Hello everyone! Welcome back to another Classy Critique, where we base our informed arguments and assertions off of rationality and factual evidence instead of attacking others with unorganized emotion and senseless insults! Today’s critique is another dive into the “StickNodes Movie!” The first three episodes started off at a low, but let’s see if the movie can improve! Just a recommendation: watch the episodes before/while reading this critique. Everything will make a lot more sense that way! 😀

Episode 4:
Well, first off before this begins, let me say that the design for General Shirokaze is goddamn badass! He looks like such a cool character. The armor, the helmet, the weapon, he’s just a good looking character in general. Unfortunately, the animation seems to forget that this warrior is in fact a general and not a mindless idiot like the Rouxian soldiers. The “lets make peace oh psyche” is pretty lame and not well timed, as well as badly written. It isn’t one for the hero to suddenly turn bloodthirsty, nor is it for the villain to accept the hero’s peace cluelessly. That complete scene by itself is nonsensical. The fighting is way too faced paced, and the camera angles throw a wrench in the fluidity of the scene. The scene itself is literally like a bad scarf figure fight. The fighting is way too fast and hard for the audience to understand. Powers aren’t well defined at all. (Some of Shirokaze’s abilities just seem random, lIke what even was that rainbow ball that he fired). Because their movements are so quick, the segments of them talking during the fight feel like ages, and the talking interrupts the flow of the scene even more than the fighting. For being a general, General Shirokaze doesn’t quite put up much of a fight or even feel threatening. It’s only his mask that gives off that factor, because his character and dialogue make him sound like an idiot. His revelation behind the mask is spooky, but way too quick, and we only see that power for 3 seconds. This is supposed to be his final form and he just gets knocked out with one single uppercut in three frickin seconds. It’s lazy fighting. Again, the audience has no idea who equilibrium is unless they are already invested in the community. Again, lazy storytelling. EB shows up, does a “hello again” and literally yeets out of the place with the sword. There was a ton of potential for a chase scene, but the scene itself lasts about 5 seconds and EB flies way too fast. The transformation of the setting (setting the scene and showcasing changes in weather due to events by the characters is VERY important) also happens too quickly to be striking or impactful.

Conclusion: General Shirokaze was incredibly cool and should have played a more impactful role in the series. His good design is wasted by the bad scriptwriting and dialogue. Fighting is way too quick. It almost seems like it’s rushed. Camera angles for fights are pretty bad, and they completely throw off the fight. Dialogue isn’t the best either. Best way to sum this up is unused potential. However, just because an episode has potential doesn’t make it good. Sadly, this episode wasn’t all that good.

Episode 5:
Episode five starts off pretty normal for the most part. Introducing the environment and a weird snow monster thing. Hopefully the storyline explains what the snow monster is. However, travel of characters through the environment is still too fast. The whole “Geometry Dash” part is a bit on the odd side and could have been pulled off better, but it’s a nice touch. Information between the Rouxian and Roux for the storyline is conveyed well. However, it goes downhill once Roux mentions a reward and does a Lenny. There are two clear things wrong with this. One, the Rouxians work for Roux because they have no choice, as shown earlier by the transformation. Rewards wouldn’t be necessary for them to stay loyal, and they couldn’t refuse any offer made by Roux because of their programming. Two, the whole Lenny bit is clearly made just for sexual implication and is unnecessary and crude. I understand it is in an attempt to show Roux’s flirtatious personality more or something, but there are so many different and still more mature ways to pull that off. Roux is an empress, not a thot. The scene just feels like poor fanservice. Humor after that point is way too fast paced to understand from a single view of it. Again, the travel to the temple is way too fast paced. It’s hard to even understand what’s happening. A ship gets hit by lighting and crashes, but it happens way too quickly to understand watching for the first time. It’s bad pacing if people have to rewind multiple times to understand what actions occur in a scene. Movement of characters and text is too fast and hard to read. The scene with Epitaph and Cyan Claw as Epitaph explains history is for the most part ok, but something that bothered me was the whole “role” thing. Epitaph is easily the creator, that I understand, but Kaiju isn’t given enough info and screen time to be cemented as a protector. I also don’t understand the difference between Kaiju being the protector and Roux being the guardian, since a guardian is essentially a protector. Charxek Thar’s role is also very strange. How is a giant bug monster a supplier? Does it supply endless hoards of bloodthirsty monsters? I suppose that fits the bill if that is the case. It also doesn’t explain why Charxek Thar turns evil, since Charxek was supposed to be helping with Epitaph and Kaiju. In addition, the phrasing of the sentences of “Roux has the sword” and “She did what” don’t flow well. It would be better as “Roux took the sword” or something along those lines. Just an irk of mine considering it’s a story-based episode and should have more fluidity and sense in dialogue. The scene does a pretty good job of introducing lore and details to the story, but it doesn’t do well on explaining them. Also, the fighting and the revelation of the Node Spawns is way too quick. The fighting happens almost instantly and we don’t see any actually cool action. The “To Be Continued” almost seems like it cuts into the scene itself and interrupts it. Bad flow of events.

