Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie

I found this to be good, the acting was great, the plot was very interesting, the effects were great, it was overall a really great flick. I really enjoyed the acting that is coming from Linkara, the blue armless robot's speech was also really inspiring. The Comedy was also really great along with the continuity from the Channel Awesome Anniversary specials in which itself is one of the best internet films of all time. The Bee gun is also really a creative idea and seeing the Atop The 4th Wall ship come to life was incredible on how something from a green screen turned into a reality which to me was really impressive.

I'll come out and say it, I'm not a fan of Lewis, his character of Linkara or the Atop the 4th Wall thing he does on Youtube. This movie really wasn't for me. But I watched it out of morbid curiosity and... I made it through the first two parts and said I'm not watching any more. It was bad. It was really bad.

The problems are too numerous to count. The dialogue is written with all the gravitas of a high school student. It's pretentious dialogue where people don't speak like actual people. Then there's the acting. Some of it is okay. Most of it is bad. I mean none of these people are actors and it shows. The worst one would be Kaylyn or "Marzgurl" as she's known online. She can't deliver a line that sounds natural. Others are hit and miss. I think the most enjoyable one was Brad Jones as the Cinema Snob.

The story is just self-indulgent tripe. I get that maybe as a fan of this you'd want to see it. But for anybody else it's amateurish at best and not in a good way.

Linkara and Atop the Fourth Wall was always a bit of a grab bag for me. At the start there was actual care put into showing problems with the comic book. Maybe it was artwork, or problems with the story or motivation. Then as time went by it became less about that than just making lame jokes about panels. As Linkara's popularity increased so did the characters and the sketches. While he brought us the joys of Snowflame he also brought things like the "King of Worms". And that's where I gave up. It seemed to be more about Linkara and how amazing he was and not about the comics.

So when I heard that the AT4W movie had been completed and I saw the cast of Channel Awesome contributors I decided to check it out. I couldn't make it through the first part. I turned to the second part and maybe he'd have picked up something by then, get the preliminaries out of the way but no, the same problems exists. Namely none of these people can act.

It's fine for the little skits they do and I do like Brad Jones and Nash but the rest are a mixed bag. Allison is a little too over the top. Joe is always playing the same character. And let's be honest, Marzgurl can't deliver a line to save her life. The woman is a terrible actress.

No laughs, forced pathos, comic relief that didn't work, Marzgurl, it was a recipe for disaster.

The big anniversary specials stopped happening on Channel Awesome after 2012. I guess it doesn't matter much now seeing as how nearly everyone's left the website. This is the movie based on the web series "Atop The Fourth Wall". Since every episode is a review, this seemed like anything but a long episode. Could they have made a movie that was just one long review? His 500th episode was even longer than this movie!

This did seem like another anniversary movie. We got to see many of the other (former) members of Channel Awesome like Cinema Snob, MarzGurl, and briefly, the Nostalgia Critic. It's interesting because the series itself was known for having many silly and serious moments. This movie puts it together quite well. It's great to see references to the CA movies. I'm as shocked as everyone else to hear him say the f-word. ***

Linkara, his entourage and a few of the Channel Awesome gang go into space to help the non-responsive crew of the first manned exploration of Jupiter. There's something going on out there... and it ain't right. The bland title notwithstanding, I always say, if I was at all into story lines, there's no doubt Lewis does the best ones. That's why I don't stop watching when his videos go in that direction. He masters comic book plotting. This builds on To Boldly Flee, you really have to have watched it and at least some of the show to follow along... and throughout this, I will be comparing the two. As far as movies of Treks to Stars go, this is not just Search for Spock with various Star Wars films thrown in, albeit it does resemble The Motion Picture, and nothing ever should.

This is to a greater extent about people, characters, and they have better arcs. It helps that it greatly limits how many TGWTG people he brought. Well, for the ride itself. Back on Earth, a number of them do get cameos. Their personas are all captured equally as well, and they're both chock full of references to their various fandoms and bodies of work. And this is actually feminist! Every women here has her own voice, is strong, in control of her own life, and isn't an object, heck, isn't sexualized at all. Simply because there's no reason for that to be in this. We have a far scarier, creepier villain, because he's taken seriously.

There are also stronger emotional performances and scenes, that, like the exciting action, is never undercut by an insistence on always being funny. There's depth where you wouldn't think there would be. It gets existentialist. This explores themes of the scope of what's going on, comparing it to their regular lives, and, as per Mr. Lovhaug's deeper stuff, it's smartly written, intelligent, not preachy, honest and self-analyzing. Honestly, especially early on, some of the jokes in this are dry, he left too much of his wit behind in the reviews themselves. Near the end, he joins a select club of especially awesome people. It's faster, more intense. Again we get great, cool FX, make-up and designs. Here, a little of it is pushed to the point where we can tell how they did it. They juggle the many elements well. This comes to a running time of 120 minutes, or 113 if you don't count the end credits.

There is some swearing, violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of those involved. 8/10