I too am a fan of the Nerd, and I have to agree with pretty much everything you said. You can tell how passionate he was about getting it done, and I'm happy he was able to finish it because it was such a lifelong dream of his. But as for the film itself, yeah, I didn't think it was anything spectacular either. I think the biggest problem is that it was too over-the-top, and James seemed to be trying so hard to make it campy and cheesy that... well... campy and cheesy is exactly what it ended up being. I wish he'd scaled it down somewhat and gave it more of the humble charm of the web series. The story could've used more work too; you're right about it feeling thin and dragged-out. I did enjoy the Mike and Kyle cameo, and I liked the actual long-awaited E.T. review he did at the end, but that's pretty much it.
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Check it out if you're a fan of AVGN, but don't expect too much.
I knew about this movie being in production before I even watched a single second of a Nerd episode. When I first started watching the AVGN series, I fell in love immediately and marathoned the entire series in a matter of days. I love the Nerd's juvenile sense of humor and tendency to be a funny yet competent critic. So naturally, I wanted to see this movie. I ended up watching it on the internet, and needless to say, it's not that great. For what it is, it's somewhat enjoyable, but if it didn't have the Nerd's name attached to it, I can't think of a reason why anybody would pay attention to it.
As most people know, the entire film is based upon the legend of the Atari Landfill, you know, the whole E.T. thing. But the film's plot can basically be summed up like this without giving anything away: the Nerd, a girl named Mandi who initially uses him, and his young token black sidekick Cooper go on a quest to find stuff out about Area 51 and how it links to the landfill legend. Oh, and at the end, he reviews E.T. That's about all there is to it. It's a B-movie-quality flick with average acting and a thin story. It sucks whether you enjoy it or not. Now that I've got that out of the way, there's not much else to say.
As a whole, the AVGN movie is nothing to get excited about. It's just an amateurish film with none of the charm that the web series has. The side characters do okay, but they seem tacked on in the end. It still feels like an AVGN production, but that's the only thing that keeps it going. Worth watching if you're a fan, but it's nothing special.
Overall: 5.7/10