Action Heroes
From Halo Machinima
Contents |
[edit] Action Heroes (Machinima series)
The 'Action Heroes' is a Halo 3 comedy machinima created by Guitar-playin-Monkey, and based on a concept by Stuardoretardo. So far, the script for each episode has been written by Sherwinatrix (Sherbobs), and later revised and rewritten by Guitar-playin-Monkey.
A trailer for the series was first presented on Machinima.com and Youtube in March, 2008. Despite a quite promising response, the series itself has, so far, recieved very little notice. Despite this however, Guitar-playin-Monkey productions is aiming to provide a whole series of episodes, despite the public response.
[edit] Premise
'The Action Heroes' is set in a universe not very easy to describe. At times it appears it is set in the Halo universe itself, featuring characters such as 'Master Chief', but then at other times it seems to incorporate the real world into itself also, mentioning the Bungie Corporation and Microsoft at various moments. However, it is most likely the series is meant to be in the Xbox LIVE universe, things such as LIVE news broadcasts popping up now and again, as well as the currency being 'Microsoft Points'. The story is , itself, as follows; Three bored and lazy individuals (Daire, Stuart & Ciaran) are resident in Sandtrap. They spend their days lazing about, complaining about things that strike them as 'retarded', arguing with each other, or watching TV. On a particular day when the three are trying to decide on what life would be like as superheroes, a UNSC ship ladden with high-tech military equipment crash lands just outside their house. Upon investigating the ship, the three friends uncover a trio of specialised, heavy-duty spartan suits, as well as a horde of weapons and viechle parts. After an excited Stuart exclaims that with this new gear they can all now become superheroes for real, the friends decide to begin using their new found equipment to help save and protect the innocent. It's merely a testament to their laziness when the three become bored after what seems like five minutes of heroics, yet that doesn't prevent them from getting into countless mis-adventures!
[edit] Episodes
So far, only the trailer and the feature-length first episode to the 'Action Heroes' season 1 has been released. However, a second, much shorter episode is now under construction, while the whole first season has already been planned.
[edit] Ep.1 - "Pilot" (also known as "We could be superheroes!")
A feature-length first episode (36 minutes in length). The episode begins with a frantic chase scene, from which the Action Heroes narrowly escape. After this, however, it is revealed that it has been two weeks since the Action Heroes were first formed, and to avoid confusion on the origins of the Action Heroes, the narrative flashes back to two weeks previous. In their flat, Ciaran, Daire and Stuart (not yet the Action Heroes) discuss whether the life of a superhero is as glamourous (or unglamourous) as today's superhero movies make them appear. Suddenly, a large crash is heard from outside, and the three go to investigate. At the scene of a crashed UNSC carrier ship, Ronan & Owen are present, debating whether the ship is a 'flying saucer' or 'flying cube'. Daire, Stuart and Ciaran arrive, only to contemplate the situation further. Daire espicially becomes intrigued by the ship and it's cargo. After a sixth person, Tom (who, it appears, is quite well off and intelligent), is mentioned in the conversation, a second ship (this one a Covenant cruiser) crash lands on Tom's house, a little way away. Stuart, Ronan and Owen go to investigate, while Ciaran and Daire remain with the first ship. At the scene of the wreakage, they find Tom disorientated and slightly 'messed up in the head'. After knocking him out, Ronan and Owen realise Stuart has gone missing. It turns out that Stuart returned to the first ship where Daire and Ciaran stayed behind (citing he "smelt chocolate."). As he arrives, Daire manages to open one of the crates that fell out of the UNSC ship and the three come across three new high-tech military suits, as well as weaponry and viechle parts. Once Tom is revived, he, Ronan & Owen return to the first ship, only to find Daire, Ciaran & Stuart wearing the new suits and in possession of deadly weapons, calling themselves 'superheroes'. Stuart lovingly christens them the 'Action Heroes', and the trio take Ronan's car to reach the scene of a burning building, where they 'save' their first citizen.
