AlphaLyrae's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Northern Incident]

so serious....

Let's get this done first...
Animation = Just amazing. The animation is incredibly smooth, facial expressions are well animated, the contrast between outlines and color blended well together and the backgrounds, though simple, looks perfect for the entire flash. Everything was well animated. Your art style made it look like an authentic tv cartoon. Overall awesome~

Sound/Voice acting = Clear, crisp, and very well done.

Music = The choice of song/ambiance/suspense/thrill music is well thought out. You know how to use and handle it well throughout the flash. Two thumbs up~

Storytelling = ohohooho...Awesome~ It is great and damn amazing(a bit redundant eh). You know how to start a story and know how to gather suspense. In short, nice story telling. Though there's obviously a lack of characterization but oh well...I'll ignore it.

Plot =
It is supposed to be amazing....the ending ruined it....
It was too serious of a short that no one EVER expected that outrageous ending. Yes, I realized it was a joke and you were expecting a big "WTF?!" reaction from us(and it worked), but I didn't laugh. I just maintained that "WTF?!" face while making this review.
The ending was a joke. It's a bad thing. Not bad as in a "bad joke" but bad as in it killed off every bit of suspense and mystery the flash made.
It was disappointing. After all that good animation/scripting/etc you end it with just that. It's was a bad move. It wasted the plot. I'm not sure if the joke just lacked execution or it really didn't fit in the first place.

Max...you are heading to a wrong direction if you continue to make those abrupt scenes where it quickly shifts from drama to comedy (or vice versa). Honestly, you are not good at comedy. Avoid adding needless comedy like that, you are better off with things like this(exclude the ending).

Overall
The ending sucked, everything else was awesome and it is a very well done flash.
btw I have a one new flash to add in my favorites.

[Nerds can never love]

love it

loved how all the drama gets thrown off the window the split second...

Anyway...
Animation - Pretty good even though it is simple
Sound/voiceacting - Clear and nice. Very good.

but there is some truth to this flash...
Nerds can never love...why?
They are all too preoccupied with video games and such that they can never have the initiative to look for love.

Nerds are not single because they are un-liked and because of their personality!!
IT IS BECAUSE THEY CHOSE VIDEO GAMES OVER GIRLS!!!
(P.S. am not one of them btw :P)

[Luminiscense]

hm.

I watched this several times...why? I want to give this a good review. It had so much potential but everything fell sort.

Animation/art
- simple yet decent...though are some unnecessary motion blurs on the characters but its just by personal opinion. Also, the moment when there's a huge explosion in the horizon, flashing everything into white and fading it out was a good idea but not including the planes was a mistake(for me at least). If everything in that one scene flashed to white and faded out then it would have dramatic impact. Leaving the planes un-"flashed" during that explosion felt like they are a bunch of floating foreground elements, they looked completely separated. It ruined that supposed-to-be dramatic scene. But the art was amazing. The backgrounds themselves created a dramatic atmosphere on its own and adding different camera angles were a nice touch.

Voice acting
- It SOUNDED average. I don't know if the script was at fault here but I'll just explain it in the Script part of my review.

Sound/Music
- Yes, the sound quality is crisp and clear but most of the fx just felt out of place. You need to judge how loud an FX is or everything will sound like it is an inch close to the watcher/camera. i.e. the explosions, burning grass(?) etc etc.

- I won't comment on your choice of music. BUT abruptly ending it and switching to another song was bad. Especially the part when that female character got killed by a bomb. I can see that you wanted to add emphasis/drama on it but abruptly ending all sound and music just killed all the little suspense/drama the flash painstakingly gathered.
It just felt out of place....

Script
- Honestly the script is laughable. It was somewhat lame/cheesy or just plain cliche'd. Those are the reasons why the voice acting failed. No matter how good the voice acting is, if the script is poorly made, it will inevitably fail. Like the "We must run" and "when I was 14...etc...I accidentally found this place...etc etc" statements. It was...well... :(

I'm sorry if I pointed out the obvious flaws in this flash...I was really disappointed when I finished watching it. I know that you want to show us the seriousness of the flash but it just failed at producing all the drama and suspense... and the mediocre characters didn't help.

It LOOKED like it has more to offer.
But like what everyone said... it had so much potential...everything just fell sort.
Remember to take note of every constructive review we give you.
Fix em and even a small improvement can go a long way.

[EVolution-abduction ep1]

"Creatard"

Animation - Simple yet smooth, the style is perfect for it.
Sound & Voice acting - Decent enough. Every conversation is clear but you need to work on the voice acting a bit more. Everyone just lacks emotion. For instance, Brian's emotion before and after his car got smashed was not very convincing.
Plot/Writing - Superb. This is where I really want to commend you greatly. The plot is interesting and it ran smoothly and the writing itself is clever. I loved how you clearly presented the argument of what is alien and what is not. Mentioning how modern pop culture greatly affected how we think a stereotypical alien should be. And that last statement Brian made "There is no reasoning with the creatard", it tells us how unreasonable we are in the past. That we let our beliefs/emotions/our "hearts" control us than thinking what is rationally better for us. Thus creating music arts, religion, and war. Man is practically the "creators" of their world. There is no need to force reasoning unto us since we stubbornly neglect what we dont currently believe in. It points out that we are both irrational and rational at the same time. We know that what is right yet we make idiotic decisions. Humanity has the power to create but acts like a total retard thus being called in this flash a "creatard"

[The Revenge of Pug]

dawg

its simple
without the oppression of the rich and the powerful
a powerful force, like the Soviet Union, would've never existed..

[Dot Dot Dot - Animated]

its pretty good. but thats it! (its a good thing)

Y U ASK!?
First - Awesome typography. The fluid motion of text is smooth and really well done. Especially how you expressed the voice's emotion through it.
Second - Music. Adding additional dramatic orchestra music made it more "epic" in a sense and a pretty nice touch.
Third - Voice. Why? Beacuase...it is overkill....my innards cramped and I laughed 2 of my asses.

[Final fantasy 7 in 3 min.]

I couldn't resist but to..

EXPLODE

[Hilarious Cat Sleeping!!!]

I came to realize...again

...that people prefer watching pointless viral videos in youtube RATHER than watching interesting flash movies here in newgrounds....
What do you want to watch?
A viral vid in youtube about some retard talking to cats? or a flash movie with smooth animation, great voice acting, well thought out script and a solid plot which btw was made with 3 months of pure blood and sweat?

anyway
This flash pretty much sums it all up. Short yet straight forward.
loved your "Hilarious Cat Sleeping" example...Even I would want to watch it several times...

[Contra Rampage]

NICE

You should've named this "ContraAwesome"