Herobrine Origins is a 2016 fan film which is compiled from a series of short films. Many have praised this movie, but I wish to take a more critical approach. Is Herobrine Origins deserving of all its praise? That is what I will try to answer in this review, which will look at the movie as if it is an actual theatrical film.
SPOILER ALERT
So the film opens up in an icy setting in 1954. A group of men are moving through a blizzard. So far, the film looks like it’s going to be good. For a Minecraft game, the visuals are fantastic and the shots are done cinematically. The styling makes the film look promising, and the next few moments of this scene are also well done. The one who seems to be the leader of the men falls into a cave, where he discovers what appears to be a shrine to Herobrine.
We then cut to New York City in 1999, where we are introduced to the Briggs family, the Mother: Anna Briggs, the Father: Robert Briggs, the Uncle: Jack Briggs,and our main character: Steve Briggs. Though many might disagree, from here the film goes downhill. Robert and Anna leave the two year old Steve with Jack for the night, and they go to celebrate their anniversary. While at a restaurant they are ambushed by a group of men with guns. They flee for their lives until they get to an airport, where Anna boards a plane to maker her escape. However on the plane she is ambushed, Robert is unable to save her, and she is killed. The plane crashes, Robert survives.
After an ridiculously long credits sequence we cut to 2015, and we see that Steve’s life at Mineberry High isn’t good. This is overly cliche, as he is bullied in the most standard of manners by a generic bully character (so generic that I can’t even remember his name, I almost just called him Flash Thompson.) Three days later, Robert unexpectedly dies, successfully sinking the movie further into cliche quagmire with its orphaned protagonist.
Within the next day, Steve is called to the principal’s office. The Principal tells him that he is receiving an award for being a good student. Because Steve hasn’t been talking to Uncle Jack, the principal decides to visit Steve’s house. While the Principal and Jack talk, Steve is confronted by the apparition of Robert, who turns out to be evil! (Evil Father Cliche) After a strange sequence Steve escapes Robert’s ghost and runs into Jack, who scolds him. Jack apparently sees an apparition as well, and yells at Steve, calling him Satan. It is established that Jack is a religious character, and so this implies a rather insensitive joke against Christians.
We now cut to the Annual End of the Year Party at Mineberry, where a rude prank is pulled by Flash Th- I mean the generic bully, and for reasons still left unexplained, Steve transforms into Herobrine and murders everyone at the party. The strange part is that not until Steve has killed Jack do the authorities figure out who the attacker was. This is supposed to be downtown, and apparently NO ONE saw the blood-covered demon walking out of the burning school.
The police start a manhunt, and Steve lies low, also having visions in which the main antagonist is introduced. For the next 50 minutes the movie seems fine as Steve remains on the run. That is, until he figures out to teleport away from New York with his newfound powers. The New York authorities assume that he wouldn’t leave the city, but even so you would think that an attack on a school would have a nationwide response. For whatever Reason, Steve is able to walk the open streets of Los Angeles, and he doesn’t even think to use a fake name. And somehow, he isn’t caught.
In Los Angeles, Steve meets a boy named Gavin and his girlfriend Amy. They become friends, and for the apparent “first time in his life” he is happy. Throughout his stay, Steve teleports between New York and Los Angeles to investigate his mother’s death. One night, Gavin is called to work an extra shift and Amy and Steve go back to their apartment. Amy specifically says that she hates the part of Los Angeles they were in, implying it was a bad neighborhood. But idiotically enough, they walk down a dark alleyway, and as expected, they are assaulted by a gang. Steve uses his powers to save Amy, who is frightened and quickly tells Gavin. Steve reveals his identity to them, angry, Gavin tells Steve to stay away from them.
Without much thought given to this moment, Steve simply continues investigating his mother’s death. As this happens, the search for Steve escalates as the military is called in to help the police. This is an inaccuracy mainly because given the modern US setting of the movie, the New York National Guard would be called in before the military would be.
Steve combs New York City and discovers that his mother had created some sort of “Brine” serum. Apparently this is what gave Steve and Rober their powers. Which is a horribly unfitting explanation for Herobrine. Given the context of Minecraft, this explanation is far too science fiction, and even scientifically it isn’t plausible. The ghost of Uncle Jack reveals to Steve that Anna had been killed by a hitman hired by her company. Which is even more implausible, even though the scene on the plane took place pre-2001, you still couldn’t bring a firearm on to a plane.
