Aluminum Christmas Trees: The Nerd bringing and using a record player in his car makes for a hilariously exaggerated Disco Dan gag, but some very vintage cars (i.e. A 1960 Dodge Polara) actually did come with (optional) record player attachments.
Angst? What Angst?: You'd think Dark Onward would be at least a little bit angry over the loss of BOTH of his arms, which is in addition to him already being in a wheelchair by the start of this movie.
Broken Base: Not to carry over from the main page, the following concern the movie only:
The production to this movie divided the fans somewhat, with a good chunk of them disapproving of James Rolfe relying on IndieGoGo to get it funded, while so many others happily contributed to the project, even to the point where he had more than what he needed to make the film happen, and more.
The film's release on Vimeo on Demand. $5 to rent, and $10 to purchase. A good chunk of people argued that he ought to make the film free to watch mainly because it was crowd-funded, while many others are ok with paying to watch it and even argued that this took the most amount of effort yet (especially if you've been following his updates) and is worthy of those prices.
The quality of the movie itself. Some thought it was an amazing film with nonstop funny moments, great acting and characters, and were happy James achieved his dream of being a filmmaker. Others thought it was a trainwreck that didn’t live up to the initial hype with a convoluted plot, bad special effects, and found it to be a pathetic excuse to finally review the infamous E.T. video game. There’s also a third, smaller group who thought it was competently made, but otherwise a generic road trip movie.
Ending Fatigue: A complaint that has cropped up from some is that the film runs too long (about 2 hours) and could've been cut in some places. The film especially drags once Death Mwauthzyx begins destroying Las Vegas.
Moral Event Horizon: General Dark Onward. Among many of his deeds include being willing to kill all the AVGN's fans just for being at the landfill where the Atari 2600's ET game cartridges are.
Nightmare Fuel: The Nerd's nightmare about the carnival actually looks like a realistic Zombie Flick. Even though no blood was shown, the sound effects and terrified expression on the Nerd's face can actually make you think he's being eaten alive.
One-Scene Wonder: Mr. Swann, the Nerd's boss in the beginning of the film. Doesn't hurt that he's played by Eddie Pepitone.
Pandering to the Base: The whole point of the film is The Nerd finally doing a review of the infamous "E.T." Atari game, which he finally does at the end of the film. Surprisingly, he doesn't actually consider it the worst game ever made, and even points out that Atari's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was more cryptic than their "E.T." game!
One pretty bad special effect occurs when The Nerd, Cooper, and Mandi try to cross a stream of lava, that is obviously CGI, and the actress playing Mandi actually steps in the lava a few steps before jumping on the platform! Other examples are deliberate to invoke laughs, such as the toy models for the van, and tank. The van doubles as Narm Charm as somber music is played as it burns up.
Most of the green screen scenes are extremely blatant, especially with the Las Vegas scene where Cooper and Mandi have both been captured by Death Mwauthzyx.
Really, some of the special effects are easily to call out, which is part of the fun of watching this movie as a good chunk of it was intentional.
"Even my dreams are low-budget!"
A few shots involving miniatures look very "off" because they feature a shallow Depth of Field, which is only possible when the subject is very close to the camera. Miniature effects are generally shot with a deep depth of field because it creates the illusion of greater size and distance.
Strangled by the Red String: The Cooper/Mandi at the end came from where?! She only used him to get close to the Nerd and he accused her of being a Double Agent and left her to possibly die, romance was not in the movie.
even has Rolfe and McCreary referencing The Transformers: The Movie and the Lion version of its theme