The Long Wait for Vlarion

I'll certainly admit that I was not a fan of the earlier versions of the Vlarion series (having only watched about three of them before giving up). But this incarnation of Vlarion will certainly have a lasting effect on me, and the way I think about 3dmm movies.

The story aspect of the film was, arguably, my least favourite part of the film. From looking at it on paper, it sounds like it would be barely enough to make a movie from. You could probably explain it in about three sentences: Gelst working on something he found, corny bad guy steals it *cue slightly cornier dialogue*, reluctant protagonist, love interest and tough black guy try to fight them.

I mean, okay, Aaron beefed it out fairly nicely. A couple of drawn out discussions and insinuations about the sequel later and we have something that you could be forgiven for mistaking for depth. But still, at the end of the day, you're looking at a B-movie story. Most of this can be forgiven in the long run because, I can presume that Aaron was a lot younger when he wrote this, a lot newer the concept of movie making, and ultimately, working on something that he didn't think was going to go anywhere.

But most of use knew all of this already. The way I see it, the movie was focusing on the characters, the interaction between them. Basically setting the ground rules for the whole series. So to an extent the story worked, for what it was meant to do. But as with most 3dmm movies that try to focus on emotion, the emotion usually ends up either being completely missed, or down right cheesy. If you take, for example, the part of the movie where Gelst's daughter dies: There was as good as no reaction to me. What I mean to say is that I found my self thinking: "Why should I have cared? Did I even know who she was? Had I even seen her? If I had, it obviously didn't have a lasting impression on me". It's that kind of a problem that I see in all kinds of full budget live action movies, a problem that is emphasised to no end in 3dmm, where it is already incredibly difficult to solve.

I won't say that Aaron didn't make a valiant effort at trying to over come this. There were signs of work to hide the overwhelming fact that you were in all actuality, just looking at smiling twats in fixed poses. It was the moments where, to use a motto coined by Haynes himself, he took it upon himself to "make every part move", and simply by moving the hair, did wonders for the scene.

My next least favourite part of the movie was the scripting. Interestingly enough, my biggest gripe with it was not the, at times, incredibly cheesy dialogue. It was with the, what seemed like conversations of needless dialogue. There were almost whole sections where it just sounded so forced, and that, at times, made me sit back and say "He wouldn't say that!". Moments where the characters were almost telling you the story, or telling you what had just happened, or in other cases, just plain telling you nothing at all. Maybe I was missing the point of the scene, but, the part where Dask and Stacey show the arrow to their boss, and then when he gives his answer, merely take it away to show to Jack. What was the point? It seemed a bit of a waste.

But whilst I'm talking about the dialogue, I may as well cover the acting as well. It was, largely, very well done. The actors played out the parts pretty closely to the way I would have envisioned them, and there were no "bad" actors either. The only problems I found were from Jaymond's part, where his voice sounded very obviously forced, and from poorly timed sound cues, where people didn't seem to say things at the right time, or when they took too long to say something. There is little else to say about the voices, other than how cool it felt watching something remade from a movie made several years ago. Having all the roles filled with voices, and to have each of those actors (with a few exceptions, i.e. the women) played by people I knew from 3dmm.

On the subject of sound come the sound Effects and music. I'll cover the Sounds effects first by saying: The sounds chosen seemed to gel very nicely with the movie. I couldn't identify easily any times where I had heard a sound before. I can't say I noticed very much about the SFX, other than, there were no moments where I could've said "Ooh. There was a step missing there" or "Hmm. That sounded a little loud". All I can say to Aaron is, That was very nicely done. In light of the positive note from the SFX, I'll move on the music section. Which is, without close competition, my favourite part of the movie. I'll say straight away that I haven't heard a sound track fit more appropriately to a movie ever before. 3dmm or live action. I recognised almost all of the tracks chosen, and I have to say, I would've chosen pretty much the exact same songs to use. What I loved most about it was the way it blended in with the rest of the movie. No parts were overbearingly loud; no parts were too quiet to hear. It was as close to perfection as it was going to get.

