Spoony "reviews" Wing Commander

I can point out many areas where his logic is both flawed and or extremely innaccurate in that particular piece.
Oh hey, can you please do so?

That's actually a request to all of you who criticize Spoony's criticism. Please come up with some valid points to show that you are better than the guy you are attacking. Right now, most of you sound like a bunch of crybabies.

I like WCCIC and the forums, but I never understood the protectiveness some members here show for that failure of a (WC) movie.
 
The review itself is uninspired. All of his points are predictable and cookie cutter. He clearly fails to consider some of the difficulties of making a film in favor of making jokes about sound in space and hairless kitties or misspelled words. If it's meant to be comedy in total than his predictable jokes fail to bring me along.

I only ever hate movies I consider completely unwatchable. Something like Percy Jackson or Transformers 2. Wing Commander despite it's flaws isn't unwatchable. It isn't a cinematic masterpiece, but considering it's circumstances it did better than what would be considered the unwatchable bombs like super mario brothers.

That said, my biggest problem with the movie for me personally is that it fails to leave any impression on me in any way emotionally. I only related my emotions to maniac's character as I found him the most like my mind had imagined, but I never got to the point where I could walk away from that movie and go 'gee, wasn't that scene great?'

As an example, the X-men movies were always good for that. There was always a scene that set the movie up or really prepared you for the movies' tone. Whether it was, Magneto being separated from his parents or Angel removing his wings painfully to hide his mutant power these scenes really stuck with me. Wing Commander really didn't have a scene like that for me.

For all the other technical crap, I couldn't care less.

-Rance-
 
That's actually a request to all of you who criticize Spoony's criticism.

The review isn't wrong, it's just incredibly dumb and terribly indicative of something terribly wrong with our internet society in 2010.

Chris pointed this out last month when the kid was raging about Privateer 2--his site's subtitle is "because bad movies and games deserve to be hurt back". Comical unbelief noise! What a stupid, cynical, mean-spirited way to think. The idea that anyone would focus their life on 'hurting' some broad class of things should be disgusting to thinking humans--but apparently we're all eager to line up and salute. People visit WCNews.com because they're fans of Wing Commander. Do people visit "Spoony Experiment" because they're fans of hating things, no matter what those things end up being? Based on the site's comments: yes. Gross, gross, gross. I can't wait to log in to the internet and find out what an unpleasant man tells me not to like today in a comically exaggerated video! It will be great! (I hope he tells us to burn our pants.. these things are driving me nuts!)

It's not just riding the Woo, woo! Hate stuff! train, either. We all saw it coming, we know exactly where this sad paradigm shift towards genuine nastiness came from. Ten and fifteen years ago we were absolutely enthralled by this exact same kind of material. Folks who grew up watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Kevin Smith movies and reading those Star Trek Nitpicker's Guides said to themselves boy howdy, this stuff is clever and I can do it too.

What they missed was the absolute most essential part of the equation--the hard won part that made all of that stuff genuine and leaves "The Spoony Experiment" worthless... the motivation. MST3k exists because its creators loved bad movies, those Star Trek guides are a paean to the writer's favorite show... none of it is some aggressive attack strategy (or, important here, any selfish desire for celebrity).

It's more than all that that makes it pathetic, though--it's the fact that it exists only because it's *easy*. There's no artistry here, no hard work--point a flip cam at me and listen to me take the piss out of things no one likes in the first place? Rants that write themselves? Completely irrelevant things, too! Gee, Spoony, your criticism really saved me... I was going to spend my $7.50 to go see Wing Commander when it came out ELEVEN YEARS AGO. And then I might have picked up the DVD (or the VHS or the DivX!) for the few years after that that stores stocked it. I mean, a rant about the Wing Commander movie? Did he run out of material about how unpleasant air travel is? Ugh, ugh, ugh.

And then it's such a cheap eyeball grab! Hey lowest common denominator, here's some easily manufactured swill you'll enjoy while loading a right menu bar full of advertisements. The whole thing screams this thinking process: those internet videos where the guy with the British accent who talks quickly and draws stick figures to review games were a hit, I can do the same thing with even less work and be popular, too! And you folks think this is all clever? That this is some brilliant original commentary? Do I need to charge my web and record myself saying it to let you know I think you're idiots?

