I don't know what's mean about this review. It is positively glowing.
Book me today! I also review weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs.
I meant "mean" as in the mathematical meaning- I'm a "mean" or "average" viewer of the movie. I probably should have been clearer on that.
I don't see how "have to have watched every video on the site" is inherently worse than "have to be familiar with no less than six franchises".
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
Someone's more likely to be aware of those franchises (most of which are extremely well known) than they are to have watched every video on the site- especially when you remember that the target audience of this film is nerds (ie: people like tropers). I wasn't aware of single joke in the movie that I didn't get due to unfamiliarity with the source material- as such, I personally didn't consider it a flaw.
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A mean review
I consider myself a mean target for Suburban Knights. That is, I enjoy watching The Channel Awesome team, mainly sticking to the big three (Critic, Spoony and Linkara) while following some of the others less closely, but not to the extent where I am willing to shell out for premium content or where I follow the reviewers on twitter. If this description applies to you, then you'll probably get the same out of Suburban Knights that I did.
Which is a hell of a lot for a low budget movie made by a bunch of nerds. Relative to Kickassia, the LARP conciet works well in taking the humour away from "jokes you need to have watched every single video on the site to get" territory and into more general pop-culture parody (props particularly to Cinema Snob, The Chick, Phelous and Spoony in this regard, as all nail the characters they're satarising perfectly).
There have been accusations of mood-whiplash, but I personally feel the movie has a nice balance to it- we get a serious opening revealing the Big Bad, then straight into Channel Awesome wacky hijinks, then slowly but surely building up to an epic climax, without ever losing the humour completely.
I also feel that issues of pacing are relatively minor- this may be because I watched the film all in one go. Generally, The script does it's job of balancing humour and comedy, and the Walker brothers should be proud. Particularly Doug, as we see some nice character development for the Critic into more of an anti-hero and less of a Jerk Ass. Notably, Doug does this without sending Critic into Marty Stu territory (Critic may be a good man who is capable of heroism, that doesn't mean he's capable of fighting a dark wizard toe-to-toe)
The acting is generally competent to excellent (Marz-girl's acting in particular is much improved from previous videos). Special effects are used sparsely, but work well when used, and are of excellent qaulity- comparable to your average episode of Doctor Who.
At the end of the day it's a bunch of nerds having a laugh and clearly all having a blast hamming it up and bouncing jokes of each other. Whatever issues you may have with the film in terms of scripting or technique, that nerdy enthusiasm is infectious and makes Suburban Knights a joy to watch. Also- ITS FREE!!! WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU WANT!!!