My next favourite part of the movie came from the visual design. Beyond the almost stupid camera angles in some instances, the scenes were all very well made, making very realistic use of textures and objects. Each one was a sumptuous feast for the eyes, each one being screenshot worthy. Some did look very basic in design, with plain colours and smooth gradients, and some were very precise, with almost every aspect of what the scene might contain looked into. Which I find provides a very nice contrast between the different parts of the movie and the different characters, and also pays homage to the original version of the film. The character design was also very well done, proudly showing off the hours of work that must have taken place before my inspection. The problem areas are few in number, Hirolix, Stacey’s mouth, the water Vlarion (I can't remember the name) and Jack's toothy smile. The Vlarions can be excused to an extent because, I can only assume this is why, Aaron must've been trying to remain true to the original. But seriously. The mouths.

Which leaves us with animation. If there was anyone out there trying to make a name for themselves through animation alone, they can rest assured that the bar just raised another couple of yards. I don't think I would be exaggerating to say that Aaron is one of the best animators in 3dmm. The amount of patience and kinematics thinking that Aaron possesses is clear, every fight scene taking what you thought you knew from the original, pushing it aside and telling you to watch it again and again. Every small little bit of movement that you barely notice, constructing an incredible display of movement, that makes you think a little harder about that ten second animation you were going to "blow everyone away" with.

Vlarion is, to summarise, a worthwhile movie to watch. I've got to say, I was expecting more from it. Which is strange, because it turned out much how I imagined it would. Still, besides a few creases and a bit of grit in the way of story, the movie is an enjoyable eighty minutes that I'm glad I sat through.

[Aaron Haynes]

Yeesh. Whatever happened to 85?

Will reply in detail shortly, adding my reviews to the archive.

[James McCloud]

Yeah, I know, I just thought it would be unfair not to really think about something you spent so much time on, and in the end, I ended up giving a lower score, if only to express what I'd like to see in the sequel.

[Demented Ferret]

67%?! Are you insane?! Each to their own, I guess.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Advamc

The story aspect of the film was, arguably, my least favourite part of the film. From looking at it on paper, it sounds like it would be barely enough to make a movie from. You could probably explain it in about three sentences: Gelst working on something he found, corny bad guy steals it *cue slightly cornier dialogue*, reluctant protagonist, love interest and tough black guy try to fight them.

I mean, okay, Aaron beefed it out fairly nicely. A couple of drawn out discussions and insinuations about the sequel later and we have something that you could be forgiven for mistaking for depth. But still, at the end of the day, you're looking at a B-movie story.

I think you're overgeneralizing just slightly here. I mean "Tough black guy"? and "mistaking for depth"? I think I did a little more than just "beef it out" here; the underlying premise is very simple and corny sci-fi. An ancient legend of seven elemental creatures sealed into crystals seems to be coming true, a sorceror hires an extensive criminal network to find them, while an anti-terrorist network gets wind of it and enlists a magic-using mercenary to help fight back. It's how this premise ultimately develops and what themes are represented by it that are important and go further than something you might "mistake for depth". If you can't buy this as a premise at all, if you can't consider that it might develop and be given weight and credibility as it goes on, this series probably just isn't for you.

Honestly, "tough black guy"? Were you actually paying attention? It's hard to take your complaints about archetypal characters seriously when you completely mischaracterize the archetype.

But most of use knew all of this already. The way I see it, the movie was focusing on the characters, the interaction between them. Basically setting the ground rules for the whole series. So to an extent the story worked, for what it was meant to do. But as with most 3dmm movies that try to focus on emotion, the emotion usually ends up either being completely missed, or down right cheesy. If you take, for example, the part of the movie where Gelst's daughter dies: There was as good as no reaction to me. What I mean to say is that I found my self thinking: "Why should I have cared? Did I even know who she was? Had I even seen her? If I had, it obviously didn't have a lasting impression on me".

You'd have a point if the scene was really about her at all. The focus in that entire scene and the one that follows is on Dask. He's helpless and frustrated and he has to chew over the "what ifs" about the whole situation, because if he'd taken Gelst along (as no one was waiting for them), or if he'd just been faster, or if he'd realized that Kramer leaving meant there was no ambush, etc. etc., which the next scene pretty clearly points out as well. We don't know her because we don't need to know her; she's an innocent victim just like the AT operatives that get slaughtered at the end. She just happens to represent a loss for Gelst and a serious point of obsession and neurosis for Dask.

I won't say that Aaron didn't make a valiant effort at trying to over come this. There were signs of work to hide the overwhelming fact that you were in all actuality, just looking at smiling twats in fixed poses. It was the moments where, to use a motto coined by Haynes himself, he took it upon himself to "make every part move", and simply by moving the hair, did wonders for the scene.