But the worst part of all is how cool the world should be in 2010 with exactly the technology and the audience this video uses. Imagine how great this sort of... video blog (vlog? youtube?) would be if 'Spoony' were actually *interested* in any of this stuff. We're ten years from the Wing Commander movie! That fact alone is GREAT--fans and detractors have deep, well thought out opinions now... the folks behind the movie have all moved on to different jobs and are now willing to tell their stories... mountains and mountains of making of material has been unearthed (courtesy of actual work by people who remember how to love things).

How much better would a little 'The Wing Commander Movie: What Went Wrong?' documentary be than some semiconscious angry man yelling at a FlipCam be? Read the original scripts and compare them to what's on the screen. Interview Chris Roberts about how he feels about the movie, about why he made the choices he did. Want to bitch about the ship designs? How much more effective and *genuine* would that be if you were showing off the original concept art of WC1-style Rapiers that we've found instead of prancing to attract morons? Internet 2.0 should be letting us do all that stuff (and before you say it, I sure as hell feel I've done my part in making the resources available and I'm available at any time to work on any project like this)... but that would take hard work and so instead it's just this cynical, insubstantial mess... and that's wrong.
 
What they missed was the absolute most essential part of the equation--the hard won part that made all of that stuff genuine and leaves "The Spoony Experiment" worthless... the motivation. MST3k exists because its creators loved bad movies, those Star Trek guides are a paean to the writer's favorite show... none of it is some aggressive attack strategy (or, important here, any selfish desire for celebrity).

Guess what, Spoony *does* love bad movies. He owns every movie Uwe Boll has ever made, along with several of those starring Reb Brown, and he has that Highlander 2 poster in the background. He loves the bad FMV games, that's why he played through them to get footage of them for his "reviews".

It's more than all that that makes it pathetic, though--it's the fact that it exists only because it's *easy*. There's no artistry here, no hard work--point a flip cam at me and listen to me take the piss out of things no one likes in the first place? Rants that write themselves? Completely irrelevant things, too! Gee, Spoony, your criticism really saved me... I was going to spend my $7.50 to go see Wing Commander when it came out ELEVEN YEARS AGO. And then I might have picked up the DVD (or the VHS or the DivX!) for the few years after that that stores stocked it. I mean, a rant about the Wing Commander movie? Did he run out of material about how unpleasant air travel is? Ugh, ugh, ugh.

His "show" is devoted to ripping into old stuff for shits and giggles, and that's what people are going to his site for. To see someone making a fool of himself for nothing more than their entertainment! However, I feel that to claim an utter lack of artistry is wrong. His vlogs involve him just staring at the flipcam and giving generally constructive commentary about recent games and movies, but his "reviews" are little skits performed for the amusement of the internet, complete with script, props and in jokes. I also feel that to claim a lack of effort is also wrong, because of the amount of time he took to get footage from the movies and games he reviews. Movie footage is easy, surely, but getting NPCs to vomit in stereo, not so easy. (See his: The Thing videogame review)

How much better would a little 'The Wing Commander Movie: What Went Wrong?' documentary be than some semiconscious angry man yelling at a FlipCam be? Read the original scripts and compare them to what's on the screen. Interview Chris Roberts about how he feels about the movie, about why he made the choices he did. Want to bitch about the ship designs? How much more effective and *genuine* would that be if you were showing off the original concept art of WC1-style Rapiers that we've found instead of prancing to attract morons? Internet 2.0 should be letting us do all that stuff (and before you say it, I sure as hell feel I've done my part in making the resources available and I'm available at any time to work on any project like this)... but that would take hard work and so instead it's just this cynical, insubstantial mess... and that's wrong.

This is ultimately true, and I would have loved to see such a review. However, its also what the guys who did the youtube Star Wars reviews have done. They did go in depth and took clips from interviews with the original Star Wars crew, concept art of Lucas's original vision of Luke and Han, tons of behind the scenes footage of Lucas pretty much screwing up the whole creative process. And they packaged it in the whole typical "rage" and "silliness" thing to attract the lowest common denominator. Yet their effort is rewarded with the same scorn as the relatively brainless silliness that Spoony delivers.
 
so they attempted to attract the lowest common denominator and were greeted with scorn?

Impossible!
 
