Reviewed by Andres De La Hoz

The review I never thought I'd write. From the moment this movie was released, the hype has been so overwhelming that I'd probably get executed for any remotely negative comment. It didn't help it that since everyone was shouting "best movie ever", I was going to get my expectations up way too much, and end up writing a sadistic, anger-fueled review that targetted not only the movie, but all the incessant newbies that hype up movies way too much and ruin more demanding people's experience watching it. It didn't help it at all that when I saw the movie, I didn't really like it, without quite being sure why. Instead of rushing in with my opinion, I decided to let this baby rest, until I could properly review it. And now's that time. I've rewatched it (after an unsuccesful attempt where I fell asleep), and have finally put my 2 cents for the 3 people who view the Critic's Forum.

Generally I'd speak of what the plot of the movie is, maybe even offering a breakdown of what happens. But everyone's seen this movie already, especially the people who are interested in reading this damn review, so there is absolutely no point in going to far into it. Let's just keep it simple. Redux is a re-imagining (so to speak) of Adrian Pikios' Rebirth of 3dmm, with Gorosaurus and (to a lesser extent) Aaron being the protagonists. Heavily inspired by The Showdown and the aforementioned Rebirth, it juggles around with handmade characters from other movies, such as the NUTS squirrells, some frog, some birds, and some ball thing (I need to get updated on what the hell is going on with 3dmm). Whether one gets the symbolism or the little details that compose the movie is somewhat irrelevant to the enjoyment of it for simply nothing other than the fact that it's an animation showdown. Unlike the other movies of this type, however, this one actually employs something new, in this case being the expansion pack. The movie is the first serious attempt to apply the expansion pack to 3d movie making, and it has certainly popularized its use.

And therein lies the problem with the storyline of this movie: it's derivative. The movie started out as a remake/reimagining of Rebirth of 3dmm, so what were you expecting? Now, most people won't mind. I mean, sure, there's been a fair share of movies about the end of something starring the handmade characters from people's movies as a representation of 3dmm and moviemaking and directors. Of course, this movie has some different twists and some symbolisms and whatnot. I got some, but I'm not really interested in finding out the rest. The movie isn't very different from Pikios' work (no surprise, he's listed as a major influence). And as you guys know, I dislike Pikios' movies in a sort of progression: I dislike The Showdown and what came after, but like Rebirth and Bodily Functions. This one's right between. It has some of the better points of Rebirth, but some of the lesser points of The Showdown. The movie is sort of engaging, in that it's at least interesting animation-wise. But truth to be told, I'm kinda tired of all this "music and animation only" movies. Is that anything against the actual movie? No. But it certainly doesn't help me try to review it. It has the charm of Rebirth, in that the story is at least competently told, and that it has a fairly well executed ending. It has, unfortunately, the lesser point of The Showdown, which was that it was boring. See, there's only so much one can drag this whole "music and image" idea. Rebirth was well-timed; The Showdown wasn't. And to a lesser extent, this one wasn't. The different acts in the movie start out very entertaining...ly (?), but near their end, I'm scratching my back and waiting for the next act. It doesn't exactly help that most of the songs used are variations of some theme that I found particularly irritating, so I couldn't exactly wait for better background music. Nitpicking aside, the movie's storyline is decent but can get annoying every so often.

It's kinda hard to talk about the movie's direction since it was made by more than 1 person, so who knows who did who? I don't. There isn't any hugely noticeable difference in the directing styles of Aaron and Goro; in fact, I'd be hard pressed to answer who did what (I'm assuming Aaron did the parts in which there is an increase of text-based animation and Goro did the spherical animation). That's besides the point. The point is, the animation is very good, though there's just something off. While character movement, camera panning, and variety are all perfectly thrown into the mix, there's just something about this animation style that lacks the sort of visceral punch that might have made this the best animated movie possible. Character movement, although fluid, is always.... kinda hard to find a word for this, but let's use fluffy. It's similar to Adrian's animation, in which everything is so smooth and seamless that it can sometimes work against the purpose, anesthesizing the scene... taking away a possibly larger punch. While this directing style works to great effect in most scenes of the movie, it fails in a few occasions, removing the punch from scenes. There's just something non-threatening about fluffy meteors falling fluffily towards a fluffy earth. Admittedly, this is simply the directors' style, and I doubt they should give a shit about my aesthetic preferences. Now, I'm one of the most vocal supporters of using cubes and spheres for movies. I love cubes and spheres, they're awesome. And I really appreciated the fact that this movie didn't reduce itself to copying new trends in text-based animation (not that text-based animation is bad or anything). It worked perfectly for character design and for some of the scenes in greater scope. However, there was one aspect where it didn't work at all: the ground. I'm going to assume this was a momentary lapse of reason, because for a movie so well animated, the ground on the outside scenes was the most hideous bunch of squished spheres in history. Toss some color into that shit, guys. It was depressing. I'd like to mention that I'm mostly going to mention negative points because, well, you've already heard enough positive points from others; no need receiving another asskissing months later.

A whole paragraph needs to be devoted to the use of the expansion pack, since its pretty much what I find important about this movie. Aaron and Goro wanted to see how the expansion pack could be used to aid movies. The key word here is aid. The movie isn't some demo presentation of all the textures in the expansion pack; it's simply the expansion pack being used in movies, in such a way that it doesn't scream "hey, look at me, I'm the expansion pack". The results of using the expansion pack are 50/50. First, the bad: the sky. For the sky, particularly in act I, they use some sort of grayish blocky texture. I'm not even sure if it's from the expansion or from the normal textures. What I'm sure of, however, is where it came from: the seventh circle of hell. No, no, no.... What the hell were you guys thinking? It's the most awful fucking sky possible. It doesn't even look like anything. It looks like a bunch of blocks. A bunch of grey blocks in the sky. With a shitty bunch of ugly circles as the floor. Act I is easily the lamest act of the movie because of this. I'm just going to have to assume this was the first test, because the sky in later scenes looks infinitely better. Most of the other uses of the expansion pack aren't as criminal as this one, though they are somewhat unnoticeable. Except, of course, for that scene. You know the scene I'm talking about. The guy falling through, the blackness, the rotating camera. This scene not only has the best use of the expansion pack in the whole movie, but it is so damn well done that it accounts for about 1 full point of the rating I give to the movie. It was just.... gaga. Utter brilliance. Too bad the rest of the time is spent on pesky little handmade characters. Which brings me to a point that doesn't have much to do with this movie, but still needs to be said: what's with all these lame handmade characters? Every handmade character I've seen recently is a complete pussy. Drop the cuteness, people. Start making some handmade badasssssses, not these weak birds and testicles with arms.

So what's REDUX? It's not a groundbreaking movie, it's not the best movie possible (there is no best movie possible, everyone sucks). It's an interesting experiment, though. It's very well-made, it's entertaining, and you're going to get harassed if you don't watch it, anyway. If you didn't like The Showdown or Rebirth of 3dmm, you probably won't like this one. As it is, it's a good movie, but let's give this concept a good rest once and for all before this becomes the standard movie type for people to show off.

4/5