Pocru's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[SS13_1 - Crystals]

...I think it's time we had a talk.

I've been a watcher of your series for a good long time now. And to the best of my knowledge, while some of your research and knowledge has been... er... "questionable", I've never fully suspected you didn't really know what you were talking about.

...but then came that complete trite about the Crystal Skulls.

Have you even googled Crystal Skulls? Even once? I did, and to my surprise, I learned that the Crystal Skulls were likely created in the 1950's. In fact, every single piece of evidence, from the type of crystals used to the manner in which they were shaped to the dates that they were attained, indicate that not one of the skulls existed before the 1950's. And you know, I honestly don't know if you willfully ignored that information, or if you didn't know about it in the first place, but either way, this is inexcusable.

Look- far be it from me to tell you what to believe. Belief is one of those sacred things that should really be left to the individual. I'm not going to tell you that what you think is stupid. But by spreading this sort of groundless misinformation, it's starting to become HARMFUL, and that HAS to stop. You cannot keep making these videos and present information in a factual manner when the information is wrong. It's one thing to say that aliens are watching us. It's another to say that the Crop Circles are their attempts at communication, when that was an ADMITTED hoax from two talented artists. It shows willful neglect to your audience and a lack of respect for the subject matter.

It would of been so easy to avoid. Address the controversy with the Crystal Skulls, not ignore it. If you could of given me one, even ONE tiny bit of information that you dug up that might contradict what I've read about the 1950's dating, I wouldn't be so bothered- because then at least you were aware of the issue, called the audiences attention to it, and put in your thoughts. As it stands, though, I can only assume you knew and didn't want other people to be aware of it, or that you simply didn't know, which illustrates your own ignorance on what you're trying to preach.

You talk about expanding your vision, but you might be the most narrow-sighted of all, right now.

Look, a man who's only heard jazz music his entire life is going to think jazz is the best kind of music in the world. I'm going to assume the best in you, Jordan, and think that you've been listening to way too much jazz as of late. Please- refresh your ears a bit. Listen to some Rock and Roll or Pop or Rap for a bit. Even if you've heard them before, give them another listen, then look at what you're saying again. If nothing else, it might encourage you to do some fact-checking on these sorts of things.

...if not, I'll have to start attempting to blam this stuff, so long as it claims to be "Informative".

Here's hoping for the best.

thanks

[SS - Human History 1]

The guy under me KINDA has a point...

I've been with you the whole ride, and I've been a steadfast supporter of what you've been doing: Sure, you get facts wrong here and there and sometimes off and your examples aren't well developed, but a lot of the points are still interesting and its something to muse on when I'm having a dull day.

...and up until this point, the series greatest strength has been its pacing. You never really demanded we swallow too much at a time, it was all very manageable and while you did make increasingly strange points and predictions it all came at a rate that was easy to handle.

...and you just blew it all out of the water. Too much too fast in this episode, and whats worse, it has to be some of your most outlandish propositions yet. I know you began this episode with a disclaimer saying its something we had to discover for ourselves, but... it was all just too ridiculous, and way too much at a time. You force-fed me a lot of spiritual stuff and gave almost no explanation or fact behind it, just assuming we'd 'roll' with it, but... no, this was way too much, way too soon.

I know these episodes are hard to make and you have a lot you want to talk about, but when you do stuff like this, you lose most of your credibility. I was always willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but... no, this time you just sound straight-up crazy. You didn't give us manageable bites of information, and for that, your points will suffer.

THAT said... It's still a very nice story. A fun story. Its kinda like you threw your hands in the air, said "Screw it", and you took a lot of the concepts you told us about in earlier episodes and combined them into one giant crossover story. The point where I stopped taking it as fact and instead treated it like some spiritual fanfiction, I started to really enjoy it a lot more than when you were ACTUALLY considering it a history.

...Look, I'm not saying you're wrong, necessarily, I'm not a historian or a guru of spiritual matters, but it was a lot more fun for me when I was pretending it was fake, and that doesn't bode well for a series that has "Science" in the name. If you want these to be taken with a sliver of credibility and genuine, thoughtful respect, you'll have to go slower and explain EVERYTHING... because otherwise you just sound like a very imaginative conspiracy theorist.

Bottom line: too much information this episode, slow things down a bit.

thanks

RiverJordan responds:

Yes, i understand how many people will feel this way about this lesson. You know, i don't believe i am actually covering "more" information, or "too much", but rather i am covering a different type of information.

Everything else i've talked about, has been putting the pieces together between science and religion. Over 11 lessons, i feel i've made a solid case for how dimensions work and the power that consciousness has over everything. And now, i am telling a story that nobody remembers (and there's a reason for that).

At the beginning, yeah, it'll feel that way, but by the end, you may just begin to see where we came from in a different way.

[Boyfriends & Videogames]

Could use some improvement.

The joke itself is fine, but you need to work on the delivery- which is where about 80% of the actual humor comes from. For example, the moment you see her walk to her house, you know exactly what the joke is going to be, which is premature- if you had just have her walk off-stage instead of cutting to her house, it would of turned a "Heh, I guess that's kinda clever" joke to a "lol!" joke. Unpredictability is where humor COMES from, and any unnessisary hints as to whats coming will only ever hurt the joke, not enhance it.

Likewise, every joke needs a concise ending- nothing quite ruins a joke like when it overstays its welcome... which this joke does. You either needed to end after she tells him over the game that it's her (and his friend comments on it) or you needed to remove that bit and just have her hint at it during the date itself. This stuff matters.