The complaint of sound in space has been a boring talking point for decades. Every space movie/TV show has done it. Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, hell, even Lost In Space. My friend used to complain: "Lasers don't make sounds when you fire them! Plus, there's no sound in space!" Even the campy 80's movie The Explorers comments on this popular Sci-Fi trope: "Explosions in space? Impossible!"

:eek: Yawn.

Those onboard the Tiger's Claw at the time weren't worried that someone in another ship would hear them talking; it was a hushed and tense moment for the ship and her crew. They were stressed out.
 
As the Bandit said, seeing an "advanced screening" of Wing Commander would've been an exciting thing to claim .... 11 years ago. Anyhoo, if you want to find something to complain about, you will be able to find something in nearly every movie or TV show that you watch. I think that the reason the folks here who don't seem to like "Spoony" very much feel that he is using over-beaten talking points, pointing out various tropes that appear in almost any Sci-Fi movie, and ranting about how an adaptation wasn't exactly like its source material, which adaptations never are, as everyone knows.

Here's my take on this: The guy didn't like the Wing Commander movie, and thus feels somehow compelled to spew tons of hate toward it in an attempt to sway the viewer to agree with him. This alienates the folks here who actually liked the movie despite its flaws, as this type of rant is not just a rant about something Spoony doesn't like, but more of: "I don't like this, and neither should you. Furthermore, if you don't agree with me, you're stupid. Monumentally stupid. Dumber-than-a-box-of-hair stupid. The stupid king of the stupid people of stupidland."

I had a friend move in with me from out of state because he needed somewhere to go. I was not born here, but moved here of my own choosing. He used to bash the area for how stupid it was, how trashy it was; or this, that and the other thing. He would then act baffled when I would become annoyed at all his trash talking. I finally told him: "Talking all this crap makes me feel stupid for choosing to live here. You're demeaning the place I've chosen to live, thus insulting MY intelligence; like you think anyone who lives here is an idiot, and that this place is just an all around shitty place to live." Same idea applies to this guy and his common, unoriginal rant.

It treads no new ground, has nothing to say we haven't heard before. The video itself is just a vehicle for the guy to complain, and really, what's the point? If you don't have anything new to say, why is this seen as so "hilarious" and "edgy"? It's the same stuff we've been hearing for over a decade.
 
Not to make everyone seem like an idiot, but you do realize that he's putting on an act right? If you've ever listened to most of his Vlogs and commentaries you'll realize that he's quite level-headed if sometimes prone to justifiable bouts of rage (see TNA). Secondly, someone spoke about how people from Mystery Science Theater had a love for bad movies, that is true, but if Noah didn't have some type of adoration for bad movies he wouldn't bring up his love for movies such as Yor Hunter from the Future and Robowar.

I'm not going to deflate the importance of such a topic as Wing Commander because I can understand that, but this man isn't simply spewing hate for the sake of spewing hate, he's a comedian, his comedic angle is that of tormented rage with a hint of analysis. I can understand if you dislike his type of comedic performance, but do not mistake it for his actual behavior. Yes, it's not the most legitimate of reviews, but that's not the point. He's using the review angle to fuel the comedy, if you do not think he has the right to take the piss out of something as revered and holy as Wing Commander then I guess he needs to be strung up by his toes and flogged.

Also, I haven't yet seen a post claiming that the movie was good or even passable. From what I can assume, most people here believe the movie was a failure. If this is the case then why are people so insulted that he used it? If I might use a bit of hyperbole, some of you are reacting like he spat in the President's/Pope's/Prime Minister's/Icon's face, relax!
 
Not to make everyone seem like an idiot, but you do realize that he's putting on an act right? [...]
I'm not going to deflate the importance of such a topic as Wing Commander because I can understand that, but this man isn't simply spewing hate for the sake of spewing hate, he's a comedian, his comedic angle is that of tormented rage with a hint of analysis. I can understand if you dislike his type of comedic performance, but do not mistake it for his actual behavior.
Not to make you seem like an idiot - but that's the whole point that LOAF spelled out :).

People are talking about him here because he did an episode about Wing Commander. We're a WC fan community, so it's not surprising that his review of Wing Commander kick-started this discussion - but that's not what most people are actually complaining about. I'm sure there isn't a single person here who doesn't realise that Wing Commander was, ultimately, a bad movie. We all find a lot of different things to like in it, but we do realise that the product as a whole wasn't exactly great. But that's not at all the point - though it sure serves as a great illustration.

