Gaming at the Movies #2
Name: keiz the movie III
Editor: equality
Runtime: 8:53
Released: 2009
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of kills from Begrip.swe player keiz. The third in the series.
Review:
Bearing in mind elite level players almost as a rule never allow movies to be made of their online practice demos it often ends up that the world of the younger semi-pro players is where it’s at for the best movies in terms of pure fragging. Young enough not to have bought into that unwritten rule of only showcasing official material, skilled enough to pull off all those great kills and hungry enough to want to show to the world that they are talented players. For the avid frag movie fanatic it’s the perfect storm.
This movie follows on that tradition of a hungry young semi-pro player with something to prove showing off his best online kills. From walle up to fury, n0thing and FYRR73 the tradition is carried on here by keiz. The frags in this movie are really good throughout, at times spectacular. There are sequences of consecutive noscopes, strings of 1 deags, sprays and bursts which seem to only yield headshots at all distances. All in all this is a tasty banquet if you came for the frags.
Music-wise the tracks are somewhat ho-hum, the first one working a bit better perhaps if only because I can tune it out more to some degree and focus on the action. The editing is good but with some occasional flaws. There are a few moments where the effects border on annoying and a couple where they become distracting but otherwise I actually thought the movie did a good job of having effects for those who want them but not letting them get in the way of the great action.
The editing in terms of cuts is really well done and reminds me somewhat of n0thing but headshots in as much as it allowed me to still enjoy what I call ‘completion frags’ where you should kills later on in a round which had good kills in a solid row beforehand. Most movies fall pretty flat when they try to make that work but this movie manages it so that those kills still felt relevant as opposed to redunantly being included just to show that the player got a 4K etc. A surprisingly good movie and one I enjoyed watching a lot. A nice healthy dose of good and great frags.
Thorin Rating: 8/10
Name: The Slavonian
Editor: SOM
Runtime: 11:09
Released: 2009
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of kills from Ex-Virtus.Pro player LeX who is widely considered to be the greatest Russian CS player of all time.
Review:
This is a movie I came into hoping for greatness, fully open to anything the movie might throw at me. LeX is a player I’ve long been an admirer of and someone whose talent I don’t think ever fully got the chance to affect CS the way it could have if his teams had been better. So the prospect of an all LeX movie is very appealing to me. The end product doesn’t really live to my expectations or hopes but it does come out as a solid watch. I think it’s best described as a movie with positives going for it, reasons to watch it but also lacking certain qualities or elements which are crucial for a very good or great movie.
The main reason this movie is a good watch is that LeX is a player whose POV demos were rarely released so for those who haven’t been through every HLTV demo out there it’s interesting enough to just want to sit back and watch LeX’s skills on display. There’s no doubting that there are some great kills in this movie, and against good teams, but many of them are at least slightly laggy HLTV demo kills which does take away from the wow factor.
The music was a mixed bag, the Russian tracks were a little too wierd for my tastes so it sometimes drew me out of the movie because I couldn’t really settle into the directions the track took. A good movie, especially in light of the subject, but lacking that extra something in some areas needed to become a very good or great movie.
Thorin Rating: 7/10
Name: defraging is not a crime
Editor: breacH
Runtime: 11:29
Released: 2010
Game: Q3 defrag
Description:
A defrag movie featuring run/tricks performed by elco, music mixed by RBK and all edited by breacH.
Review:
This movie is a blast to watch and really stands out as a whole package. The general feel of the action is awesome as you can really feel the g-force of some of the runs as the player reaches seemingly impossible speeds navigating his way around the map. I’m a real sucker for a good defrag movie because when the action is good it’s really fun and immersive just to take in that degree of air movement and abuse of the world’s physics. Perhaps you need to have played Quake to fully appreciate the sense of how the gravity affects the player, I can’t answer that either way, but it’s a fun feeling and it gives a movie like this replay value.
The soundtrack I could definitely see being annoying if the tracks were played on their own and separately but they really added another element to the experience of watching this movie. The way the different repetitive elements were used fit very well and it’s hard to imagine certain sequences without the music. The music when combined with the editing as a whole made this movie feel pretty seemless. The editing in this movie is really impressive, at times incredible and always good. In frag movies heavy editing in terms of effects and synching can be annoying but this is a movie to take in visually and the synching really immerses you in it a step further and brings all the threads together into one which is stronger for it.
Thorin Rating: 8.5/10
Name: Jaedong vs Flash Montage
Editor: nimbus
Runtime: 6:51
Released: 2010
Game: SC:BW
Description:
A compilation of significant scenes between the ‘Ultimate Weapon’ Flash and ‘The Tyrant’ Jaedong from their high profile matchups in individual leagues.
Review:
Flash and Jaedong are two of the most incredible figures to ever grace esports, nevermind just StarCraft: Brood War. This movie really captures their brilliant plays and delivers them to the viewer in way that is easy to understand and appreciate. The biggest problem with SC:BW highlight videos is that the context is often lost or muddled so that when a scene begins unless you saw and remembered that specific match you’d be scrambling to figure out which player is the one who is going to make the significant action, what it is and how it affects the overall match. It’s not as simple as seeing a sequence in a frag movie.
This highlight package really nails all of that in a way I haven’t seen others manage to for this game. There is text telling you the basic gist of what to look for, the action is sped up and slowed down relative to both the melody of the music and the significance of what is happening. The out of game footage also helps with the context and atmosphere of the movie as a whole. The speeding up really works better than I would have imagined, especially in scenes where there is a lot of troop action and showing it at normal speed would drag a bit and ruin the flow.