[edit] Ep.2 - "Moving Day"
(in production)
The Action Heroes have, unsurprisingly, become bored with heroics now that they have 'saved' somebody. After constructing several vehicles out of the parts they found in the crates from the UNSC ship, the three decide to move to Last Resort, where they hope things will be more interesting. Meanwhile, Ronan's true nature is revealed, and Owen makes a life changing decision. Tom does stuff too but we need'nt mention that. :D
[edit] Future Episodes
A whole first season has been thought out, yet production during the summer months of 2008 will be slow due to various cast vacations. Production is scheduled to begin again in August. The second episode is due soon.
[edit] Characters
'The Action Heroes' prides itself on a variety of different characters. Although nearly every future character has so far been planned and developed, the series has not released enough episodes yet to explore these characters in detail. The main characters are as follows.
[edit] Ciaran (Hickey)
voiced by Guitar-playin-Monkey.
Also called 'Hickey' (due to his surname), Ciaran is the most sceptical and easily annoyed member of the Action Heroes. He constantly complains about every little thing, but Stuart's antics are usually top of his list of complaints. Althogh he was at first very wary of the idea of becoming a so-called 'superhero', he has sinced warmed to the concept. Truthfully, he is the most balanced of the three and definately the most serious. He is rarely caught delivering a 'stupid or/and random sentence or word' in the middle of a conversation, unlike his counter-parts. Ciaran constantly complains of boredom, something which Daire severly wishes he would sort out for himself. He is also prone to spontanious bouts of anger and harsh comments, which usually succeed in landing him in a difficult situation. He is the one who drives the Warthog, yet isn't at all a half decent driver.
[edit] Daire
voiced by Sherwinatrix (Sherbobs)
Daire is a technical genius without doubt. But he is just too lazy to put it to use at most times. He is the mechanic for the Action Heroes, and has a tendency to take the Hornet for a quick spin. He builds all the vehicles for the team out of the parts he finds from the UNSC ship and repairs them whenever an excursion goes awry. Daire is a joker, yet does not usually partake in the same form of humour as Stuart. He is just as civil as Ciaran at times, but is never above a little random fun. He has a large addiction to tea, which his two team-mates love to exploit. Stuart and Ciaran also often colaborate upon important decisions without informing Daire, until maybe the very last minute. Another of Daire's qualities is his tendency to turn almost anything he finds into a weapon of sorts. He loves superhero movies, which only focused him on agreeing with Stuart when he proposed they become a team of superheroes.
[edit] Stuart
voiced by Stuardoretardo
Stuart is, quite simply, the 'Caboose' of the Action Heroes. However, it's surprising to realise that, underneath Stuart's somewhat 'idiotic persona', there is actually an intelligent and well educated young man. Sadly for everyone he meets, he doesn't usually present this part of himself very often. It was Stuart's idea to form the Action Heroes in the first place, and it was he who managed to convince Ciaran and Daire that his idea was a good one. Stuart is a professional liar and is more than capable of spreading insulting and embarassing rumours about people (usually Ciaran). He is highly addicted to chocolate products (it is said he goes through 3 litres of chocolate milk a day) and also has a habit of calling Daire short, despite the three of them all being the same height in the machinima series itself. However, Stuart is the most innocent and care free member of the Action Heroes. A typical evening for him is playing the Nintendo Wii and spending ten hours straight at 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl', before sitting down to watch his favourite episode of Spongebob Squarepants. It's hard not to like Stuart. As an angry and disgruntled Ciaran once said, "You love to hate him, but you hate not having him there to hate."
[edit] Ronan
voiced by Ronan3000
A close friend of the Action Heroes, Ronan is also a resident of Sandtrap. He is the eldest of all the main characters, yet doesn't like to act it. For a time he shared a flat with Owen, but apparently moved out when Tom 'changed house'. He is a car expert and very open minded, as well as prone to random air guitar solo's and heavy metal outbursts. He is one of the few people who Stuart can't totally freak out and scare away, which has earned him great admiration and respect from his friends. He has, also, an addiction to getting 'Achievements'. He dreams of being a Lambrogini test driver, yet recently those dreams have been eclipsed by thoughts of sailing the seven seas. In the past while, Ronan has begun acting like a pirate (a change brought around from first laying eyes on the Elephant; his'pirate ship'). Nobody knows what really started this, but it's believed that Ronan's movie bank consists solely of 'The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy'. Despite this random change in character, none of the other characters (other than the Action Heroes themselves) have drawn attention to it. As Tom casually remarks, "You get used to it".