You've been suspending your disbelief for years with this program. All of a sudden a few flashy new models and effects come along and it absolutely kills the effect for you? Contrary to popular belief, apparently, I'm flesh and blood here. Well, whatever.

My next least favourite part of the movie was the scripting. Interestingly enough, my biggest gripe with it was not the, at times, incredibly cheesy dialogue. It was with the, what seemed like conversations of needless dialogue. There were almost whole sections where it just sounded so forced, and that, at times, made me sit back and say "He wouldn't say that!". Moments where the characters were almost telling you the story, or telling you what had just happened, or in other cases, just plain telling you nothing at all. Maybe I was missing the point of the scene, but, the part where Dask and Stacey show the arrow to their boss, and then when he gives his answer, merely take it away to show to Jack. What was the point? It seemed a bit of a waste.

Stacey: "Sounds good. Head back the AT base first, though, so we can give Adrack our report."

I mean, really. They could have put in a call from the road, sure, but that gives me no room to establish the dynamic between Dack and Stacey and Adrack before the big post-Hirolix briefing. And no cryptic memo revealing that Adrack and Chadran are already suspecting that the Vlarion legend plays into the whole affair. Besides, if Adrack recognizes the model of the arrow or has quick access to someone that can, there's no point to visiting Jack. They're not going to just go out of their way to someone who's not involved in the investigation if they can do it themselves.

As for expository dialogue, the biggest problem all of the testviewers had was the movie assuming we already understand this world. I thought I did a good job making the dialogue feel natural while still revealing what viewers don't know yet. More than one example would be nice here, at least.

On the subject of sound come the sound Effects and music. I'll cover the Sounds effects first by saying: The sounds chosen seemed to gel very nicely with the movie. I couldn't identify easily any times where I had heard a sound before. I can't say I noticed very much about the SFX, other than, there were no moments where I could've said "Ooh. There was a step missing there" or "Hmm. That sounded a little loud". All I can say to Aaron is, That was very nicely done. In light of the positive note from the SFX, I'll move on the music section. Which is, without close competition, my favourite part of the movie. I'll say straight away that I haven't heard a sound track fit more appropriately to a movie ever before. 3dmm or live action. I recognised almost all of the tracks chosen, and I have to say, I would've chosen pretty much the exact same songs to use. What I loved most about it was the way it blended in with the rest of the movie. No parts were overbearingly loud; no parts were too quiet to hear. It was as close to perfection as it was going to get.

Thanks. Most of the reason the movie took an extra week was the sound design, getting the music and sounds just perfect. I'm more proud of the music here than in any other project I've worked on. And dammit, I forgot to credit Pogo for finding a lot of the mp3 versions of tracks I used in the originals.

My next favourite part of the movie came from the visual design. Beyond the almost stupid camera angles in some instances,

Example?

the scenes were all very well made, making very realistic use of textures and objects. Each one was a sumptuous feast for the eyes, each one being screenshot worthy. Some did look very basic in design, with plain colours and smooth gradients, and some were very precise, with almost every aspect of what the scene might contain looked into. Which I find provides a very nice contrast between the different parts of the movie and the different characters, and also pays homage to the original version of the film. The character design was also very well done, proudly showing off the hours of work that must have taken place before my inspection. The problem areas are few in number, Hirolix, Stacey’s mouth, the water Vlarion (I can't remember the name) and Jack's toothy smile. The Vlarions can be excused to an extent because, I can only assume this is why, Aaron must've been trying to remain true to the original. But seriously. The mouths.

In both cases I felt like Hirolix and Zarethio's designs were still appropriate for the kind of movie I wanted to make. If you want absolute realism, again, you're in the wrong series and genre altogether. And you didn't mention Rasklain and Kriven, both of whom had full redesigns to fit the tone of the series better than their 2000 counterparts. Were those too....whatever it is your complaint is here? Because if so, really, there's not a lot I can say.

As to minor flaws in the character designs, sorry for not achieving perfection. It's a lot harder than you might be aware of. I'm planning to go back and tweak them for Vlarion 2, but I did the best I could considering where I was at.

Which leaves us with animation. If there was anyone out there trying to make a name for themselves through animation alone, they can rest assured that the bar just raised another couple of yards. I don't think I would be exaggerating to say that Aaron is one of the best animators in 3dmm. The amount of patience and kinematics thinking that Aaron possesses is clear, every fight scene taking what you thought you knew from the original, pushing it aside and telling you to watch it again and again. Every small little bit of movement that you barely notice, constructing an incredible display of movement, that makes you think a little harder about that ten second animation you were going to "blow everyone away" with.