I don't know if you got some guys to voice the boys, but if you did, they need the axe. There's a difference between giving the guy an awkward personality and the line's being delivered awkwardly, and the former can't substitute the latter. The girls's voice, presumably yours, is fine, though- remember that in humor, though, its better to exaggerate personalities than to minimize them. Just... saying.

You did a good job with the sprites, though. They showed the exaggeration the voices should of had: but when contrasted to the tamer voices, it did come off as a little... off. It was distracting, because I was relying more on their expressions then their voices.

It wasn't horrible flash by any means: there are enough small problems within it that it's sufficiently hampered by them... but its salvageable. I hope you take this advice to heart for your next cartoon.

thanks!

[The Northern Incident]

Ya tripped across the finish line, I'm afraid...

This cartoon conflicted me quite a bit: I walked into it expecting a joke, a gag of some sort, and as the cartoon went on, that suspicion of an inevitable gag never really went away, but rather, I started to really want there wouldn't be a gag.

It was working perfectly fine as a horror/suspense story, you see, and it would of been best to maintain that momentum. And frankly, when I did see the joke at the end, I found it predictable (not the joke itself, the fact that you'd make a joke) and kinda... well, it didn't ruin the cartoon for me, but it showed that you weren't taking it as seriously as your viewers were at this point, and It sorta made me feel like an idiot for getting my hopes up that this could actually be a srs bsns cartoon. In short, it would of been better, and more surprising, for it to have actually been a horror/suspense cartoon than a drawn out, only slightly funny joke... you build the momentum for actual horror and suspense far too long, and far too well, for it to take a sudden turn in direction and still be effective.

So in that regard, its lacking perfection. However, the voice acting is top notch, the music selection was fitting and did wonders to set the mood, and your animating style translated surprisingly well with the more-or-less change of tone, especially in regards with the dog, who was expressive enough to make you care about him yet still on-the-level enough to not distract from the horror elements.

So, in conclusion, a poor ending but otherwise a very good movie.

thanks!

[Entertainment]

Well, lets see.

I'll be honest with you, seeing as I think you fancy yourself a moderately intellectual person.

the ideas presented in this flash are over-thought in some aspects, and not thought out enough in others. For one, any sociologist can tell you that we are influenced by our culture/entertainment: this idea is hardly radical. But you seem to be taking it another step forward by saying that EVERY form of media is made with the intention of changing how we see the world. Some sort of conspiracy, if you will.

Well, I present you this question: How would we see the world otherwise? Ignoring the whole "nature Vs nurture debate", the way we see the world has ALWAYS been influenced by the environment and the people we surround ourselves with. Entertainment changes how you see the world, as does your social circle, your family, and your religion (which one could argue is ALSO a form of brainwashing entertainment). Mulimedia Entertainment is no exception, but its certainly not the EXCLUSIVE factor to how you see the world.

The term "brainwashing" was poor, and I think intentionally so. That implies you saw the world one way before entertainment 'forced' another way on you: you have some rock-steady idea that can't be changed unless its torn down by a video game or something. Media changed the way you see the world, true. It influences thoughts and perspectives. But its not a permanent change, nor is it a BAD one. Media can inspire, bring hope, and make people happy, just as friends/family can do.

If this is some sort of calling that we need to live life free of all outside influence so as to maintain the purity of our minds, then you clearly haven't thought this out well enough. If we were to live life free of all outside influence, our race would quickly disappear off the face of the earth: because there's no way we can experience ANYTHING without being changed by it.

Also, your point about 'allowing things that would of been strange in the past' speaks more to the benefits of multimedia than the evils of it. 200 years ago, women were still considered less than men, and blacks were property. Its BAD we grew out of this?

The animation was good, I'll give you that. 5 outta 10 stars for that. But the message was ill-conceved and the voice acting contradicted the message itself: clearly, the actor was INSPIRED by modern entertainment, and you liked the idea regardless.

I figure you'll probably have something to say to this, which is fine, I love a good debate.

thanks

akoRn responds:

*yawn* thx for the long review. i aint saying that im intellectual, im juz havin fun here, with some basic ideas.. y u have to be so serious..? JEEEEEEZ

[YGOAbridged Leather Pants]

Two internet comics joining forces?

This was great! I was laughing the whole time. Your art style and LittleKuriboh's humor really work well together!

Thanks for posting it here!

[STFU Kevin Bacon]

The animation was good

I really liked this... and the voices were good too.

Just sayin'...

thanks!

[Super Smash]

dare I say it...

I think you've kind of been wasting your time on this. I mean, its really an amazing fight, and you have a TON of imagination... but I think instead of reinvisioning classic characters, we'd all enjoy seeing some of your OWN creations duking it out, or doing whatever. I mean, you have so much talent I imagine anything you create would become an instant classic.

But far be it from me to say what you should and shouldn't do. Hope to see more of you in the future!

thanks!

[Ask Mr. Information!]

The animation is good, as is the voices.

But the joke, I'm afraid, has been overdone far too much. It's not funny anymore.

I'm sure you can think of something more original, thou. I look forward to it!

thanks!

Billy-Chops responds:

I KNOW!!! Thanks otherwise though. The joke is the cherry on top, I only focused on the animation. This is mainly for my demo reel at my school and all they care about is the animation. Next one will be better.

[Madness Combat 5.5]

Amazing!

This is awesome. No adequate words really exist to describe how epic this was, just like the rest of your amazing series. This had the madness flavor I've been craving... like a drug...

...and I fanboyed. A lot.

thanks for making this amazing work!

thanks!