To Boldly Flee

[wookiee777]

I ran several searches and found that no one has made a thread on the TGWTG fourth, and quite possibly worst, anniversary special? Well, the question/discussion here is obvious...what do you think about "To Boldly Flee"?

TGWTG has really gone down the dumps for me over the last two years. I don't go there very often anymore, but I did decide to endure their newest movie because it is apparently supposed to be their "final adventure". I think this movie really shows how far the site has fallen.

Some of the more technical stuff is improved from Suburban Knights (which was also mostly terrible) like the camera work and some of the lighting, but the story is too big, too serious, and has way too many characters to juggle around. Frankly this movie is a mess. And it's not a fun mess like in Kickassia, where nothing about the special was meant to be taken seriously at all and you could just turn your brain off and enjoy the references and wackiness of it. To Boldly Flee just comes off as extremely amateurish, which doesn't make sense to me given how much time Doug and the others have spent around video, editing, and critiquing other films. I think they should know better, but so far (and to be fair there is only two parts out, but I'm not expecting it to improve) it's awkward, uncomfortable crap.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Doug has just been going downhill lately. Half his Critic reviews are actually decent movies that he just wants to ***** about because he doesn't like them. What's the fun in watching him pick apart movies like Total Recall and Temple of Doom when there are genuinely shitty movies that make for much better episodes.

Thank god Lewis and Bennett still make quality stuff. Linkara is pretty damn smart and fun to listen to, while Sage manages to talk about anime without coming off like an obsessive (JesuOtaku) or a self righteous **** (Suede).

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I actually do enjoy To Boldly Flee. I do find it entertaining. And you're saying a movie revolving around finding Ma-Ti's remains to plug a plot hole by turning the Critic's house into a spaceship is "too serious"?

However, I feel that overall, the site is going downhill. There are still good people on there. I like Todd in the Shadows quite a bit, and Nash (who has somehow not been in any anniversary specials despite being on the site since before Suburban Knights) is usually quite funny (as long as you stick to his live shows. Other ones are a bit too obviously scripted and over-the-top). Other than that...there's not much since Spoony left.

Finally, I'd suggest waiting at least another two parts to draw any conclusions about TBF. Thing is, it's a huge project. There are only two out of eight parts up so far, and the story is just barely getting started.

Doug has just been going downhill lately. Half his Critic reviews are actually decent movies that he just wants to ***** about because he doesn't like them. What's the fun in watching him pick apart movies like Total Recall and Temple of Doom when there are genuinely shitty movies that make for much better episodes.

You mean the genuinely crappy movies like the original "Mortal Kombat" and "Space Jam"? You may not like his newer reviews. That's your opinion. But him doing crappy movies just to critique crappy movies is a more recent thing than what you are complaining about.

And also, if you listen to the commentaries, you'll realize that Doug=/=The Nostalgia Critic. He isn't a reviewer. He is a critic. It's like saying you think Yahtzee should avoid reviewing decent games with issues and focus on genuinely crappy games.

 

[wookiee777]

I watched the first one where everyone was fighting, I watched the second one which was awful, I watched the third one where I indeed got a few laughs out of the start (like, on or two), but judging how fucking booooooring the NC is right now, I really don't feel like watching this. I did skim through it a little, but Doug is such an incredibly talentless comedian right now (his first videos were good, especially the one with MK: Annihalation (can't spell that, sorry). But, whatever.

Thing is with these movies is that they've got so little material to work with, and they're not good writers.

I figured nobody would share my opinion, but you hit perfectly. I think one of the things that made his old reviews better is his energy. Things were always formulaic in his show, but he brought so much energy that it made the review a ton of fun. He doesn't have any energy anymore. I think it's time to retire the NC persona and try something new.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I actually do enjoy To Boldly Flee. I do find it entertaining. And you're saying a movie revolving around finding Ma-Ti's remains to plug a plot hole by turning the Critic's house into a spaceship is "too serious"?

However, I feel that overall, the site is going downhill. There are still good people on there. I like Todd in the Shadows quite a bit, and Nash (who has somehow not been in any anniversary specials despite being on the site since before Suburban Knights) is usually quite funny (as long as you stick to his live shows. Other ones are a bit too obviously scripted and over-the-top). Other than that...there's not much since Spoony left.

Finally, I'd suggest waiting at least another two parts to draw any conclusions about TBF. Thing is, it's a huge project. There are only two out of eight parts up so far, and the story is just barely getting started.

Doug has just been going downhill lately. Half his Critic reviews are actually decent movies that he just wants to ***** about because he doesn't like them. What's the fun in watching him pick apart movies like Total Recall and Temple of Doom when there are genuinely shitty movies that make for much better episodes.

You mean the genuinely crappy movies like the original "Mortal Kombat" and "Space Jam"? You may not like his newer reviews. That's your opinion. But him doing crappy movies just to critique crappy movies is a more recent thing than what you are complaining about.