Upon his return to Los Angeles, Gavin apologizes to Steve in a random and unexplained change of heart. Steve informs Gavin that he’s permanently leaving Los Angeles to settle a score with his mother’s old boss. And idiotically Amy and Gavin decide to go to New York as well. Steve kills his mother’s old boss, and is quickly stopped by soldiers.
These soldiers are all rather inaccurate. First of all, many of them are wearing desert camouflage, and worse, they are wearing BRITISH Uniforms, the Union Jack is obvious. Do you mean to tell me that the mayor got reinforcements from the likes of the UN or NATO? In fact, that’s another odd thing about this movie. Though its set in the United States, there are a lot of British people.
Gavin and Amy help Steve attempt to trap Robert. In the process, Robert kills Amy. Shortly after that, the police kill Steve, and we then cut to a funeral, which tries (and fails) to be emotional. The poor dialogue makes it laughable and it’s hard to care about Steve's death because he was way too inhuman to relate or sympathize with. As for Amy her character is too annoyingly helpless to care about. After this we cut to the secret lab of Anna, where two mad scientists rename the Brine Serum to “Project Entity 303” And then the film just… ends.
So that was Herobrine Origins: the Movie.
The writing of this movie was incredibly laughable both in terms of dialogue and the story. The characters are not memorable nor are they like-able. The premise of using Herobrine was a good idea but the execution was horrible. This was more of someone's attempt at making a MCU movie about an anti-hero and less of characterizing a legend. The story is way too science fiction to fit into Minecraft. Not to mention countless gaping plotholes.
On the plus side, the cinematography and visuals were great (for a Minecraft movie) and the lighting fit the tone. The music wasn't terrible and most design choices worked for the context.
Overall, a sloppy eye-candy attempt at a “movie". Not trying to be harsh, but this is probably how this movie would fare if presented as an actual movie. EliteProductions has visual talent, there's no doubt about that, but next time, they need to find better writers and storytellers. The bad story an unforgivable aspect:
Rating: 2/5 Diamonds (Stars)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Herobrine Origins is a 2016 fan film which is compiled from a series of short films. Many have praised this movie, but I wish to take a more critical approach. Is Herobrine Origins deserving of all its praise? That is what I will try to answer in this review, which will look at the movie as if it is an actual theatrical film.
SPOILER ALERT
So the film opens up in an icy setting in 1954. A group of men are moving through a blizzard. So far, the film looks like it’s going to be good. For a Minecraft game, the visuals are fantastic and the shots are done cinematically. The styling makes the film look promising, and the next few moments of this scene are also well done. The one who seems to be the leader of the men falls into a cave, where he discovers what appears to be a shrine to Herobrine.
We then cut to New York City in 1999, where we are introduced to the Briggs family, the Mother: Anna Briggs, the Father: Robert Briggs, the Uncle: Jack Briggs,and our main character: Steve Briggs. Though many might disagree, from here the film goes downhill. Robert and Anna leave the two year old Steve with Jack for the night, and they go to celebrate their anniversary. While at a restaurant they are ambushed by a group of men with guns. They flee for their lives until they get to an airport, where Anna boards a plane to maker her escape. However on the plane she is ambushed, Robert is unable to save her, and she is killed. The plane crashes, Robert survives.
After an ridiculously long credits sequence we cut to 2015, and we see that Steve’s life at Mineberry High isn’t good. This is overly cliche, as he is bullied in the most standard of manners by a generic bully character (so generic that I can’t even remember his name, I almost just called him Flash Thompson.) Three days later, Robert unexpectedly dies, successfully sinking the movie further into cliche quagmire with its orphaned protagonist.
Within the next day, Steve is called to the principal’s office. The Principal tells him that he is receiving an award for being a good student. Because Steve hasn’t been talking to Uncle Jack, the principal decides to visit Steve’s house. While the Principal and Jack talk, Steve is confronted by the apparition of Robert, who turns out to be evil! (Evil Father Cliche) After a strange sequence Steve escapes Robert’s ghost and runs into Jack, who scolds him. Jack apparently sees an apparition as well, and yells at Steve, calling him Satan. It is established that Jack is a religious character, and so this implies a rather insensitive joke against Christians.
