Level Up: The Movie (2011/Warner/Cartoon Network DVD)
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
The plot is simple enough as a group of four high school students take
on a dark creature, named Maldark, when he escapes from the videogame world. Maldark brings with him chaos and destruction
as videogame creatures such as trolls, demons, and ghouls. The teens use their collective videogame
knowledge to go up against Maldark and his minions.
The film was directed by Peter Lauer, who has directed other great
television series like Adventures of
Pete & Pete, Arrested
Development, Scrubs, and Strangers with Candy. The film is simple and mainly caters to
younger audiences as it spoofs familiar videogames/video game stereotypes. The acting is fine enough from this group of
young actors; especially with the script/source material being rather
basic. The costumes and CGI throughout
the film is also fine enough, but has more of the feel of a low budget TV
series than a film.
The made for TV film was popular enough to warrant a spin-off
television series that is very popular and now in its second season. The film acted as the pilot for the series.
The technical features are adequate with the video being a standard
def 1.78 X 1 widescreen that has nice colors and clarity, but a far cry from
High Def. The sound is a simple Dolby
Digital 5.1 surround that has some use of the full speaker range for the action
heavy sequences, but comes mostly from the front.
There are a few extras including a music video and a ‘bonus episode’
from the series (entitled ‘Wanted’), but nothing very fantastic to speak of.
Level Up is a fun PG
family that leads nicely into the television series.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