This is a mixed-outcome unintended effect of the film. I didn't make it to be an animation showcase, obviously. If extreme grandiosity didn't fit for a sequence, I didn't go for it. At the same time, though, I wanted much of the film to really stun people, and really just made it to the best of my ability. Some parts of this movie are just plain cool, because what the hell, we enjoy that kind of stuff. But it's in no way a "look what I can do better than you, and good luck trying to top me".

[Aaron Haynes]

Vlarion is, to summarise, a worthwhile movie to watch. I've got to say, I was expecting more from it. Which is strange, because it turned out much how I imagined it would. Still, besides a few creases and a bit of grit in the way of story, the movie is an enjoyable eighty minutes that I'm glad I sat through.

Cool. I'll be honest and say I really can't wrap my head around most of your plot and character-related complaints. I think you're expecting way too much realism and overall just miscategorizing what kind of film this is. In some instances you want the premise to have more depth and be less cheesy and simplistic, and in others you think the script is redundant and pointless. But it's a fantasy/sci-fi premise that's founded on an adventure-serial type idea. I've done my best to make the world credible and logically consistent, and the characters likable and multi-dimensional. But it's still a fantasy story with universal and general themes like good vs. evil, duty and responsibility, loyalty, predestination, and choices. And the characters are somewhat archetypal; Dask is a reluctant hero as you mentioned, Stacey is an optimistic potential love interest, Jack is an outsider in a rough situation doing his best to do what's right, Adrack is a methodical organization leader that allows for unorthodox methods, etc. etc., the list goes on. These themes and this premise have room to develop at the end of Vlarion 1, and these characters will grow and reveal new facets as the situation worsens. There's more to Dask than wanting more out of life and regretting his choices. There's more to Stacey than unflagging optimism. There's more to Jack than a reluctant desire to do what he can. You insinuated that the hints at what's to come might be "mistaken for depth"; well, you might as well throw out A New Hope, The Fellowship of the Ring, or anything that drops us into a world and doesn't finish telling its story before the credits roll.

Maybe the balance is a little off in this movie, and maybe a good foundation for the rest of the series isn't quite achived. But I really can't see this as a completely cliched, flawed, and overly redundant work as you suggest. I'll work on improving the storytelling and characterization in the next chapters, but I'm also pretty confident of the job I did this time around.

[James McCloud]

I know a lot of it can seem as though I have been overly critical, but I did have to think a lot about what it was in the movie that could have been improved in my eyes. I didn't just want to give a review that said "Good job", and then be done with it.

But anyway (I'll be explaining things as I read them) :

• I do realise that wasn't how Jack's character was meant to seem like, but I was thinking in relation to other movies I had seen, and, yes, I over generalised.
  
• A lot of the time I'm thinking more about the bigger picture than character interation in 3dmm, because it's so hard to do in 3dmm, Looking at the death of Gelst's daughter, I guess I didn't catch onto Dask's emotional conflict because of his steadfast expression (yes, I'm aware that'd be really hard to get around).
  
  

  You've been suspending your disbelief for years with this program. All of a sudden a few flashy new models and effects come along and it absolutely kills the effect for you? Contrary to popular belief, apparently, I'm flesh and blood here. Well, whatever.

• I think you misunderstood what I was saying here. I was refering to the nature of 3dmm, not your movie.
  
• The scene involving Dask, Stacey and Adrack just seemed a bit weak. As though there should have been more of a reason for returning. To be honest, it was a very nitpicky nitpick.
  
• On the general dialogue, I can't really explain it. It's parts like at the start when he says "I have to be out of Ocia by morning". It just seems like he wouldn't have mentioned Ocia, he would've just said "here". Or the parts when he's talking about the murder weapon. It just seemed slightly unnecessary.
  
• The stupid camera angles comment came from those shots where the camera was at about a ten or eleven degree angle, e.g. the scene where Dask asks about Stacey. They just seemed at bit, well, needless.
  
• I expected new, more intense designs for the Vlarions, because it just seemed like the sort of thing I would've done. I guess I'm just being too mechanical in the way I think about the movie. I naturally assumed that the designs for the Vlarions were born from the limitations of 3dmm at the time of conception.
  
