Uprising 1 - Ghosts Awakened

When you hear the name Aaron Haynes the first thing that jumps to your mind is REDUX. The next probably the Vlarion series. Aside from that your mind draws a blank. Unbeknownst to most people there is, however, another movie series by Haynes that never fully lifted off the ground but had a strong preamble that established a compelling epic story as well as the usual RPG styled battles exists. This series is entitled Uprising.

At first glance Uprising looks like a mere ripoff of Haynes' first series, Vlarion. In a sense it is what you might call a 'rip off' as it is set 2000 years after the Vlarion incidents and there are even a few mentions of the elemental beasts within Ghosts Awakened but once you begin to watch this movie you begin to realize that there is something more, something much more than "just a ripoff".

Ghosts Awakened begins in the treetop village of Sintec were a boy named Gice attempts to wake his lazy friend Teric up, for the elders wish to speak to him. This whole sequence mimics the beginning of Ocarina Of Time quite a bit and there are other moments of the movie that have brief glimpses of other RPGs. Director Aaron Haynes states that he did this purposely in order to "draw parallels to the kind of 'mystic fantasy' of certain games". He does this quite well, I might add, since the first half of GA actually feels like the beginning to some RPG with that epic grandeur surrounding it. Maybe it was the small village or the quest to go and look for the dual sword or possibly Axel haunting Teric's dreams or even the magical city of Customa. Whatever it was there was something there that just made this whole movie feel like it was the start of something huge, which it is in a sense.

First off lets start with the characters. Teric is your usual 16 year old rebelish RPG hero that has a backstory involving his father entering Sintec mortally wounded when Teric was just a baby and leaving him there. From here on in Teric takes his tagalong buddy Gice and best friend/potential love interest (come on Aaron you just gotta man...) Aiel along for the ride on his quest to find the legendary Dual Sword. There was alot of interaction between the characters though that signifys something special. Alot of people don't like to read text but as this is RPG style...tough shit. I found that the way Haynes developed the characters was quite good actually. While not given enough time to actually start feeling any sort of bond for the characters there was at least an establishment there that makes you feel like you know them. The other side character Mimic is quite a queer fellow as well. Basically a floating shapeshifting thing let's just say he'll definitely have his story spots along in the future.

In general the plot of GA is fairly linear but there are a few times where it branched out and leaves alot of room for the surprises that Haynes is known to have up his sleeve. Mainly the premise of having three kids venture off on an adventure is in no way alien to the genre of movie that GA is but yet again with these movies it is what goes on during such an adventure that is the determining factor and usually the movie rests on the imagination of the director. In stating such I found alot of the concepts in the movie quite interesting, as with most of Haynes' crazy theories (just try and comprehend his time theory ). The one that interested me the most was the whole concept of a magical city that chose its visitors on whether or not they have violent intentions upon entering the city. Also the whole concept of the city being in eternal night so that people can fall asleep easier intrigued me, and of course the pillows recording dreams was just a treat.

Customa deserves its own paragraph. Aside from all the nighttime, anti-violent things that run the city the one thing that Haynes did was create an area that actually felt peaceful and uncorrupt. Maybe it was the choice of midi or whatever but the way the city looked created a really soothing atmosphere that felt as though this city was a permenant safehaven. It's a strange thing to describe but once you watch it there was definitely a sense of grandeur about the whole place that made even me as a person wanna visit. I've almost never seen that done in any movie before and I dunno how Haynes did it but whatever congrats man.

Down at the heart of this movie lies what most fans of Haynes' work are used to, the RPG style battles. Created back in 2000 this movie reflects more of the Vlarion style battles than the Alternate Vlarion style. This doesn't mean that the animation isn't great. In fact most of the effects are done very well. Unlike the Vlarion movies though in which the chracters kinda "gained a level" skillwise (ie: vlarion 1 = fire 1, vlarion 2 = fire 2, etc...) Gice and Teric seemed to progress their skills quite rapidly and "leveling their skills" with each battle instead of doing it by movie. Aiel seemed to have her own agenda and I was quite surprised to see her use a spell called giga shock especially when I didn't think she was this powerful this early in the series. The ending will show you why though.

Another point about the battling system that has changed (and much to the delight of alot of people) is that unlike the Vlarion movies the camera moves around quite a bit. This makes things a little more bearable than a 1000+ frame static battle shot. This new camera trick allowed Haynes to create some interesting angles of attacks being launched and then hit their opponent. One such example is when Leina charged up her sword and fired it. The way the camera angled up and followed was a definite improvement and shows how good an RPG style battle can be if the director utilizes the camera the right way. Good job here, Aaron.

And as to be expected the weapon of choice in the music department is the always godly MIDI. Screw all you guys I actually like the midi sound and while GA doesn't house the best quality of midi, the music fit quite well. I was pleased to even hear some Perfect Dark in there.

GA is one of those movies that you might like or you might not but theres definitely something there. Fans of Vlarion will definitely NOT be disappointed. The change in battle styles and a brand new plotline to follow alone are reasons enough to grant it at least one viewing. Granted its no Vlarion but my God there is alot of potential surrounding the ins and outs of this movie to make it even bigger than Vlarion, though that's saying alot for now.