Mega Man (2010)

A low budget fan made movie. There's certainly a lot of care and attention put into this movie. In terms of plot it actually works as a movie. Quite a rarity for a video game adaptation. Despite the pacing being right, the dialog and delivery is horrendous. These are amateur actors doing it for fun, but sometimes it's a little too much. Many scenes reminded me of the obnoxious and obvious cartoons of the early 90s. The effects were very basic, but served the plot well. Films like this are always good to see, as it is the storytelling that comes first. Sure, the film is predictable, with poor lighting, bad acting, and dull camera work, but it was nice to see a movie that wasn't after my money.

Full disclosure: I happily contributed a few bucks to both Eddie Lebron and Daniel James for their work on this film. I'm also rock out to The Megas regularly, and I'm a huge Mega Man fan from my early days of video gaming. Yes I'm probably biased in this review. Also, review may contain some spoilers.That said, Eddie Lebron's Mega Man movie may not stand out to a large number of people, but it stands out because of what it is: an independently made movie, done over the course of a few years, honoring one of the most well known video game franchises of all time. It's a movie based on a video game. With very rare exception, they turn out horrible because they don't stick with the source material or they make it as cheesy as can be. See the Super Mario Bros. movie, Street Fighter in both it's live action incarnations, Double Dragon, to an extent Doom, etc. as examples of video game movies done wrong. This movie sticks very true to the original game, one of the classics of the NES, allowing for some ret-conning done in a sequel to include Blues/Protoman and throwing in plenty of nods to the original. It gets the story right, and when it comes to video game movies, that's half the battle right there.It's an independent movie, without much budget. That's why some of the costumes may look like someone went to a 'bike shop' and some of the CGI may be lackluster. Still, considering that it is an independent movie without any backing from from a studio or from Capcom, it gets more right than it gets wrong. With a bigger budget it could have included more robot characters from the game rather than just 'reports' of them on a TV screen, or grander battles with the robot masters and the Yellow Devil, but even boiled down the movie gets what it needs to get.Acting: Well, some of it was definitely hammy. Personally I found Dr. Light to be rather stiff, but not intolerable. Dr. Wily I found hilarious and fully engaged in his role. Rock & Roll both hit their characters pretty well, and while not much can be said about the Robot Masters, they're on screen for how long anyway? Sound: Ups and downs... There are places where the sound effects are lackluster or even missing. The real gem here is the score by Daniel James, created from scratch with the exception of nods to Wily's Castle and Protoman's whistle, two very recognizable NES themes even years after the game's release. James does an excellent job of conveying the mood of the film, creating themes for the characters, and providing great symphonic energy at all the right moments. The ending credits with songs from video game cover band The Megas also fits well.Overall, if you want high quality production but don't care about story, go back and see some of the awful video game movies of the past. You're welcome to waste your time on that kind of eye candy that will do nothing for you. If you want to see a video game movie done right, and you're willing to forgive some flaws in production value because of it's independent nature, there aren't many movies that will top Mega Man.

It's not going to win Oscars or any awards but for fans of this game I say most of us --- that is people who don't hold Indie made movies up to a higher scale say like Blockbusters --- can agree this really achieved and showed love for the material, I've seen many bad movie adaptations of games for instance one I loath Resident Evil movie franchise and then to see a writer successfully do each game and add canon it's freaking depressing.This movie isn't a masterpiece but for budget used and the love put in it by the Director and how the actors felt like they loved the material, it glows.I'm not saying it's amazing, but compared to most video game movies I have to say this really makes a fanboy smile.Some highlights were the actor who portrayed Dr Wily and how each robot master had a distinct personality, which showed ingenuity of a high calibur. The effects were what lower the score as well as some of the acting but I felt it was genuine, which was enough for me.Is it purely for fans, I'd say no, because a amateur film maker could see this to see some tricks, for the camera work was great and editing not jerky or rushed which was awesome.Good Job

I really dislike these reviews where they bash a well-known LOW budget movie with "too little action" or "sooooo bad acting"... get real.Don't discourage these movie attempts made from fans, without these we wouldn't have ANYTHING because no big movie company will ever do a Megaman movie for real.Yes the movie sucks if you compare it to movies like Inception, Terminator or Transformers etc.However, comparing it to something like a school movie project or just a fan-based movie with no real budget. Then it's a pretty fun movie to watch. If I would have personally made this movie I think I would have taken six actors to act all the robots, instead of actually going in and CGI three of the robots 100 %. With a low-budget those computer generated images show up too clearly.I liked most the Elecman, cool hairstyle and a mean actor, the lightning effects were also done pretty nicely. Also Wily, seems he was the only one to take his role seriously, he was NOT a bad actor. For being in a movie like this his small acting shines.Another thing I liked was that they used Wily Stage 1 song from Megaman 2 at the ending, that part made me smile. Too bad they didn't use any other 'megaman' songs as all of those old midi songs rock.Also to answer one of the Reviews "why did they add 1/2 for story telling", and the easy answer would be the budget cuts; Having a bearded man laugh hysterically and threaten everyone in-front of the camera for 30min probably cost them 10 bucks to make. Instead of making CGI explosions for 30 minutes which they didn't have cash for.Also without the story telling and only the five min action scenes, this would have only been just a "short" and not a full length movie. Also explains why all fighting scenes are only ten seconds or something.Conclusion: If you want to see some block buster movie then don't waste your time. If you go in and expect a low-budget bad movie then watch it by all means.It was fun seeing the very first Megaman 1 to be made into a movie as it seems to have a story anyhow, unlike all the millions of sequels.