JDR Revolutions

[Dominator Dan]

Hi Ho
n00b here.

The only mentions of this movie beforehand would be in Aaron Haynes' review thread in the Critics section.

Anyway.
The only problem with this movie is that you need to copy the 3DMM0.09 expansions to the 3DMM directory, I got them in both places somehow, so YOu have to do it too, sorry for the inconvenience, anyway, it also needs the Doraemon Expansion.

http://tiamat-gjs.cwru.edu/dragonfil...ies/jdrrev.rar

as a side not, it got 20/20 on DFilms
Jeff Ching: "JDR Revolutions is by far the best movie released so far in 2004!"


more info, once again, go to Aaron Haynes' review thread in the Critics section

[Ryan Omega]

So you're the famous "JDR Revolutions" kid,eh?


You'll fit in just fine here.

[The Chinese Jew]

Incase you people don't know, this movie's on the box office, so please vote for it if you like it. (Those people that haven't yet voted for it)....it currently has a total of 14 points, and really deserves more than that!


Dan, here's a comment u can add.

Jeff Ching:
"JDR Revolutions is by far the best movie released so far in 2004!"

Don't feel bad about starting a topic here, cuz this movie really has not gotten the recognition it deserves!

It's a movie that's full of good humor, fluid animations, and creativity all over the place, it's just such a classic!!

[Ryan Omega]

Not really a classic, more of an...extravagent movie by a newbie to the community.


It's gotta wait 5 more weeks until it's a classic.

[Aaron Haynes]

Eh....the community isn't all there is to 3DMM, you know. I imagine he's been working with the program for a long, long time, and I know he's been posting in the comments section of DragonFilms for a while now.

I might post my review in here....in fact, why the hell not.

[Aaron Haynes]

JDR Revolutions
Directed by Daniel Martin

It starts off with a bang of colors and music and flashing lights that just won't stop echoing until the final line of the credits scrolls across the screen. It's as if someone put Vlarion and Diabolical Delightment in a blender, added pinches of Shit Happens, Videogame Nightmare 2, and Ghost in the Shell, and set it to "liquidate". The best present-day movie making techniques are here, swirling in and around ones that haven't seen active service in years. What results is an utterly sublime experience, one of the most colorful and inventive films in the history of the program, and hands-down the single most entertaining 3dmm movie I've ever seen.

The plot boils down to....who cares, really. It's there, it just spends most of its time hiding behind more important things, like the three main characters getting into extremely inventive battles with a series of villains. This is an entry in the "self-insertion" genre, where the storyline is an excuse for you and your friends to have wacky adventures in a medium other than real life. It plays like a fantasy movie directed by Will Maltby; if there isn't an explosion, gunshot, or energy blast in any given fifteen seconds, something is horribly wrong. Dashes of comedy and drama are sprinkled throughout, and there are pieces of animation here that absolutely blew my mind.

But all this in itself isn't why this movie entertained me so much. I was glued to the screen because I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. When the plot does peek out from behind the avalanche of style, it whipsaws around and blindsides you so fast that you don't notice when the movie reverts back to 'normal'. It changes gears about four times, betraying it's status as almost anything you ascribe to it -- PAM, comedy, fantasy, you name it. It also does the absolute unthinkable when you consider it's "self-insertion flick" nature, faking you out twice in a row about something, and still getting the last laugh. It constantly establishes rules just so it can break them, and laugh about it. You get the impression of a kid who keeps building a block tower and then kicking it over, finding the whole thing ridiculously funny. And it seemingly never quits. With a 30-minute runtime, you'll definitely get your download's worth here.

I might as well give a bit of background, because while the plot isn't what's occupying your mind for most of the experience, it's not unimportant. Sometime in the future, a notorious cult called the Perfect Prime started recruiting members and taking over the habited planets in the solar system. They've left Earth for last, and it's up to JDR (Jammin' Jeffery, Dominant Dan, and Ruthless Rory -- the movie has a penchant for alliterative names) to fight back against them. They're in it for the joy of causing wanton destruction, and there's a wide blast radius as they cause about as much damage to Earth as they do to Perfect Prime. Their names tell you all there is to know about their personalities in the film.

