma as the big bad boss in the end. Wily has been the final baddie 9 times, four of which, we were led to believe it was someone else, only to fight him in that damn floating pod again. Sigma will have made 8 appearances as the Final Boss once Megaman X8 arrives on our shores, but Capcom tried to make us believe that someone else was behind the wheel FIVE times! There isn't a a concievable way to surprise the public with this sort of "twist" anymore. The only solution is to either hype up his death like crazy, as Capcom is doing now for X8, or let the character LIVE by the time all is said and done.

It would kind of make sense, since a lot of people think Bass and Axl are the same person anyway, but that's still debatable... Personally I think Axl is Megaman fused with Treble, but I'm a terrible guesser anyway...

Well, that's enough nitpicking from me. I look forward to the next episode. You're known for your kick-ass conclusions, so I think it's safe to say that there's a lot to look forward to. Here's hoping things keep working out for ya until then.

~Phantos