Pendulum has grated on me for the last few years of gaming movies much as Linkin Park did for most of the first few but these two tracks are two of the better modern efforts and both work well with the overall theme and context of the movie. The first one in particular has its moments of being really good when partnered with the right scenes. If you don’t follow SC:BW but want to see some of the best action this would be a great entry point thanks to how easy it is all made to take in. For those who do follow SC:BW this is set to be a classic of highlight videos.
Thorin Rating: 8/10
Name: bjERKE – It’s so easy
Editor: emfy
Runtime: 5:54
Released: 2010
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of kills from Norwegian Online Kingdom player bjERKE.
Review:
The frags in this movie are good and there are some which are really nice on occasion but somehow they didn’t effect me as much as I expected, I didn’t quite feel that energy you get from exciting and really entertaining sequences. Instead it just felt like I was detached watching sequence after sequence and thinking “that’s nice, that was good, pretty nice” as each passed by but not really getting pumped or drawn in much.
The editing was decent, at times stretching it a little though. Showing the Clutch train sequence a second time from a third person perspective felt unnecessary. I also could have lived without seeing some of the eco frag sequences which are thrown into the latter third or so. It’s not that there’s anything here to hate but there’s just not a lot that evokes a strong reaction within me. Instead it felt like a movie worth watching but not necessarily one I’ll rewatch unless bjERKE goes on to become an elite player, which let’s face it isn’t very likely as of right now.
Thorin Rating: 6.5/10
Name: fnatic f0rest – GC Shanghai MVP
Editor: VILLAGE
Runtime: 3:00
Released: 2010
Game: CS
Description:
A compilation of f0rest’s kills from IEM V Shanghai
Review:
Even as far as minimovies go this one runs pretty short at 3 minutes and a full half of that is intro/outro so you’re left with 1.5 minutes of actual frags. That’s one of the problems with trying to highlight one player at one event, especially one where there are only two playoff series. It’s a flawed concept overall and has to count against a movie when being reviewed here, even if it was intended to be graded in such a manner.
The music is the big plus for the movie. It’s a fun track which has a good vibe to it and the bassline rolls through. That makes me like the movie to some extent and I think driving drum and bass like that works well in movies. It also tempts editors into lots of cuts though I think, which was an area this movie was a little bit wobbly on. The editing did synch the action up well but at times the cuts felt a little too fast and hard so some of the enjoyment of the kill was taken away. I also don’t like the effect of darkening the outsides of the screen and the movie itself in general, it makes it more of a strain to see who is being killed etc.
When you get into the flow of following sequences which are sped up and then pulled back in speed for the kill it throws off the pleasure of watching the kills unfold. The second you see the speed decreasing you know a kill is coming. There is quite a bit of eco fragging in this movie too, though at least some of it has entertainment factor or raw skill to showcase. There are some good kills and overall the vibe of the movie was nice with the way the music played into the action. I also thought choosing not to use in-game sound worked for this movie.
Thorin Rating: 5/10
Name: This is Quake 3 by sk!a
Editor: sk!a
Runtime: 10:13
Released: 2008
Game: Q3
Description:
A compilation of kills from a number of Quakers, though mainly sk!a.
Review:
When you call your movie “This is Quake 3” and feature a lot of your own frags alongside those of Cooller you better deliver a certain level of quality of you’re gonna be in everyone’s crosshair for some criticism. This movie delivers that level. There are quite a few single frags, air rockets or difficult rails, but they are often at least good if not very good. There are also some kills in this movie which are downright crazy so the wow factor is definitelty there from the kills at times.
The movie doesn’t have an epic feel to it, maybe why I didn’t rate it higher, and also doesn’t have the feel of a highlight package of elite players pulling off their best kills. It does have a lot of good sequences though and while there’s no real order or theme to them the consistency is high. The quality of actual picture is equally high and consistent. The method of capture at first seemed to make the action too much of a frenzy, where a movie like The GateKeepers really walked that line impeccably, but after about 30 seconds or so my eyes seemed to adjust and it wasn’t a problem from there on out. That element does ensure that this movie has a vibraint “in-the-game” feel to it that older movies often don’t have.
The music was good, not incredible but good that I either liked it or didn’t seem to notice it. I did feel like the Craig Armstrong section at the end didn’t work too well because that track is most famously linked with clipquake so one can’t help but think of that movie and how emotionally intense it was while this movie doesn’t use it in the same way or rise to that level. If you haven’t seen this This is Quake 3 you’re in for quite a pleasant surprise and will likely come away impressed.
Thorin Rating: 8/10
Classic movie magic
Name: The Badge v2.0
Editors: strandtyp and ironcock
Runtime: 5:55
Released: 2002
Game: Q3
Description:
A groundbreaking example of audio synching, editing, graphical effects and spectacular Quake III frags.
Review:
When you talk about creating a gaming movie with a truly cinematic feel this is a movie you have to reference because these guys totally nailed it. The editing is beautifully done so the scenes and camera angles flow into one another effortlessly. It has aged a little but only a little and that impresses me for a movie released back in 2002. This movie wasn’t just ahead of its time, it has a unique charm to it that others never replicated fully.
The frags are almost undoubtedly staged and/or using an aimbot in many instances yet that really doesn’t bring the movie down for me. The point of this movie for me is not to marvel at the raw skill but rather to see excellent frags put together in clever and innovative ways so that the whole experience is cool and fun throughout. This movie has replayability by the barrel. The music is excellently chosen and worked into the action. The graphical effects in the drum and bass scene are awesome and still have make me smile to this day.
Take every downside you can muster for this movie and they won’t come close to detracting from what is an enjoyable viewing experience each and every time. A classic in every way.
Thorin Rating: 8/10