The over-arcing plot is your typical full-force attack movie, with the heroes doggedly fighting through wave after wave of bad guys as they keep moving towards the enemy base, where the final boss awaits. It doesn't begin, progress, or end like you'd expect it to, and eventually you'll just give up trying to predict what will happen. Something I found very interesting, and could only have resulted from a lack of exposure to the community, rather than it's movies, was that JDR Revolutions called it's characters by their 3dmm names. From the perspective of someone who's talked to other 3dmmers about the names for years and accepts them as a given, it's kind of surprising to actually see them explicitly considered as characters in a film -- and this one somehow manages to convince us that we're seeing the default actors, stripped of all the roles they've played in every 3dmm movie ever released, in their actual lives, fighting three kids with destructive powers on an alien planet. It's the most surreal thing I've ever seen, and it's borne completely out of a coincidence where the directors simply don't take the character names for granted like we do. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean.

In case you actually care, there are directing techniques as well as some issues here that haven't seen the light of day for a long, long time. It uses text boxes for dialogue. There are long static shots where the characters just talk about things for a while. Some scenes are horribly slow because the objects in the background are gigantic, and numerous. And there are some flaws, if you like to complain about things. Lots of cringe-worthy dialogue and jokes that would work better with voices. Stale or over-used humor. Heavy use of the explosion prop in many places. I could go on, but I'm not going to. Most of this stuff actually enhances the mood in some weird way. You know how you feel after you've watched a 1998-era film and found yourself enjoying the dated techniques out of sheer nostalgia? That's what this is like, only it's not the centerpiece, but works to bolster the rest of the experience.

No matter how you like the board in general, the idea of a centralized community with an unwritten status quo about movies simultaneously downplays and enhances the ones that come completely out of left field. It's easy to forget that there are talented 3dmmers out there who DON'T visit the board and HAVEN'T seen many (or any) other films, so the works they produce could end up substantially different from what people are used to. Here's the kicker: Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not, at least not inherently. This is a creative outlet, after all, and if there are an unstated list of Things You Cannot Put In A 3DMM Movie, then any community built around that is both stunted and ultimately self-defeating. Personal expectations play a huge role in how people react to a movie -- My advice to you is to stop thinking about Ghost in the Shell, Espirit De Corps, and other movies that are cinematically 'acceptable', and just enjoy the ride. JDR Revolutions calls upon an ancient, subconscious form of artistry known as "screwing around and seeing what new things one can make". If I had it my way, a lot more people would be doing this in the community.

Critial Score: 95/100.
Personal Score: 100/100.

[Dominator Dan]

O_O
whoa, 5 replies already.

nice review Aaron

btw sometimes, if you do copy the files to the 3DMM directory, and it still doesn't work.

if you downloaded the program, copy ALL the C:/3DMOVIE contents to the 3Dmoviemaker directory, and it should work just fine

[Fredrick]

Review up at EP. Didn't like it as much, but decent effort. Welcome, btw =)

[The Chinese Jew]

Note to Dan: Directors are allowed to vote for their own movie at the box office.

[Justin Wawrzonek]

Great Movie there man! I watched it twice now and I must say its one of those movies that I jut watch to be entertained. At its heart this movie is an action flick, but never takes it self too serious. One of my favorite parts is the part with the minigun breaking, and then exploding, I haven;t laughed that hard at a movie in a while. The music and sounds were great. My only gripe was that there were no voices...maybe in a special edition or something. Basically this movie is just a fun movie to watch...thats reason enough for anyone to download it...so get it now.

9/10

[Dominator Dan]

Originally posted by The Chinese Jew
Note to Dan: Directors are allowed to vote for their own movie at the box office.

O_o, interesting...

oh, thanks Dr.evil

I don't have a microphone see..

[Justin Wawrzonek]

Originally posted by Dominator Dan


O_o, interesting...

oh, thanks Dr.evil

I don't have a microphone see..

oh that sucks...still an awesome movie anyway..

[Night Crawler]

i dont understand how to set up my files to watch the movie. DF.com tells me how and i did it. But it dont work.

i cant see the movie yet untill i figure it out

[Ryan Omega]

You can always get a group of veteran voice actors (Eric, Jaymond) to do the roles you need.

