I have been a loyal viewer of Linkara's Atop The Fourth Wall for years now. I tune in weekly for the new episode, and have done so from 2010 or so. I am also fairly familiar with the Channel Awesome members, particularly the ones that have appeared in the anniversary films Kickassia, Suburban Knights and To Boldly Flee, all of which I have enjoyed. After rewatching pretty much all of AT4W's storyline episodes during the past few weeks, I finally watched this movie. This is important to know, because I will review it as a part of that continuum, rather than solely on its own merits. It's not a standalone film, nor should it be. Even more important, it's not a big budget film made by a fleet of professional film makers, and can't fairly be compared to those. It's a celebration of Mr. Lovhaug's passion for his work, and clearly a labor of love.
I think the movie fits the show perfectly. In its own way it's better than the Channel Awesome films I mentioned earlier. It has less characters, which makes it easier to follow and more poignant when it gets emotional. It also has more of an original plot and it doesn't play itself for laughs too often. You can clearly tell Mr. Lovhaug knows his scifi, actions movies and comic books. He also clearly cares about writing and acting to the best of his ability. I think you need to have seen at least some of his show and the Channel Awesome films, and preferably be somewhat familiar with the other reviewers that appear in the movie. I do not see that as a problem. There are better and worse places to start every piece of media with a continuity, and if you want to get into AT4W, this is not your best place to start. The film gives character moments to both the guest reviewers and the residents of the show itself, but to get the most of those moments, it's better to know the characters beforehand. Some parts of the plot might be hard to understand without the context given in the regular episodes or the anniversary movies. Of course that depends on how good you are at accepting things as given. If it doesn't bother you that Batman and Superman exist and fight crime in capes, I guess you won't mind that an internet comic book reviewer has a magic gun, a spaceship and an evil robot duplicate. If you want to know the backstories of the items and characters, I have to direct you to watch the show first. But then again, if that caught your interest in the first place, you would probably enjoy the show. Lovhaug has marked the storyline episodes as such on his website, so you can just watch those if the entirety of the show seems too much to handle.
The film does share the same "problems" with the Channel Awesome films: almost everyone involved is a passionate, self taught amateur. These people are good at making reviews, so they can write, talk in front of a camera and edit. That doesn't make them film makers in the traditional sense. They don't have the budget for professional actors, SFX studios, make up artists, cinematographers and so on. That makes the movie seem a little clumsy at times. To me, it adds to the charm: these people aren't going to sit quietly in a corner, hoping they could one day make a movie. They make the movie, even though it will not be perfect. They are not professional actors in perfect make up, and they have had a very limited time to shoot the movie, and both are things that you can tell by glancing at the movie. Instead they are courageous, passionate people working really hard, which at least I can tell with that same glance.
Should you watch this movie without any context on a boring afternoon? No, try Mr. Lovhaug's show first. Should you watch it if you enjoy his other stuff or the anniversary movies? Yes, definitely, though I wonder why you would need me to tell you to do it. Should you watch it if you didn't enjoy his show or the anniversary movies? No. That would be stupid. If you know you don't enjoy his style of storytelling and writing, a strong sense of "this is for the fans" or need a movie to look like something you could see in a cinema, don't bother.
