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Comment by yankoff | Hacker News Reader

This movie is amazing. Every scene is just genius :)

So much of this is straight out of the jokes my friends and I would have as kids in the 80s. I mean, middle-finger lasers? "That's my bicep." We so did that. A lot of that.

Even the meaningless swearing to try to look "cool" was spot on.

So yes. Maybe not "genius" but it so precisely hits the spot that it's undeniably good.

Is it though? I watched more than half of it. It is a bunch of satirical scenes full of memes copy n pasted together with almost nothing in the way of actual storytelling, which makes it less of a movie and more of a collection of youtube clips.

It's a parody, it's supposed to be like that.

It is satire, so enjoy it as is :)

it's not a satire at all, it's a parody,i'd even say a tribute. To understand the difference, an obvious example: Robocop is a satire.

Satire is a genre, which uses parody (literary approach to the story). So it is both - satire and a parody.

Satire requires some kind of political statement or social criticism. Kung fury isn't a satire.

One could argue it's a social criticism of 80's exploitation films and Michael Bay movies.

> Michael Bay movies.

which are also social criticism themselves ... a social criticism of a social criticism ? now everything looks like post-modernism lol... Seriously, there is no social criticism here, just tropes of 80's movies.

I don't see satire as necessarily being socially or politically driven. It can for example be directed at art itself (which it is here).

The word you're looking for is homage: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_(arts)

The best satire is the one that doesn't rely on slinging obvious jokes in your face, but rather on presenting nonchalant absurdity. The more anarchic and loud styles can also be brilliant (Marx Brothers), but they're quite difficult to pull off and frequently end up being forced and stupid.

> The best satire is the one that doesn't rely on slinging obvious jokes in your face,

Except that this is satirizing a style where obvious jokes were regularly used.

Just watch the first 60 seconds of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrLcHfwppu0

were you a late 70s or early 80s kid? I feel like a younger generation wouldn't understand this too much.

...and this "bunch of scenes" exactly how a lot of 80s movies/animations were. Watch an episode of Thundercats/He-man/Dungeons and Dragons/Mysterious Cities Gold [1] (I loved that show).

tl;dr the homage to the 80s is not just the visual style but also extends to the story telling.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ki99YBVKyw

Mysterious Cities of Gold? Damn, twp, you just hit me hard in the nostalgia :)

It was fun for the first 10 min or so. After 20 min, it was quite stale, and by the end I was sick of it. There is talk about them extending this thing into a feature-length film, but I think that would be terrible.

What might work instead is to perform a dual-parody, of both 80's tropes and the modern trope of giving away the plot in the preview(s). In this format, instead of 30 min of formless memes, they would publish 2-4 "previews" of the movie, and that's it. Same content, just published as previews.

Perhaps a longer version would have more character development, but then backers would say it was boring. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a maximum limit on the number of lines spoken before a special effect or an action scene must be played.

Yeah, skip the feature. Far better to do an episodic series with each installment being ~24 min.

And then you could divide them into "seasons" covering discrete story arcs.

It was a classic (very simple) hero's journey that strung those scenes together. And the scenes were pitch perfect riffs on eighties action movie tropes. The whole thing was incredibly on point from start to finish.

"Before I could pull the trigger, I was hit by lightning, and bitten by a cobra."

> Every scene is just genius

I question your definition of "genius". It's a fun parody for sure. But don't make it look bigger than it really it.

It's very good for a crowdfunded film however. You don't often get those.

Of course I was exaggerating a little bit, don't take everything so literally :) Sometimes people use word "genius" just to emphasize how much they are impressed.

> Every scene is just genius :)

Specially the arcade-style fighting scene. Pure fucking genius!

The style and attitude of this movie (and that of the Danger 5 TV series) are incredibly well suited for parodying things we feel nostalgic about. Unlike the disappointing way in which Iron Sky tried to take itself seriously.

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