Today Eddie Lebron released his not-for-profit movie “Mega Man” based on the hit video game series produced by Capcom. You can watch the movie here:

Mega Man: The Motion Picture

Being an experienced B-movie actor, Edward Young (Dr. Light) is a bit monotonous, but he doesn’t come across as a ham. Fortunately, he doesn’t have much screen time, so his performance adequately progresses the film without being detrimental in the least. Ever since the first trailer, I’ve been worried about Young’s height and physical appearance, since the original Dr. Light was a stocky old man with a big beard. However, I think Eddie thought portraying Dr. Light as such might come off as a bit corny. This is a good idea, it makes the film feel a little more believable.

Comedian Dave Maulbeck definitely hammed it up and his accent was horribly grating. Learn to ignore it, because his performance as Dr. Wily was certainly corny and well-played. Unlike Young, Maulbeck was far from monotonous. He played his part well-enough.

Jeanie Tse is cute as Roll, but her voice is a bit annoying. Fortunately, she’s the life of the movie. He bubbliness makes every scene she’s in seem so bright and cheerful.

Jun Naito is good as Rock. He and Tse definitely have the most personality in the film. The Mega Man costume was minimalistic and looked pretty dorky, but it’s a lot better than Mega Man’s outfit on the box covers for the games. The Mega Buster was pretty lame, though. Again, it was minimalistic, which I would be willing to settle for — minimalism is realism — but there have been some jaw-dropping Mega Busters made by cosplayers and even childrens’ Halloween costumes. He should have asked Jenni Kallberg to design Rock’s costume.

It wasn’t a perfect movie. It had its flaws, to be sure. My biggest complaint is the camera effects. When Dr. Thomas Light tells Dr. Albert Wily he’s no longer needed, the camera jerks around. Dammit, Eddie, either zoom out or change cameras before panning! The scene was annoying to watch. There were some other bad moments, like only seeing Rock’s chin while the camera focuses on Dr. Light. I think that’s a no-no in film school. Otherwise, the camera angles themselves are not too bad.

The CGI, on the other hand, is pretty bad. When the robot masters rampaged through the city, the car crashes and explosions looked so fake and unbelievable. If you remember my review of the trailers, I expected the CG to be cheesy, along the lines of Sy-Fy Channel quality. The robot masters’s CG was admirable, however. And hey, that’s what any Mega Man movie should be about.

Eddie made the decision to make three of the original six Robot Masters — Bomb Man, Guts Man, and Cut Man — computer generated.  The other three — Elec Man, Fire Man and Ice Man — are played by actors. Alan Fung as Elec Man was a ham when he first appeared, but damn he was a badass. Wayne Chang as Ice Man was cool, pun intended. He was acted out with flair and a funky bipolar disorder — his original programming was at odds with Dr. Wily’s reprogramming. Fire Man was weird, ranting about the evils of Rock and the glory of Wily’s world. Hugo Salazar did some decent acting with his body (since Fire Man’s face couldn’t be seen).

The other robot masters were animated as well as any monster on Sy-Fy. They moved quite jerkily and could have used a little more feathering. I think Bomb Man was the worst of the three. Cut Man seemed better animated and Guts Man, well, Guts Man was always cool. Cut Man ranted about evil Mega Man, like Fire Man, and had the lamest dialogue of any robot master.

This movie was a major letdown in the fight scenes. They were short, way too short. Only Fire Man took multiple hits in his duel (not counting Guts Man, who as I said earlier, was always cool). Ice Man could fly around on a board of ice, just like the comic book character of the same name. Rock easily defeats him with one shot from his buster. Seriously, WTF? Fire Man was the most pathetic robot master, with short-range flamethrowers in his hands and was easily defeated. Bomb Man put up a decent, poorly animated fight. At least his dialogue wasn’t too bad. Cut Man put up a decent fight, but again, it was over in a matter of seconds. Elec Man was badass and laid the smack down on Rock, but the fight was over in a flash when Rock received help from an unexpected guest. Guts Man took a beating and had some good lines, but his fight was over way too soon. At least he put up a decent fight.

Fans of the series might be happy to know the Yellow Devil makes an appearance. Again, the CGI is subpar and the battle was over way too quickly. At least it kicked Mega Man’s butt. And I’m sure any fan would just be happy to see Yellow Devil on the screen even if it is just for a few seconds.

Unexpected guest? Oh yeah, I did mention something about that, didn’t I. Everyone’s favorite loner makes numerous appearances, saves Mega Man on many occasions, and makes his grand appearance with epic grandness.

Wily’s Fortress is just as convoluted as it was in the game. Satellite dishes, giant cannons, and — oh yeah — A FRIGGIN’ GIANT SKULL! How the hell Dr. Wily built it in 20 hours is beyond me, but he wouldn’t be the main villain for 10 so many years for nothing, I guess.

This movie has its share of jokes and puns.  As I said earlier, Ice Man flies around on a floating track of ice. Rock and Roll act like Superman and Lois near the end of the film. Guts Man packs on the puns. Probably the greatest joke in the film involves Rock and Roll playing the old NES game Contra on a flat screen TV. Rock sucks at the game and complains about the difficulty of it. Dr. Wily’s computer in his fortress has Mega Man’s face icon, which would seem out of place but is humorously quaint.

The soundtrack for the movie was wonderfully done, albeit forgettable. Daniel James composed the entire soundtrack on his computer. It’s an epic remixing of the Mega Man (and Mega Man 2) soundtracks. It added to the movie wonderfully. The action tracks were fitting and the dramatic moments were accented perfectly. It was a grandiose soundtrack suitable for Hollywood. There were times in the movie where the sound cut out suddenly — I think Eddie made some cuts and didn’t edit the soundtrack properly.

I only have two complaints about the soundtrack. First, when Mega Man attacks Wily’s Fortress, the theme for Wily’s Stage from Mega Man 2 plays. Sure, the song kicked ass in the game, it kicked major ass on NicoNico Douga as “Okkusenman”, and it kicked ass in this movie. The problem is it’s from Mega Man 2! This is a Mega Man 1 movie. The other problem is similarly related. The ending credits theme was Wily’s Stage with English lyrics, and oh god did those lyrics suck hardcore! It was the worst Mega Man fan remix I’d ever heard. If they just left out the lyrics, it would have been perfect since it was a decent remix instrumentally. And I repeat: This is a Mega Man 1 movie, so keep the Mega Man 2 music out of it!

I admire and respect Eddie Lebron for making this movie, but it shows why he’s still an amateur director. Would I consider him for any movies I want made? Possibly, sure. Although personally, I would turn to Takashi Miike to direct any film of mine before turning to Eddie. Still, I think producers should give rogue directors like Eddie some serious consideration. This movie was made for $2-million or so. Considering it’s a B-movie written, directed and produced by one guy, that’s pretty damned impressive.

To be fair, I’ll end this review on a positive note. Maulbeck was great in his final shot. His body movements and facial expressions were impressive. I was happy to see Wily’s grovelling after his defeat, true to form. However, I would have liked to have seen Maulbeck portray Wily grovelling on hands and knees, not just knees. In ever Mega Man game, Wily’s begs for mercy on hands and knees. Still, I thought this was Maulbeck’s best performance throughout the whole movie, a great ending scene for him.