Moderately Confusing, Wonderfully Fun

Moderately Confused
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By James Quicksell

Moderately Confused is an enjoyable feature-length caper comedy following on the heels of Slightly Confused. It's clear that Quicksell has gone through much improvement since Slightly Confused, as this sequal expands and betters the first several times over. With well developed characters, a good, sometimes suspenseful, plot, and plenty of outstanding voice acting, Moderately Confused was for the most part an hour and a half well spent.

Story
The story of Moderately Confused is a familiar enough premise to anyone who has seen any of the great caper comedies of the past 50 years. Moderately Confused takes its inspiration from Ocean's Eleven, but adapts the formula to create a unique experience for anyone whose seen these movies.
The plot is straightforward: thief gets out (read: escapes) from jail, meets up with fellow organizer, hatches scheme, finds partners/financee, and the plot rolls forward from there. It's not all sraightforward, I must add. There are several plot twists and interesting divices that Quicksell uses to complicate his story, with the plot picking up steam when the thief's crush turns out to be the museum curator. This sets a whole lot of actions in motion that propell us through the end of the movie.
There are seveal plot points that didn't work out. The Taxi-scene ran on a whole 5 minutes, but nothing came of it except a drive across town. The sodomy scene also didn't click. Basically, it didn't make sense to be thrown in to these otherwise well developed characters. It just seemed... out of place.

Presentation
Part of the fun of this film was the use of creative camera moves. I'd like to highlight the incredibly cool opening titles as particularly representative of this skill. The camera, for the most part, behaves as a real camera would, and Quicksell's use of zooms and pans is effective, but never distracting.
The robbery sequence, particularly, is backed up by smart, smooth camera movements that closely mirror the atmosphere of the scene. Incidentally, that's what a camera is... supposed to do... moving on.

Visuals
Moderately Confused boasts some impressive examles of expansion textures, text-based scenery, and clever use of the built-in 3dmm props cabinet. The scenery isn't perfect. There are several examples of blank land and bland-looking locations, but not enough to be truly distracting.
Overall, the visuals were well thought-out, and skillfully implemented. There are some areas that could have done with a bit of polishing, but in the grand (1 1/2 hour) scheme of things, those moments don't stick out.

Sound
Plot and sound are the highlights of the movie. Quicksell has compiled a worthy score to back up his movie. From the smooth jazz riffs of Ocean's Eleven to the classic Mission Impossible theme, to Queen's legendary, and still kicking after all these times played in football stadiums classic "We are the Champions," Moderately Confused's music design matches the action spot-on.
As far as effects go, Moderately Confused uses a good, though far from perfect implementation of sound effects. There are many scenes where lack of sound is sorely apparant, one occuring at the very beginning (helicopters are pretty loud, right?)
The voice acting makes up entirely for this lacking. All the voice actors, and James, knew their parts well and pulled them off to flatter the comedic script. Most notable is Klaymen as the terret's affected insider, providing some very funny moments, and Quicksell himself, as the bank robber. His use of comedic timing, especially in the closing monologue, are hilights of the movie.
Some of Quicksell's characters do begin to sound alike, a descrepancy that could have been remedied. Though slightly confusing (haha, I'm so witty) at first, these characters don't last very long in the story. Also of note are several throwaway lines from 3DMM's line of default dialogue.

The Final Word
Moderately Confused runs at a hefty hour and a half, so expect to spend some quality time with your computer screen. Though the length is a triumph, it can be daunting and could have been cut down with the elimination of scenes that just didn't flow with the film.
Overall, Moderately Confused is a great character-driven comedy. The movie's character development should be studied by aspiring directors looking for ways to connect the audience to the characters in ways that are extremely difficult to do in 3d Movie Maker. A worthwhile download, for a nice comedic experience.

******** (8/10) Great