And also, if you listen to the commentaries, you'll realize that Doug=/=The Nostalgia Critic. He isn't a reviewer. He is a critic. It's like saying you think Yahtzee should avoid reviewing decent games with issues and focus on genuinely crappy games.

Yeah, I know he is not the Critic. And I do like his newer reviews. Any time he picks on Stephen King it is hilarious. I meant that his last few reviews have just been crap. They were boring.

That said, I did like the All Good Things ending to his Scooby Doo video. But I enjoy it when he has legitimate grievances with films rather than just being petty. I felt the same way about a number of his Disneycember videos, which were Doug's opinions, not any character he plays.

 

[Agent Larkin]

I have pretty much no interest in TBF. I absolutely love some of the contributors to it but this just doesn't grab me at all. I sat through Suburban Knights and after the first two episodes I just stopped finding it funny and just watched it out of a sense of "How bad will this get"?

The NC for me has not been funny for a while now and I blame his lack of the ability to update his comedic style. He doesn't have to change it totally or anything but he needs to let it evolve instead of keeping to the EXACT same method every time.

As far as Channel Awesome as a whole goes I view it the same as I do this site. I don't like a fair amount of the contributors but for the ones I do I don't want it to go.

Also I have my gripes with Doug Walker putting up videos of what cons he will be at and site news instead of a text file. Because you can't get Blip ad money from a text passage.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

I shall reserve judgement until I have seen the whole thing.

 

[Doclector]

I haven't watched any of the anniversary stuff, to be honest. When reviewers do narrative stuff, I prefer for it to be in a review, I don't really know why.

As for people saying the site has gone downhill, meh, some contributors have gotten worse, admittedly. Others have gotten better. NC hasn't been at his best lately, but Todd in the shadows has been on fire. Cinema snob hasn't released anything really good in a while, Oancitizen's been awesome lately.

 

[saintdane05]

I'm pissed at Linkara's one note appearance. He shows up once, Mechakara gets into his space ship (IT'S A DAMN SPACESHIP! HOW DID HE GET IN! HOW DID HE KNOCK ON THE DOOR?), and is then never mentioned again.

But it is quite decent. The beginning starts with a damn funny SOPA parody (Where's the IT guy? How do I turn this thing on?) And it's nice how they are giving Spoony a last hoorah.

And in case you are wondering, I loved Suburban Knights.

Haven't seen part 2 of TBF. Is it funny as well?

And to those who say the site's gone downhill: I say ATFW. It's still as great as ever.

 

[worldruler8]

Haven't watched it, and I honestly don't plan to, because I don't want to see him destroy Science Fiction. I used to like Doug's videos, but recently they've gotten stale. Mostly by him reviewing movies that were either decent, or good if seen through a certain mindset (Temple of Doom being the main example of this. He looked at it too seriously). I like Kickassia, thought Suburban Knights was ok (saw a bit when it was first posted, and stopped, but watched it almost entirely a few months later when they announced TBF), but the jokes were going a very bad direction...

Honestly, I only go on TGWTG to see other reviewers like Nostalgia Chick (I like her reviewing style, if you know what I mean) and Film Brain, only because I find his accent se-I mean, I like his stance on bad movies. I might watch TBF, but if it becomes a slog, I'll be sure to hit the back button on my browser

 

[Hylke Langhout]

So far I'm enjoying it a lot more than Suburban Knights because many of the people they brought in here are actually trying. I've really enjoyed 8-Bit Mickey, Brad Jones and JO so far. Film Brain always annoyed me in the specials, though I don't mind his reviews as much.

The humor is much more character and situation-based rather than stupid punchlines and it actually had me laughing out loud a few times.

On the topic of the site itself, I do feel that many of the longtime members, with the exception of maybe Linkara (NC, Phelous to name a few) have become very grating and repetitive and that the newer people like Todd in the Shadows and Oancitizen are bringing the more interesting content nowadays. Then again, I have been on the site for about 2 years now, so maybe I'm just too jaded.

 

[Leemaster777]

I've watched both parts so far, and I think they're great. Alot of people like to complain about TGWTG, but I think it's still a really great review site.

Nostalgia Critic HAS been a bit hit or miss lately (I thought the Scooby Doo review wasn't very good, but Felix the Cat was freaking awesome), but to be fair, not ALL of his reviews are great. There's been duds in the past, and there will continue to be duds. But I enjoy the good stuff.

As far as the rest of the site is concerned, I like quite a few of the reviewers on there. Nostalgia Chick has got good, insightful reviews, Linkara always brings something fun, be it storywise or otherwise, Bennett and JesuOtaku a great anime reviewers, I like it whenever Vangelus pokes his head on the site, Film Brain has some good ones, etc.