• The animation section was largely a throw away comment, because it's always of good quality, referring to how easily you seem to put together animation.
  
• The point I was trying to boil down to was that it would've set the scene very nicely for the other movies. Just, on it's own, it didn't seem like much.

I'll just end by saying, I'm really not one for the first parts of series. I'm actually not very keen on the first Star Wars, or the first Lord of the Rings film.

Like you suggest, this is probably my least favourite genre (not by a very wide margin, but still), and that during any review I do, I tend to think in terms of perfection, in all aspects of a film.

The characters, and your ability to turn a story that (I'm sure you could tell) I wasn't very interested in, into something I wanted to watch should lend itself to making the sequel interesting for me.

[Chris Walker]

WTF!!!! 80 minutes!!!! I was so captivated when watching this, I didn't realize it lasted that long!

[Div]

Well I for one thought the story was quite alright. Something made me uneasy with the characters though, as if I didn't really know too much about them. Then again, I haven't even seen the originals, so I should probably do that.

Though, one thing that I noticed was that the idea of the enemies transforming into elementals reminded me alot of zodiac stones and Final Fantasy Tactics.

[Aaron Haynes]

Hahah, yeah, that was a notable influence early on. I end up going other places with it in the end though.

[Chris Walker]

I went back and watched the original Vlarion. I've gotta say Hirolix seems a lot shorter in this movie. And fatter. Loved this movie though. Can't wait for the second!

[Orcus]

Originally Posted by Advamc

The story aspect of the film was, arguably, my least favourite part of the film. From looking at it on paper, it sounds like it would be barely enough to make a movie from. You could probably explain it in about three sentences: Gelst working on something he found, corny bad guy steals it *cue slightly cornier dialogue*, reluctant protagonist, love interest and tough black guy try to fight them.

I mean, okay, Aaron beefed it out fairly nicely. A couple of drawn out discussions and insinuations about the sequel later and we have something that you could be forgiven for mistaking for depth. But still, at the end of the day, you're looking at a B-movie story. Most of this can be forgiven in the long run because, I can presume that Aaron was a lot younger when he wrote this, a lot newer the concept of movie making, and ultimately, working on something that he didn't think was going to go anywhere.

Well if you don't get the award for most overgeneralized plot summary then I don't know who does. Instead of trying to sit down and go with where the movie goes you decide to fuck yourself completely by sticking with the 'Book-a-minute" version that doesn't give any glory to what Aaron is trying to accomplish. Let's take the first scene for example. I'm talking the VERY first scene with Jon Barton talking. While Aaron hasn't really had a chance to play around with the concepts discussed in that scene this particular movie it just goes to show that there is far more to Vlarion than this first movie plotline. But enough of the overall story.

To me this first installment was all about getting comfortable with the Vlarion world, something you seem to dislike in any movie since you wanna jump right into the story. The first 40-50 minutes or so seem like the last bit of sanity in the world of Dask, Stacey and Jack, unless you want me to refer to their archetypical names since you've pinned down their characters oh so well. By the time the shit hits the fan I'm already familiar with who's good, who's bad and what's going on for that current moment but in terms of longterm stuff the audience is left almost as clueless as Dask.

As far as the dialogue went, you might have called it cheesy but I'm pretty damn sure that if it was anything but you'd be complaining out the complexity of it. I mean A New Hope and Fellowship of the Ring had fantastic dialogue with bits of termonology new to the movie strewn about and those didn't work for you. At points the cheesiness does go a little overboard but most of the time it works in adding the humane side to the movie. It if was full of articulate, complex mumbojumbo, some people's heads might spin.

A 67 is very harsh for something you originally gave an 85, especially for the bullshit story reason. And nice time you wanna throw out terms like "reluctant hero" and " tough black guy" just stop and think: "Wait wasn't Dask the tough one? And wasn't Jack reluctant to join them?" Nice try, buddy.

[Chris Walker]

He's the only person who gave this movie less than 90%.

[Aaron Haynes]

There's nothing wrong with that. I just found it difficult to take most of his complaints to heart, since at best they run counter to what the themes and aims of the film are, and at worse miscategorize it entirely. A lot of excessive nitpicks left me scratching my head as well; sure, the characters could behave precisely as if this isn't a movie and not include any expository information in their dialogue, but good luck trying to get an idea of why any of this is important. In this movie, or, god forbid, in later episodes where the most of the payoffs happen.

