39: The Movie

"39" is not unlike "The Phantom 2", which I reviewed a few days ago, only it has the opposite problem: Sarat has a clear idea of the kind of spectacle, humor, and plot development he wants to make, but his understanding of the program and how techniques work is not quite up to snuff. This is another movie right on that quality line between early attempts and more developed movies, and I'm leaning more toward the other side this time. Sarat is not quite out of the woods yet; he wants to do big things here, and at his current level he has the heart but not the skill.

I will say I enjoyed it more than The Phantom 2, it has moments that are actually pretty funny, and I love the idea of the "39", all of 3DMM's default actors waging war against an army of imps and predators. It's plotted like a game kids might play with action figures, insisting on the need for a briefing scene, but cutting to it after the prelude to the battle has already started. It's amusingly non-linear, and it's hard to get too annoyed, because Sarat is clearly having fun. As a non-native English speaker, he gets most of the words right, but occasionally misses an indefinite article, leading to great lines like "That makes no sense, he is not book!" The voice acting is accompanied by subtitles, and the voice actors whisper into their mics with a Shatner-esque intensity, so you've often read the line long before they've made it to the tenth word (Gustave's final speech is especially awkward for this reason).

"39" has big, big plans for the fight sequence, which takes up about 80% of the movie, and Sarat often comes up with novel techniques to save time that are no less admirably tried for how poorly they work. Crowds are often made out of screenshots on flat planes, and rotated and scaled so that's obviously what they are. The scenery doesn't move in a fluid way (or even a choppy way, it's very inconsistent), and some tricks are tried with textured background portraits that don't work due to how close they are to the foreground. There's a mad energy to the battle, though, and Sarat's enthusiasm is infectious at times; if only the movie could get by on that alone.

What he is missing, at this stage, is familiarity with both animation and the program itself. These things are not easily taught, and I suspect it will be several more movies at 39's production level before he begins to key into the gradual way camera angles should pan, what shots need to go in what order to help people visually understand the movie, and why it's important for everything in a scene to move at the same speed, and on every frame. 39 is not without its charms, but it is without the animation background that makes 3DMM movies visually coherent, and that's something that's just going to have to come about naturally. Watch other people's movies, pick them apart, try to look at the way they make people and objects move and ask yourself why they need to move that way. And keep at it, you're obviously having fun, and 39 isn't a bad start as these things go.

Critical Score: 39/100.
Personal Score: 50/100.

[Aaron Haynes]

Did I really just give "39" a 39? Wow. I didn't make the connection at all until after the review was posted.

BTW, one more thing - there is no need to split up your movie into seperate files like that. It's much bigger than it needs to be as a result, because a v3dmm movie file contains every expansion that needs to run it, so you're basically making us download some things multiple times.

[Pizza The Hut]

Hahha, that's lame. 39.

[Sarat]

hey thanx for the review.Well i splitted the movie because when i tried clubbing the files at some part the music was out of sync.

[Slade]

Ahaha I cannot believe that rating was a coincidence.

[Pizza The Hut]

Hey Aaron, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever had a Personal Score LOWER than a Critical Score?

[Slade]

I think there was one.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Pizza The Hut

Hey Aaron, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever had a Personal Score LOWER than a Critical Score?

Yes; the widest gap probably being Toll Free. I do that for movies that are admittedly well-constructed or animated, but I think the idea is horrible. Or if I recognize that a movie was extremely influential and historically great, but underwhelms me on general principle.

I've been meaning to review DD for years for this reason, as it's the only movie I'd critically give 100, but personally give less than that.

[Pizza The Hut]

Okay cool, I've just never seen a personal score lower...seems like it would happen just as often as the converse. I know it has for me definitely, like with LoS for example. I could tell it was great, it just didn't hit me that hard personally.

[Aaron Haynes]

I tend to break apart the movie in my mind as I'm watching it, to figure out "what was the director trying to do" and "I like this idea, but it could've been better conveyed/doesn't fit in or get followed up on". Usually the construction (in all senses of the word) of 3DMM movies are below their ideas and goals. With the personal score I think "what was the director trying to do?" and if it's interesting, compelling, or ambitious, I appreciate that, even if it doesn't come off as well as they'd have liked.

I think 3DMM movies overwhelmingly aim higher and broader than their reach. So the personal score reflects my appreciation for that (though it's balanced by "was it good/fun" too).

[Fredrick]

Originally Posted by Aaron Haynes

I've been meaning to review DD for years for this reason, as it's the only movie I'd critically give 100, but personally give less than that.

100? Really?

[Slade]

Originally Posted by Pizza The Hut

like with LoS for example

Speaking of which, Aaron...