Ashens 1, Nerd 0


Both movies take a character from the popular web series, put him in a ludicrous over-the-top situation with an irritating never-seen-before sidekick, both include heaps of embarrassing hit-and-miss jokes ... yet while I truly enjoyed Stewart's movie and want to see it again soon, I barely managed to finish the James' one in three separate sittings and I never, ever want to see it again.

Damn it, Nerd. What the hell happened?

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To reiterate,

I didn't like it much either which I was expecting not to considering he had already stated that it was going to be in the same style as his skit episodes like Nintendo World Championships which I hated.

But then I watched the film again and knowing what to expect I realized while it has its faults (like any movie) it does have a charm. Watching the Nerd on a grander scale like this is quite satisfying, at least to me and there were a lot of good ideas (even if some of them weren't executed perfectly) and I found myself enjoying it a lot more than the first time.

I think everyone built this movie up in their heads their own way because it had such a long production time. We all had expectations of what we wanted to see out of it and being an internet audience means everything was going to be critiqued a lot harsher. There was just no way they were going to meet those expectations.

For me, watching it a second time it's grown on me and I know there are scenes I will like to go back and rewatch again, just like in his reviews. It's also just cool to see someone's dream and ambition who you've been following for years come to life even if its not all what you expected or would have preferred.

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^I had the exact same experience the second time, and I couldn't have articulated my overall feelings better than this guy did. Well said, sir.

http://tinyurl.com/kz5er35

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"Watching the Nerd on a grander scale like this is quite satisfying,"

Just out of curiosity, what was satisfying about it? Just watching Rolfe's face is somehow 'satisfying', is it?

So basically you could have been just looking at a photo of him for a couple of hours, and been just as well satisfied..?

Watching AVGN episodes is satisfying because of the GAMES, not because of the NERD. The nerd is more like a narrator that brings us the perspectives about the games.

What was so satisfying about seeing this narrator and a lot of unrelated new faces jump around in boring desert scenery and basically amount to nothing that movie characters usually amount to?

The complete lack of actual video game footage and actual game reviews (I am not sure if the sub-par "EeTee" (a fictional game instead of the real one..) review counts) is somehow satisfying because of "grander scale"?

What's so great about the 'grander scale' anyway? I mean, the image resolution and aspect ratio shouldn't matter, and there are already reviews in 16:9 aspect ratio, so that can't be the 'grand' about the scale.

Do you mean that instead of a basement/room, he's actually 'in the world'? That doesn't seem to improve anything, and this movie is proof of it.

So what do you even mean by 'grander scale'? If the movie was filmed in a typical movie resolution, and one watched it in a real, silver screen theater, and the Nerd would look actually physically huge, then I could sort of see what 'grander scale' means.

But basically, this is just like an AVGN episode, with game-related footage and reviews completely removed, and a lot of 'skits stuff' added. I mean, he has left his room before in AVGN episodes, so there's nothing 'grand' about that.

I just can't see your point about the 'grander scale', or the 'satisfaction'.

A good review is satisfying.

A nonsensical movie with incoherent, messy non-storyline that goes nowhere - HOW is that satisfying? I just don't get it.

"...and there were a lot of good ideas"

Just as example, could you name five specific, GOOD ideas?

I can only think of couple; the whole bit about the E.T. -- oh, sorry, "EeTee" cartridges being made of the spaceship pieces, and that the game is actually a blueprint of a secret facility. But even that is a bit implausible; would they really make a game in Area 51, or would an Area 51 employee really go looking for work as a game designer, etc..? Like they wouldn't carefully control and monitor people who have that kind of access anyway.

" (even if some of them weren't executed perfectly)"

Could you name some examples, so we know what you are talking about?

I don't even care how things were 'executed' - I just care that the storyline is crap, the movie is incredibly boring, there are unnecessary, politically-correct token characters, that the movie didn't offer even one funny joke/scene/whatever -- and that the movie COMPLETELY LACKED the game-related stuff I am sure a lot of the audience was expecting (though after the trailer, I definitely wasn't). Some fabricated fake footage, and a sub-par review of a fictional game -when-the-credits-are-already-rolling- don't really count.

What sort of irritates me the most about the whole eight year project is that with that much money, resources, energy, effort and sweat, a large bunch of really great AVGN episodes could have been made.

Basically, the movie is a tombstone to the great unborn AVGN episodes - the episodes, that weren't.

I am sure that even the most ardent fanboys would gladly trade this movie for five to fifteen good AVGN episodes from a parallel Earth, where they actually got made.

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Only saw the trailer for this Ashens movie.

Production values look much better but the quality seemed bad as well.

Stuff like this reminds me of "Movie Poop Shoot.com" from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

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baba are you that fat British guy who bought a ghost buster's trap? if so you're a broken record. and not that many people know who Ashens is to want see a feature length video of him, he pre-dates the NERD? I don't recall an Ashens on YouTube circa 2006/2007 and I don't recall AlbinoBlackSheep having any Ashens.. so who cares? does he get full packed theaters of fans? does he get donations? video games based on him? appearances in Japanese Anime? I've never heard of him until this post.

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Actually his film was Kickstarted successfully, he's been making videos since 2005 AND his audience actually goes beyond preteens with Aspergers.

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I really enjoyed Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild. So much infact, I decided to buy a copy of Blu-ray, I'm happy to support people who give something back to the fans and not just take, take, take. Stuart Ashen is also a better actor than James and under plays it.

I thought the plot was average and predictable at times, but it was still tons of fun, and the over the top moments were well balanced.

I noticed someone uploaded the AVGN movie on YouTube to watch for free.

It's pretty bad, had to stop watching, only wanted to watch Doug Walker's cameo.

"im beautiful your not" - me
"you're* [angry]" - you

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