I can understand if you don't gravitate towards the first part of a series because you prefer seeing these payoffs more, but equating the establishing function of the first part of an ongoing story with flawed design simply bewilders me. By all means, write a story where it's assumed the audience is completely familiar with everything going in, or indeed ignore their involvement altogether. I'd like to see how something like that would work.

[Ben Rice]

Originally Posted by Demented Ferret

67%?! Are you insane?! Each to their own, I guess.

Maybe he isn't much of a fan of movies like Vlarion.

[James McCloud]

Originally Posted by Orcus

I mean A New Hope and Fellowship of the Ring had fantastic dialogue with bits of termonology new to the movie strewn about and those didn't work for you.

I think it might be possible for me to have not enjoyed a New Hope and Fellowship of the Ring very much for reasons other than dialogue, don't you?

[Orcus]

Probably. With the way you nitpick I'm surprised you like any movie.

[Aaron Haynes]

Certainly possible, but I'm still going to think you're crazy.

Edit: dammit orcus

[Demented Ferret]

Originally Posted by Ben Rice

Maybe he isn't much of a fan of movies like Vlarion.

I'm not, either - in fact I'm probably the last type of person to watch something like this and enjoy it. But Vlarion has appeal, the world seems real, everything that could be asked as a question is either answered or is a lingering question to be answered. It's like a good book, it doesn't have anything to hide.

I mean, far-fetched as the idea of magic is; which is normally a BIIIG downer in movies/games for me, it was just pulled off really awesomely. And I love the scene where Dask has to really concentrate to make the iceberg, it shows how 'real' the world is and how this resource of magic cannot be used at anyone's every whim. It's excellent in contrast to movies where someone waves a wand or points a staff and a gigantic bolt of lightning explodes someone.

[James McCloud]

Originally Posted by Orcus

Probably. With the way you nitpick I'm surprised you like any movie.

But isn't that the entire point of nitpicking? To be overly critical? I mean, I could've ignored minor details like that, but I tend to make a point of making reviews I do very negative, focusing mainly on what was done maybe not so well, and what could've been improved about it. Maybe I should go back and have another look at the parts that I thought really shined, and edit my review accordingly.

Again, it is only what I think about the movie. I could've said "If you enjoy this kind of thing, or you enjoy that kind of style, then this is the movie for you" given it a 100% and been done with it, also, the final rating is based on the way I think about things. I could watch, and probably enjoy a movie that I'd end up giving a score of 50 to.

[Orcus]

What I'm trying to drive at is basically that nitpicking doesn't deduct 33 points from a movies overall score. If critics wanted to be real assholes they would nitpick on every little tiny detail in every movies they review.

[Aaron Haynes]

Nitpicking is called nitpicking because it's minor problems that didn't seriously drag down the quality of the overall work. It's important to be critical, but you seem to be suggesting in that first paragraph that reviews should be negative by definition, exploring almost exclusively what the movie did wrong.

I'm not saying what you should or shouldn't do, it's your decision as a reviewer and if I tried to manipulate your perception then I'm doing myself a disservice. I'm just getting the impression from this that you're looking at movies from a testviewing perspective, making a "needs improvement" checklist, and then scoring based on that. I guess you could do that, but it seems like an odd way to review.

[James McCloud]

I know it seems like the points that were lost were mainly based around the nitpicks, but that's not the case.

There's no way to say it without sounding like an asshole, but you lost a lot of the score simply because I really wasn't keen on the first part of the story or the dialogue. Now, the dialogue, I just didn't really get on with. But the story, well, It just takes me a bit of time to really get into long series like this. Sometimes I find that it's half of a movie into the series, and sometimes it takes several movies. Maybe, with the benefit of hind sight, I'll be able to look back on this and really appreciate it.

[Aaron Haynes]

That makes a lot more sense. Your review philosophy still sounds very odd, but I can completely understand that. This isn't my favorite movie in the series either, though like Orcus I have a certain fondness for the brief glimpse we get at this world before it's completely torn asunder. It may seem like a slow start in the scheme of it being one movie, but halfway into Vlarion 2 you'll realize we're a long way from criminal investigations. The characters in a way take this brief window of time for granted as well.

Edit: One more potshot. You have a Metal Gear Solid 3 avatar and sig and you're complaining about VLARION's dialogue!?

I'M DEFECTING TO THE SOVIET UNION
WHY DID YOU DEFECT!!
I DIDN'T.

[James McCloud]

Ha, fair point.