Vlarion 1 - The Elemental War

The first in the series is not well endowed in terms of script or indeed narrative (protagonist Dask partners up with a Q type weapons expert simply because he is bored: hilarious without meaning to be no doubt) but its undoubtedly an interesting movie. True it shows its age but the concept behind it is still very well thought out, and while the retro style hasn't aged well the icongraphy of Hirolix obviously has. Indeed the sequence involving Final Fantasy style stand-offs are the most entertaining and visually interesting parts of the movie. The man problem with Vlarion is a movie that has been made before its time. If say it were made today, excluding default scenery and more HM scenes and voice actors, then Vlarion would succeed in being a far more powerful movie. As it stands its strangely linear, despite its good intentions. The narrative is excellent, the Vlarions themselves showing a degree of talent Aaron Haynes echoes later in Redux and is destined to do so in the 4th Alternate installment. Its a shame that a movie this lengthy has aged so badly, but do be fair this is no fault of Aaron's whatsoever. I liked the quirkiness of the film, as it really draws on the spectacle of what Vlarion strives to reinterpret successfully: Fantasy. And this is an extremely acceptable one. Look beyond the dodginess of the film stylistically and you have a very entertaining movie.

It's such a hideous hideous shame that a film so powerful presenting real issues and very successfully playing out like an RPG was made before its time. For all its subtleties Vlarion remains the beginning of something very special, but critically serves to represent the downside to the series's ageing process. However great it would have been for its time, even the most hardcore audiences may find Vlarion hard to follow at times. But as said, look beyond this and Vlarion deserves every inch of praise thrown its way. And this is just the beginning....