Level Up (2011 TV Movie) User Reviews

Better than the show

[Z21708 · 5/10 · 19 May 2017]

While the film was still bad on a technical scale, it's certainly better than the TV series that was inspired by this.

The Good: Some of the characters are kind of funny. Not the best acting choices, but still okay characters. The enemies are... kind of creative at times

The Bad: Well... the acting isn't the greatest and the battles and fight scenes are just boring. And the dialogue is very poorly executed.

Not the best movie ever, but I would definitely give it a try.

No

[dbelleau · 1/10 · 23 February 2012]

This show is trying too hard to be an edgy gaming show for children.Many jokes will go right over the heads of the target audience and adults watching along will be insulted, especially ones who play MMORPGs. I'm just utterly surprised with the crap they're feeding kids these days. And also, what's this live action show doing on cartoon network? Many younger children prefer the bright color from a cartoon instead of plain live action and will not hesitate to change the channel. Also, I find it incredibly insulting to girl gamers. For example the girl protagonist is labeled "and let me stress, not much of a gamer" and how dinner and laser tag "not being a date". The producers of the show are running with an incredibly out of date stereotype. As for effects, I'm thinking they were going for the Power Rangers look, but with the CGI and the like, the terrible props and CGI just make for a huge cluster of laughable quality. Point is, not worth being on t.v. and I should not have to have to displeasure of seeing commercials of it every 5 minutes on cartoon network.

wow really bad

[lamermi · 1/10 · 3 May 2012]

What can I say that has not been said in the previous reviews? Not withstanding that this "Thing", and I must stress Thing, I so bad that I wanted to gouge my eyes out of the sockets. I've been playing online games for years, and this show is plain insulting and so bad that I recommend burning the film so it does not contaminate anything good Cartoon Network might have in the future. Mainly the acting was not just sub par, but downright miserably bad. As for the cg, I don't even want to go into that. I can probably do a better job with a pen and some dirty pages strewn together. If you have any self respect, and or have at least a modicum of taste, stay away from this horror

So bad you have to see it!

[vatrogasac-sam-ja · 2/10 · 26 November 2011]

I played WoW few years ago so I was kinda nostalgic to see series about MMORPG-s. I expected it to be "unrealistic", but hey, some things cannot be transfered to TV screen...

But this is just awful, I really cannot imagine that someone actually allowed this to be shot, put money in it. It has some silly/funny/kinda entertaining moments, but mostly I couldn't believe how bad it is...

Of course they had to put in moralistic lesson about sticking with friends, which I guess is a must in this kind of series.

Props look ridiculous but I guess they were going for that look.

In the end I kinda think I am targeted audience, people who play/played games, but I cannot imagine watching this now or when I was younger.

But I bet there wont be 2nd episode... If there will.. I will watch 2nd episode just for being wrong :p

Horrible

[df2376 · 1/10 · 25 November 2011]

This show is absolutely horrible. As a fan of MMO's and all things nerdy, I find this show to be quite insulting. The premise is tired and outdated, the CG is painful to watch, and the "acting" is less than B-movie quality. Not sure who their target audience is for this, maybe children under twelve. Although, the jokes and pop culture references seemed to be aimed at people in their 20's. Yes, I know this is being shown on Cartoon Network, but seriously. Overall, a weak attempt to cash in on MMO/nerd demographic. Want a good show about MMO's with a story and cast you can get behind? Go watch The Guild. Hopefully, big studios will eventually get this subject correct and do a little bit of research before they decide to try this again.

Ew.

[takemyspam · 1/10 · 15 December 2013]

This was terrible. I hate the idea of hurting the feelings of actors, so I try not to be too harsh but this? Wow. It's shouldn't be on Cartoon Network. It's a quality that could only be appealing to very, VERY bored children when there's nothing better on. Everything was bad; the acting, the props, the plot, the jokes, the script. Everything. Not to mention the overdone (and sexist) elements to it. If you can stomach the awful CG, you can then enjoy all the actors overreacting and screaming while struggling to act like a human. Fun! No original jokes, you'll have heard every one before. Even the damn filming itself is low quality; the camera tends to either go out too far in order to fit a shot, or come in too close which means it jumps around enough to make you ill.

Don't waste your time on this trash.

Think Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

[animosus_liberatio · 6/10 · 23 January 2012]

I'm almost midway from watching the first episode and I thought I would look it up on IMDb, mainly because one of the actors looked familiar. For some reason I could swear the actor Jesse Usher was on a a show from Disney that he was the main character.

If you watch the first episode keep in mind, it's campy and silly and it doesn't take it's self serious. It's a kids show and it's "fantasy" and the weapons look goofy as all heck because it's supposed to be the kids that built them. I was a little old to be watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the past, but I did see an episode and this kind of reminds me of that. So far this is something I would let the kids watch. There is just mild video game violence, no blood, just kids hitting trolls and such with goofy looking weapons. I will probably watch this another time with the kids. It is much better than some of the other kids shows I have seen.

This show is a waste of your time.