But my current favorite, by a wide margin, is Oancitizen. Hes reviews are insightful, hilarious, balls-out weird, and give me plentiful quotable lines ("Penis is evil!"). He's seriously like my favorite online reviewer now, or at least in my top 5. I probably like him better than Yahtzee.

So, I guess if TGWTG lost those reviewers, I wouldn't go on it anymore. But that's like half the site.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

...

I feel like I'm missing out on something. To google!

 

[Scrustle]

This is an interesting thread, although I can't really comment on To Boldy Flee myself. I've not watched it and I don't really have any intention to. I once saw a tiny bit of one of their other originals a long time ago, and it was dreadful so I had to turn it off.

As for the quality of the site, I haven't really notice it get worse since I'm fairly new to the whole thing. But I admit NC's reviews are getting a bit stale. I used to enjoy his comedy style somewhat but it's become pretty tired now. I still watch the reviews, they're still entertaining, but his jokes don't seem to be much more than just pointing out something that's stupid and explaining it, or wailing like a banshee.

I haven't really explored many of the other contributors but I really enjoy Angry Joe and Sage, and JesuOtaku's Ghibli specials were really good. Because of them I actually recently re-watched a bunch of Ghibli movies myself. Her anime reviews aren't bad, but nothing special. I watched some (probably too many) of her Digimon "reviews" and all they seemed to be was just re-telling the story. Not really much commentary or critique going on at all. I guess it was entertaining to learn about all the movies though. Her other reviews seem to be more focused on critique. Sage's reviews also tend to be very focused on going through the plot, but he adds some commentary through it which is fun to hear. I like how he gives reference to his reviews. I've learnt something about the history of anime with his stuff. I wish those two would put out some more content though. Their back catalogue of reviews is kind of small. Are they relatively new to the site or something?

Nostalgia Chick is pretty good too. Her reviewing style is pretty similar to that of NC's, except without the lunatic shouting. She tends to be a bit more insightful too, I think. Her earlier stuff doesn't hold up well though, and her original stuff. Ugh, that's painful.

Although I didn't really frequent the site when he was there, I like Spoony's stuff. I especially liked his Ultima retrospective. It was like an epic saga of ex-fanboy rage, but in a good way... most of the time. Sometimes his angry scenes seemed a little too realistic. It looked like it stopped being a joke. But, nevertheless it was cool to see a critique of an entire series from someone who knew it so intimately.

...Film Brain, only because I find his accent se-...

Sorry, but whu? His voice is one of the most abrasive voices I've ever heard.

 

[Shadowstar38]

I've seen people ragging on the site because of some drop in quality. Really, I'm not seeing it. Even with me going back to watch ALL the reviews as soon as I discovered the site, I just dont see it.

And Boldly Flee is pretty funny. The story is rediculous on the same level as any of the other reviewer's plot line deal things. And I can still enjoy it.

 

[Phlakes]

I've seen people ragging on the site because of some drop in quality. Really, I'm not seeing it. Even with me going back to watch ALL the reviews as soon as I discovered the site, I just dont see it.

It seems like most of it is just typical internet "EVERYTHING THAT ISN'T WHAT I LIKED BEFORE SUCKS". And lots of social psychology things.

 

[Nieroshai]

I'm sorry you don't like it. I do like it. Different tastes, man. I'm a big fan of Linkara, and lots of his reviews do stories like this. The special smacks of a collab between him and a couple others at most, probably Rob and Spoony pre-canning.

 

[DanielBrown]

Never been a big fan of the anniversary videos. Mostly because I don't really like any of the reviewers(save for Angry Joe and Linkara <3). A few of them makes me want to punch through the screen. Haven't liked Doug since he did the special show where he was in Vienna.

Gotta watch it now though!

 

[Jegsimmons]

I ran several searches and found that no one has made a thread on the TGWTG fourth, and quite possibly worst, anniversary special? Well, the question/discussion here is obvious...what do you think about "To Boldly Flee"?

TGWTG has really gone down the dumps for me over the last two years. I don't go there very often anymore, but I did decide to endure their newest movie because it is apparently supposed to be their "final adventure". I think this movie really shows how far the site has fallen.

Some of the more technical stuff is improved from Suburban Knights (which was also mostly terrible) like the camera work and some of the lighting, but the story is too big, too serious, and has way too many characters to juggle around. Frankly this movie is a mess. And it's not a fun mess like in Kickassia, where nothing about the special was meant to be taken seriously at all and you could just turn your brain off and enjoy the references and wackiness of it. To Boldly Flee just comes off as extremely amateurish, which doesn't make sense to me given how much time Doug and the others have spent around video, editing, and critiquing other films. I think they should know better, but so far (and to be fair there is only two parts out, but I'm not expecting it to improve) it's awkward, uncomfortable crap.

Its just frigging opinion. Hell i found it quite funny. And how can you call it the worst when its not even half way dont yet?

Personally ive liked every cross over he's done so far.