The key complaint here is not about him doing Wing Commander with his unique brand of asshole angst comedy. It's that unique brand of asshole angst comedy that actually is the big complaint - and the fact that so many people like this kind of comedy is an even bigger one. I'm not going to bother going into more detail, LOAF already did that - suffice to say, it sucks that there's so many people out there who love watching some guy rant about some random product.
 
First of all i believe it bears mentioning that Noah Antwiler (TheSpoonyOne) is an award winning critic/entertainer. Have you won any awards for criticizing anyone? He has won an award for what he does.

Second Spoony's whole shtick is poking fun at nostalgic things for the sake of entertainment and are no way serious/gospel reviews. His vlogs are more his serious views on things.

With the Wing Commander movie you can tell that he speaks from the heart and wanted it to be a good movie that is faithful to the source material. Unfortunately it just isn't, and he does point out the obvious that anyone who shares his opinion would point out. SO what if it's 10 years after the fact? You somehow missed that is what he does a look into our not so distant past and laugh at our pop culture shortcomings.

Bandit Loaf it is just plain bad form to attack him personally and not stick to your issue with his comedic review. He gets paid to make silly videos and if i am correct in my information the Spoony experiment is his career now. Not a bad way to make a living by making videos on the internet with everyone still fully clothed. He has a devoted cult following that not only enjoys his work but also considers him a friend. If we were taking count I'd say Noah's corner of the internet is much bigger then yours sir/madam. The most agonizing thing i feel is that you cannot refute his observations in the film in question. I defy you to legitimately challenge everything he found wrong/lacking in the Wing Commander movie. As a fan of Wing Commander and video games in general you Bandit should be outraged that a beloved game franchise got such a raw deal on the big screen instead of personally attacking a man for "reviewing" it for the sake of a few laughs.

I encourage everyone to watch more of Spoony. He has something to say and if you can't read between the lines and see the snark and general good but sarcastic intentions then you really do need to laugh a lot more in your life because the ability to laugh at everything is truly a gift.

Also let's not forget one of the most important human rights. The right to choose- You don't like Spoony? Then don't watch. It's so simple I'm astounded some still don't get it.
 
Not to make you seem like an idiot - but that's the whole point that LOAF spelled out :).

People are talking about him here because he did an episode about Wing Commander. We're a WC fan community, so it's not surprising that his review of Wing Commander kick-started this discussion - but that's not what most people are actually complaining about. I'm sure there isn't a single person here who doesn't realise that Wing Commander was, ultimately, a bad movie. We all find a lot of different things to like in it, but we do realise that the product as a whole wasn't exactly great. But that's not at all the point - though it sure serves as a great illustration.

The key complaint here is not about him doing Wing Commander with his unique brand of asshole angst comedy. It's that unique brand of asshole angst comedy that actually is the big complaint - and the fact that so many people like this kind of comedy is an even bigger one. I'm not going to bother going into more detail, LOAF already did that - suffice to say, it sucks that there's so many people out there who love watching some guy rant about some random product.

Why is it such a shame that people enjoy this form of comedy? I think that's my biggest inquiry. I mean I read the explanation, but I still don't see his form of comedy as the overall degradation of comedy and of internet personalities as a whole. Secondly, the products are not random, generally, he tends to pick products that he played or watched earlier in his life, so there's a personal investment in a lot of his reviews. I just don't see what the big deal is, there are far more harmful internet personalities on the web and I'd view him as harmless if you dislike him and hilarious if you do.
 
The review isn't wrong, it's just incredibly dumb and terribly indicative of something terribly wrong with our internet society in 2010.
1) There's no such thing as "internet society."
2) If there were, it would be /b/. There's your internet "society." This here, with all the complete sentences? This is your extant society carrying over into the internet.
3) If this is enough to indicate "terribly wrong," I shudder to think of your reaction to something that's actually disturbing. But no, pedophilia, rape, mass murder, these pale in comparison to a bad review of a well-known bad movie.

