I’m usually a little hesitant to watch “indie” films, though I can’t really figure out why. The low budget doesn’t really bother me, and the writing is sometimes shockingly superior to that of your average AAA movie. Top this with the fact that it’s a movie about a video game, a dark corner that has rarely been visited successfully, and you could have made a solid bet that I would never ever watch this movie. One night, however, I was feeling really adventurous and started it up.
The plot of Mega Man, the fan film, is what you’d expect. The ingenious Dr. Light has created a series of robots, in order to assist humanity. Dr. Wily, impressively portrayed by Dave Maulbeck, is here to do exactly the opposite, and reprogram the robots to enslave the world and do his bidding. Mega Man, Dr. Light’s latest creation steps up to stop the “evil” robots, and does so using a variety of abilities he gets from each enemy he defeats.
While it’s no surprise that Mega Man wins in the end, it is surprising how well all the characters worked out in a live action setting. Smalltime stars, Jun Naito and Edward X. Young, do impressive jobs as Mega Man and Dr. Light. Sung-Mo Cho even pulls off a convincing Proto Man. The only actor that falls off a bit is Jeanie Tse, who plays Roll…but it’s debatable whether it’s bad acting or the characters dopey demeanor.
It would be easy to say my favorite character was Mega Man, but that really isn’t the case. Dave Maulbeck is easily one of my favorite villains this year. Wily has always been a very stereotypically evil bad guy (angry at the world, wants to take it over, monologues excessively, ect.), yet he does it quite well. I really do think it takes true still to take a goofy guy like Wily, keep the goofiness, and still make him appear threatening.
In short, it’s good stuff. It’s video game movies done right. Directors should take notes.
No comments:
Post a Comment