We now cut to the Annual End of the Year Party at Mineberry, where a rude prank is pulled by Flash Th- I mean the generic bully, and for reasons still left unexplained, Steve transforms into Herobrine and murders everyone at the party. The strange part is that not until Steve has killed Jack do the authorities figure out who the attacker was. This is supposed to be downtown, and apparently NO ONE saw the blood-covered demon walking out of the burning school.
The police start a manhunt, and Steve lies low, also having visions in which the main antagonist is introduced. For the next 50 minutes the movie seems fine as Steve remains on the run. That is, until he figures out to teleport away from New York with his newfound powers. The New York authorities assume that he wouldn’t leave the city, but even so you would think that an attack on a school would have a nationwide response. For whatever Reason, Steve is able to walk the open streets of Los Angeles, and he doesn’t even think to use a fake name. And somehow, he isn’t caught.
In Los Angeles, Steve meets a boy named Gavin and his girlfriend Amy. They become friends, and for the apparent “first time in his life” he is happy. Throughout his stay, Steve teleports between New York and Los Angeles to investigate his mother’s death. One night, Gavin is called to work an extra shift and Amy and Steve go back to their apartment. Amy specifically says that she hates the part of Los Angeles they were in, implying it was a bad neighborhood. But idiotically enough, they walk down a dark alleyway, and as expected, they are assaulted by a gang. Steve uses his powers to save Amy, who is frightened and quickly tells Gavin. Steve reveals his identity to them, angry, Gavin tells Steve to stay away from them.
Without much thought given to this moment, Steve simply continues investigating his mother’s death. As this happens, the search for Steve escalates as the military is called in to help the police. This is an inaccuracy mainly because given the modern US setting of the movie, the New York National Guard would be called in before the military would be.
Steve combs New York City and discovers that his mother had created some sort of “Brine” serum. Apparently this is what gave Steve and Rober their powers. Which is a horribly unfitting explanation for Herobrine. Given the context of Minecraft, this explanation is far too science fiction, and even scientifically it isn’t plausible. The ghost of Uncle Jack reveals to Steve that Anna had been killed by a hitman hired by her company. Which is even more implausible, even though the scene on the plane took place pre-2001, you still couldn’t bring a firearm on to a plane.
Upon his return to Los Angeles, Gavin apologizes to Steve in a random and unexplained change of heart. Steve informs Gavin that he’s permanently leaving Los Angeles to settle a score with his mother’s old boss. And idiotically Amy and Gavin decide to go to New York as well. Steve kills his mother’s old boss, and is quickly stopped by soldiers.
These soldiers are all rather inaccurate. First of all, many of them are wearing desert camouflage, and worse, they are wearing BRITISH Uniforms, the Union Jack is obvious. Do you mean to tell me that the mayor got reinforcements from the likes of the UN or NATO? In fact, that’s another odd thing about this movie. Though its set in the United States, there are a lot of British people.
Gavin and Amy help Steve attempt to trap Robert. In the process, Robert kills Amy. Shortly after that, the police kill Steve, and we then cut to a funeral, which tries (and fails) to be emotional. The poor dialogue makes it laughable and it’s hard to care about Steve's death because he was way too inhuman to relate or sympathize with. As for Amy her character is too annoyingly helpless to care about. After this we cut to the secret lab of Anna, where two mad scientists rename the Brine Serum to “Project Entity 303” And then the film just… ends.
So that was Herobrine Origins: the Movie.
The writing of this movie was incredibly laughable both in terms of dialogue and the story. The characters are not memorable nor are they like-able. The premise of using Herobrine was a good idea but the execution was horrible. This was more of someone's attempt at making a MCU movie about an anti-hero and less of characterizing a legend. The story is way too science fiction to fit into Minecraft. Not to mention countless gaping plotholes.
On the plus side, the cinematography and visuals were great (for a Minecraft movie) and the lighting fit the tone. The music wasn't terrible and most design choices worked for the context.
Overall, a sloppy eye-candy attempt at a “movie". Not trying to be harsh, but this is probably how this movie would fare if presented as an actual movie. EliteProductions has visual talent, there's no doubt about that, but next time, they need to find better writers and storytellers. The bad story an unforgivable aspect:
Rating: 2/5 Diamonds (Stars)