I hope he tells us to burn our pants.. these things are driving me nuts!
I almost took you seriously until this part. Ain't nothing wrong with Simpsons quotes, but when you're in "serious business" mode and break to make an unrelated and unnecessary joke, stolen from an episode of a TV show nearly as old as the movie you slammed Spoony for reviewing, it just doesn't work. And for that matter, you're a regular in a forum devoted to a game that (except for an XBLA knock off) saw its last release 13 years ago. Where do you get off calling him out for doing a video of an old movie?

The whole thing screams this thinking process: those internet videos where the guy with the British accent who talks quickly and draws stick figures to review games were a hit, I can do the same thing with even less work and be popular, too!
First actual episode of Zero Punctuation: August 15, 2007. First episode of The Spoony Experiment: January 24, 2007. And if you're going to try and make that point, at least bring up the Angry Video Game Nerd, who predates both by several years. Also, I hate to break it to you, but it's at least as much work to film a video review as it is to make an episode of Zero Punctuation. You come off sounding like you have no idea what goes in to the process you're complaining about, e.g. an asshole.

some semiconscious angry man yelling at a FlipCam
As opposed to some semiconscious angry man typing in a Wing Commander forum?

And seriously, he called out a bad movie for what it was, and talked up the games so much that I'm going to try and track down a copy of WC3 despite how little I liked the first two games. You'd think the regulars in a Wing Commander forum would be more appreciative of the love he shows the games. And if you managed to like that awful movie, hey, so did I, but I didn't lose my shit because some guy on the internet pointed out the obvious flaws in a movie I know to be bad. It's the same film it was before he did the review. Just enjoy it.

And now I leave you to rant and rave over how I just don't get it with a smug sense of self-satisfaction, I leave with a smug sense of self-satisfaction over having made a pointless reply to a pointless rant on the internet, and much later anyone who asks why my band is called Unique Identifier gets a story about how I was an asshole in some Wing Commander forum and the name seemed good enough at the time, leaving them utterly bewildered. (Hey, there's only so much smug self-satisfaction I can give to people.)
 
The title of this thread is wrong.

It should not be "Spoony ''reviews'' Wing Commander".

It should have been "WAHHHHH!!!! SOMEONE'S OPINIONS IS DIFFERENT THAN MINE!!!! I DO NOT LIKE SEEING ANYONE WHO DOES NOT THINK LIKE ME!!!! WAHHHHH!!!!! IT IS EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH TEH INTERWEBZ!!!! I HATE HIM!!! WHAAAAAAAA!!! I AM A SEVEN YEAR OLD ON A FORUM WHO WANTS TO BASK IN THE CIRCLE JERKING MASTURBATORY CONFIDENCE OF MY FREINDS TO HATE SOMEONE MORE TALENTED THAN ME WITH MORE FANS THAN I HAVE!!! WHAAAAAAA!!!!! I MUST DECLARE JIHAD ON SPOONEY BECUASE I AM A SELF-RIGEOUS CUNT CALLING OTHER PEOPLE A SELF-RIGHTEOUS CUNT FOR MAKING A VIDEO THAT MAKES ME HAVE TEH FURYYY!!! WAHHHHH!!!!!"

At least then, this thread might have some honesty to it, instead of just a bunch of faggoty butthurt fanboys.

You know what truly is everything that is wrong with the internet?

Whiny, butthurt, fanboy wah-wah-gasisms and forumbound group therepy cock-sucking sessions on the maturity level of a petulant 6-year old, all over one person's video to soothe their boundless hatred and intolerance of anyone else but their own selves.

Wallowing in their own seething jealousy over the opinion of one person that all of you wish you were in the particular spot he is in, with being a very famous, well-liked, enormously popular internet personality who won the "funniest person on the web" award from a voting crowd of over 2 million.

Can any of you assholes ever say you've been there? That you can stand up to credentials like that? No? Then go shove your pointless jealousy and butthurt rage right back up your own asses where you pulled it from and where it belongs, instead of using a forum for your pathetic drooling stupidity over your worthlessly gang-raped pride.

THIS is the kind of bullshit that TRULY contributes to making the internet a worse place to be.

THIS.

THIS THREAD.

This kind of wanking, crying, blubbering, jealous, hateful, repulsively idiotic masturbatory bullshit response.