Conclusion: Pacing desperately needs to be worked on. Action is not simply faced paced, but sped up to a point where it is hard for the audience to understand. Roux is being established more like a thot than an empress and villain. Storyline and plot can be confusing because it is unexplained. There’s just a ton of organizational problems in relation to dialogue, storyline, and character development. It’s episode five already, and the storyline has shown itself to be convoluted, unexplained, and for the most part pretty bad. In general, it isn’t the absolute worst, but it isn’t good either.

Episode 6:
I haven’t pointed this out yet, but a lot of the “last time” segments are questionably chosen. Instead of anything major with the sword shown, we see Roux doing a Lenny again. There isn’t a good intro to it either, it’s just “episode 6” with text from iMovie or something. That could be fleshed out more. Pacing with Cyan Claw and Epitaph is ok until traveling again. The characters travel way too fast as always. A Node Spawn bursts from the ground, but is taken out by a single bolt. There is no cool factor to this, and the scene is actually rather monotonous. The Node Spawn could have been made cool, but the whole movie makes everything be revealed way too quickly for any good effect. Cyan Claw’s reaction is weird too. He just got attacked by a giant centipede Node Spawn, and it gets blasted and one shot in the face, and he just looks around saying “who goes there.” Not the best writing. Also, Chaoz being introduced saying “I do” just doesn’t flow well and is bad dialogue. In addition, no one has literally any idea who Chaoz is besides people who have already done their research on the movie. Again, bad and lazy storytelling. Seriously though, who the hell is this dude? How does Cyan Claw know him? We aren’t introduced at all to this character! Is it the green guy who got shot by E.B? We don’t even know that guy’s name! The whole idea of Chaoz as a character literally adds “chaos” to the entire storyline. Travel to Roux’s fortress also is way too fast. However, Ralph as a character is pulled off well. I actually chuckled with the fidget spinner part. The scene with Ralph and Roux is actually pretty well made. It could be worked out a bit better, but it was sweet. The Rouxian guards are also examples of characters that have potential but are wasted. The whole idea of brainwashed, transformed guards that are also incompetent really could go far, but there just isn’t enough attention put on them besides their interactions with Roux and “ Rock Paper Scissors.” Also, they are taken out way too quickly. There are so many chances for good fight scenes, but we don’t quite see any good ones with the guards. The movie doesn’t take much time to set the scene, which is very important for pacing and story. Guards are taken out too quickly again, and it also is rather odd that this futuristic base has normal metal vents. Also, Chaoz being a Node Spawn is completely random and very weird. Do the Node Spawns morph into their disguises, or are they just projections of some sort? There is no explanation for this. There is no description or storytelling about shape shifting Node Spawns at all in the film, and the movie once again expects the viewers to read stickfigure descriptions and be informed. This is such a common problem with this movie. In fact, there isn’t much information on the powers or abilities of the Node Spawns at all from the movie. They just kinda exist and have talons. The “Cyan Claw” trap bit from Roux could have been pulled off better at the end.

Conclusion: For a story-based movie, this movie doesn’t do a good job of telling the story. The entirety of this story seems focused on only Cyan Claw, Epitaph, and Roux, which is a shame because there are so many other characters that could be great but aren’t focused on. Pacing is still utterly abysmal. The movie has some good moments, like the interplay between Roux and Ralph, but it doesn’t beautify all other aspects of the movie. Considering it all, the episode is pretty bad. The audience is watching a good movie because they want to see a good MOVIE, not a good MOMENT. Any bad movie can have good moments.

Well, that’s been six episodes of mediocrity. More than half of the series has already been shown to be subpar in practically every category. I do wish that this movie would succeed in cinematic category, but it simply doesn’t. I was told that the series would increase in quality the longer it ran, but the inconsistencies and bad storytelling still remain, along with the spontaneous pacing of the animation. More than half the show has gone by, and there hasn’t been a single bit of character growth/development.

And that’s all, folks! Tune in next time, where we review episodes 7-9! I’ll be happy to answer any additional questions, and I encourage discussion in the comments! Thanks! Stay Classy!