[Invisbl Shado]

WTF was that totally overated trisha trash?

...it had "some" cool effects, but I stopped watching after about half way.


3/10

[Aaron Haynes]

What an excellent and well-thought out criticism that certainly gave the director a new perspective on his work, allowing him to grow.

[Invisbl Shado]

Originally posted by Aaron Haynes
What an excellent and well-thought out criticism that certainly gave the director a new perspective on his work, allowing him to grow.

ok, retry:

There was two key elements in this film that made me dislike it: lack of speech and complete unoriginality.

Speech:

It is an absolute must to have speech in your film (if there is dialogue between the characters). You said you didnt have a microphone? It probably would have been a better idea to post a topic in the 3dmm discussion requesting for voice actors, or asking one of your 3dmm buddys to do some for you. There are plenty of ppl who are willing to do voices (including myself) so there is no problem there. Alot of the jokes would of worked alot better with voices no doubt...

Unoriginality:

Everything I saw has been done time and time again and I really gave up about half way because I just felt like nothing was happening. There was some effects that I did like, such as the realistic car rolling but that was about it. You ripped off the matrix by having him fight a million of those robots (and have the same music) so thus, proving my point of unoriginality.

Maybe the last half of the film was excellent but from what I saw it was awful. Try writing an original script and using voices in your future films and you will hopefully come to realise the high expectations we have at the 3dmm community. Why not check out all the popular films to get to grips with what people like here?

Score: 3/10

[Aaron Haynes]

Better that you took the time to point out what you thought was wrong instead of just saying, "It sucked, 3/10." Although I still disagree with almost everything you said.

The voices/text thing has been argued forever, and I still think anyone who claims a text-based movie is worthless is being irrational and ridiculous. As for the Matrix thing, I'm pretty sure that was just an homage/parody sort of deal. I mean, seriously. Who wouldn't recognize it? And the last comment -- ugh. Why not just make a template for all 3DMM films to follow and be done with it? This is more about visual style than it is about scripting or story. A lack of a complex or heavy-handed plot doesn't make a movie bad by default.

I don't think you really gave this a fair chance, but I suppose you're entitled to your opinion. But just for the record, it does change dramatically about halfway through.

[Invisbl Shado]

Originally posted by Aaron Haynes
I don't think you really gave this a fair chance, but I suppose you're entitled to your opinion. But just for the record, it does change dramatically about halfway through.

This is the exact reason I dont write big long reviews because ppl just totally disagree with me and I may aswell of said nothing (good idea actually).


Anyway, Ill rewatch...

[Beast]

umm.. its not opening for me

[Aaron Haynes]

Move all of the files from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Kids\EXPANSIONS into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Kids\3D Movie Maker before starting 3DMM.

When the movie is over, right click any empty space in the 3D Movie Maker folder and click "undo move" to put all the files back where they're supposed to be. DO NOT KEEP THE FILES IN BOTH PLACES. Any movies using the expansion that you make like this will need the files in both 3D Movie Maker and Expansions to run on anyone else's computer.

[Orcus]

Originally posted by Invisbl Shado

It is an absolute must to have speech in your film

No, you're wrong. End of discussion.

It's almost as if you're saying that the only way to show dialouge is through voices. Root Pie had some of the best dialouge and it's all in text. Some people just don't have the patience to read cause they're lazy Americans that have to have everything done for them.

[The Chinese Jew]

I agree that text is by no means neccessary. It's cool if there's voices, but if not...not a big deal.

Movies like Spice Girls 3 and Root Pie will forever be classics and they used text. Root Pie for example was 16 megs, 2 hours long......can u imagine how big the movie woulda been if there were voices?

I might as well add that Root Pie was arguably the best 3dmm movie ever storyline wise.....god damn what a fuckin awesome script behind that movie!!

I still admire the hell outta the Hughes Twins for making that masterpiece of a movie.

[Orcus]

Well the storyline was actually pretty simple but the characterization was awesome.

[Evil Ash]

How long is this flick? I'm reviewing for a physics test and I don't want to spend an hour watching a movie.