[edit] Owen
voiced by xxXRegzXxx
Ronan's old roommate, and again a friend of the Action Heroes, Owen is a tricky character to understand. Most of the time he is able to hold a civil tongue, yet there are random moments when he lets loose a disturbing, or otherwise irrelevent comment. To Owen, random comments are a way of life, and make an appearance in almost every conversation he becomes part of. He is also likely to add "That's what she said last night!" or a 'Mom' joke at the end of a sentence (a great frustration to his friends). Despite the oddities of the people he hangs around with, Owen always sticks by them, which has earned him a level of respect. Owen is a hardcore gamer, especially at Halo 3. He considers any comment in terms of 'the result of a slayer' or 'one's level of achievements' as a challenge, and this challenge usually results in the death of the opposition. In episode 2, Owen signs up for 'ninja school', and does not reappear for a time. Owen is, like Ronan, also a dedicated fan of rock and heavy metal music, but it is unknown what character changes he will have experienced by the end of his first term at 'ninja school'.
[edit] Tom
voiced by Charlie&theCheese
Originally an intelligent and very well off (owning a house equivalent to a mansion) person, following the crash of the Covenant Cruiser in Sandtrap, Tom's wealth, house (and also his high standard of intelligence) have left him. After being 'hit on the noggin' by the Cruiser when it crash landed on his house, Tom became subject to a bout of spontanious retardation, or as the others call it 'Stuart Syndrome'. He has since recovered, but it is unknown as of yet whether there are any side effects. Probably the most easy going and friendliest person resident in Sandtrap, Tom is always happy to follow his friends on their many little adventures. He fits in everywhere, which has given him acceptance and friendship among the other people living in Sandtrap. After his house was destroyed, Tom became certain that Owen and Ronan had a part in it's demolition (remembering nothing of the crash). Owen has sinced managed to convince him that he lives under a rock, and it's yet to be seen how this will play out.
[edit] Trivia
· The series is supposed to be a machinima representation of the live's of the cast, only with the three Action Heroes in question being 'superheroes'.
· One day during episode planning, Stuart said that the Action Heroes should fight an army of mexican robots. When Ciaran and Daire said that 'Red vs. Blue' had done something similar, Stuart revealed he had never watched 'Red vs. Blue' at that point.
· Stuart, in real life, has, like Caboose, a supposed hatred of babies. When questioned further, Stuart argued he didn't hate babies, only small things (which included babies).
· In the first episode, Stuart's old armour is green and orange, representing that he comes from South Africa.
· All of the main characters are an extreme version of their real life counter-parts.
· There is a band called 'The Action Heroes'.
· The Action Heroes were actually founded three years ago, when Stuart began calling himself, Daire & Ciaran 'The Action Heroes'. It was only a year ago that Ciaran suggested they turn the concept into a machinima series.
· Each episode features the Action Heroes watching a particular programme on TV. These programmes are usually skits on real-life popular programmes or popular machinima.
· The Action Heroes have their own Theme song, which was performed and written by Ronan Colfer and his brother Stephen.
[edit] Problems/Complaints
Although the series hasn't recieved many comments, or at least negative one's thus far, Guitar-playin-Monkey himself was appalled with the terrible quality of the videos once they surfaced on Youtube.com. He has since promised that this will not continue. Also, voicing throughout the first episode was slightly poorer than anticipated due to poor software. This has since been rectified and, again, will not occur in future episodes. Finally, the first scene of the first episode, as well as the very last scene, experienced a particular drop in quality due to software issues. Software has since been upgraded and these problems are set to not erupt again.
[edit] Referrences
[1] Youtube-Action Heroes Ep.1-Part A [2] Youtube-Action Heroes Ep.1-Part B [3] Youtube-Action Heroes Ep.1-Part C [4] Youtube-Action Heroes Ep.1-Part D [5] Youtube-Action Heroes Ep.1-Part E [6] Guitar-playin-Monkey's Youtube Profile