You random nobodies on the internet crying your crocodile tears over an opinion or a video that you are just upset that you're not being appreciated and popular for, yourselves

While on the other hand, his videos, are the only kind of redemption the general internet has in the face of the legions of butthurt fanboy faggots, and jealous, self-important, hateful, crybaby little piss-ants who will probably never amount to one tenth of what the highly respected web personality whom you misdirect your anger on, HAS accomplished.

Maybe instead of crying and blubbering and whining about one video from someone who does what he does well and is popular because of it, perhaps you should focus your pathetic butthurt lukewarm fanboy rage on other pursuits.

Such as getting your dickish, self-absorbed, jealous, hateful, negative, sad, miserable, little shit wastes of life off of your faggy forum masturbation sessions, as well as out of your parent's basements, and get laid for once in your lives.
 
Did you really register on this forum just to post that?

I guess we touched a nerve?

In all seriousness, though, I do not mean any grand offense... if y'all love this guy, keep on loving him. There is absolutely no reason why anything I say should count. I have been exactly the same kind of huge internet jerk as he is for many years, but for a very specific fandom that I love. My opinion really should not matter to anyone who registered today to post to this thread.

Plus, lets be a little self aware--we're all being all kinds of stupid here. You've come here to go out of your way to post angry rants about how I went out of my way to post an angry rant because someone you like went out of his way to post an angry rant about something I like?

Can we just pause for a moment, appreciate that zany situation. Y'all love Spoony, we love Wing Commander and we can send angry fanboys back and forth until the end of time. Lets move to Wing Commander. That's all I really care about, at least.

As a fan of Wing Commander and video games in general you Bandit should be outraged that a beloved game franchise got such a raw deal on the big screen instead of personally attacking a man for "reviewing" it for the sake of a few laughs.

That "raw deal" is absolutely fascinating to me, though--because it's the result of being an absolutely amazing unique deal.

Why are most video game movies dreadful? Because no one cares about them. They're essentially a budget item for publishers--FOX will give us ten million dollars for the film rights for our game and we can figure that into our overhead.

That's the extent of game developer involvement in a movie game... the movie is out of their hands after they sign the rights away. The film studio can go and spent $200 million making a blockbuster or they can give the license to Uwe Boll or anywhere in between those two points.

But not Wing Commander! Wing Commander is such a strange movie because Electronic Arts *gave away* (literally!) the film rights to the creator of the series... who then personally produced and directed the film (started his own production outfit and CGI rendering house, raised the budget himself, etc.)

As many problems as we have with it, it's not some case of an outsider not understanding what they were making... it's Chris Roberts doing Wing Commander the way he apparently wanted. How can that not deserve some serious examination?

And for that matter, you're a regular in a forum devoted to a game that (except for an XBLA knock off) saw its last release 13 years ago. Where do you get off calling him out for doing a video of an old movie?

Hah, I'm not just a regular, I run the place!

Seriously, though, we're a great community even without new games... we've put together some amazing things over the years. Check out the 'Standoff' fan project, which is a wonderful new game built out of

My big focus is preserving the history of the series--getting stories from the developers, archiving old documents and so on. We even got to spend a week at EA scanning and photographing and backing up all their old Wing Commander material a year or so. Wing Commander as a brand may be pretty quiet, but we're a good fanbase that does some interesting stuff.

As for official releases, the philosophy that I try really hard to impart to everyone here is to really appreciate all the little things. I'd love a fifty million dollar Wing Commander 7... but we aren't sitting around waiting over the decades for just that. We've had a heck of a good time revisiting Wing Commander I and IV on the PSP in recent years, playing the XBLA game together, searching for lost stuff and so forth.

And seriously, he called out a bad movie for what it was, and talked up the games so much that I'm going to try and track down a copy of WC3 despite how little I liked the first two games.

That's cool! Wing Commander 3 is indeed a big jump from the first two... I like it less, but lots of people like WC3 and 4 exclusively.

Do not listen to the advice going around that you should get the PSX version--it's nowhere near as smooth as the PC release. If you need help running it, our tech support forum has you covered.
 
Well, I got linked here through a bizarre series of events involving twitter. I read through some of these replies, saw everything that need saying said. So, I'll just say hi and be on my way. Hi


(and yes, I registered here just to do this, early morning is weird like that.)
 
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