[mashimaro-174-292157 · 1/10 · 24 August 2012]

After sitting through 2 episodes, I could already be certain that the story is poor, the script is badly written, the acting is dreadful (overreactions, yelling/monotone instead of natural speaking, etc). Most of the jokes and gags are fine, but are completely spoiled by the novice actors' inability to act naturally, and are often dragged out too long or are placed strangely. Everything seems out of place and off- from the outfits (specifically Angie's) to the effects. Plot lines are marred by inconsistency, constant wandering-off and completely cliché and/or predictable endings. Special effects are typically needlessly flamboyant and distracting.

The worst part is, Cartoon Network stubbornly continues to market this show as "popular" and "successful". You can expect cheesy, amateurish work from this show.

Fun, funny show

[clownboy · 9/10 · 15 April 2012]

Level Up is a very fun show with a great cast of talented young actors. It's well written with plenty of comedy and action to appeal to younger kids and teens and loads of humor that adults will catch as it sails over their kids' heads. Dante, Wyatt, Lyle and Angie are high school kids who play an MMO game called "Maldark: Conqueror of all Worlds". Characters and weapons from the game start "leaking" into their world (See "Level Up: The Movie" for the origin story) and the kids use their gaming skills to battle the bad guys and use treasure to make life easy, usually with unintended and hilarious consequences.

All the 1 and 2 star votes seem fixated on whether the show is an accurate portrayal of MMORP gaming and their complaints sound like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons declaring everything "Worst...Episode...Ever" because they know how the show should "really" play out. They're missing the point completely. The MMORP is a backdrop, the story is about kids from different backgrounds dealing with the real world and realizing they have more in common than they thought. And did I mention that it's funny?

A bit different

[rogue9000 · 7/10 · 1 December 2011]

This show is not as bad as some people think. The idea of characters from a computer game appearing in reality is not a new idea but they have created a decent story on how it happened (sort of). This show has a guild who play together who turn out to be a nerd,bad boy and jock showing that many different types of people play these games which makes a change from it only being the nerdy kids. People have said that the weapons look stupid but they are supposed to look like the ones from the game so i do not know what they expected. This first episode (pilot film) sets up the story well has some lines that game players will recognise and has enough action to keep young kids spellbound. All in all i enjoyed the show and hope it does continue as there is such a wealth of online material they could use (i wonder how long it would be before Chuck Norris is mentioned lol).

Yes

[maniacmanny-47172 · 7/10 · 21 August 2019]

Its actually a pretty solid cartoon network movie. Think of Goosebumps or Jumanji as its that type of style of a movie. Enjoyed the gang and the plot

Very funny!

[MsHoneyBee · 9/10 · 7 February 2012]

I really like this show. I agree with many of the other reviews saying that the acting is cheesy but this show makes me laugh so hard. I really enjoy it... I am a 27 year old so I think that says something.

I do think the theme of the show is interesting and different from other shows. Yes it is KINDA like Power Rangers but it is fun and unique in its own right. I also think the directing and editing is good because the way they use camera angles to put us in the action is very neat.

All and all, this show is for children so how an adult feels is probably not all that important to the network....

I would recommend this show.

This Movie is Awesome!

[adventuremaster · 8/10 · 5 June 2015]

This movie is so cool! It was funny, had an interesting plot, and I thought the effects were decent, at least by Cartoon Network standards. I've heard people say this movie is just trying to be an edgy gaming show when I don't think that's the case. Some things in this movie are pretty impressive and makes me think how much effort was put into the film. I mean I think it's parodying World of War craft and I think it shows, the characters are gamers who are also good characters think a glitch world is a beta test level or expansion pack which, wouldn't you think it is! Also they end up in the game and the models are so low quality and the animation is awful! and that is so true to games like that. 2 gripes I have with the movie is the game developer Max or whoever he was very bland and forgettable, but they fix him in the TV series and the ending is stupid, but those are just 2 nitpicks in an otherwise great movie. So if you got the time check it out and start rocking to that awesome theme.

Lot of Fun

[lee7-1 · 8/10 · 12 May 2012]

Look it is what it is, a no brainer monster bash but that said there's some real fun here if you don't take it seriously, now where did I leave my +6 Ring of Destruction? OK it looks like I gotta waffle on a bit longer, it reminds me of a long time ago when I was a teenager and I would play Dungeons & Dragons and how I wished some of it was real. There was a TV movie out at the time that showed some kid getting too involved in D&D and suffered real psychological effects,can't remember what it was called tho but this is a lot lighter and I really enjoyed it and I'm an old cynical so and so! There were some interesting characters in it to be honest, the Game designer is a neurotic freak, effects were acceptable and acting was decent enough for a light hearted romp.

Really good

[sadpotatocat · 10/10 · 25 April 2024]

Genuinely well written and funnier than you'd even think and it has a great cast of actors who can actually act- that's kind of rare for a kids movie.

The effects didn't age horribly either, they really capture the mmorpg feel.

It's surprising honestly how good it was. The humour actually had wit and some good lines not your regular cheesy kids movie humour. Story, plot and character development where quite solid. For a movie only an hour long the script was honestly quite good.

Writing this review as I'm rewatching it after over ten years and I was surprised how well it held up. I think I like it more now that I did when I was a kid.

Great movie.