Movie Review: birth

Published on [unsure] in 2008 [unsure].

Name: Birth
Publisher: SoLiCE
File Size: 415mb

“Nobody knows them…but here they will be born” the intro tells us in a somewhat ominous fashion. This movie aims to introduce us to some unknown French players courtesy of some crazy frags on their part. This is an aim which is certainly met and due to the fact the author was behind the Oligan movie of early 2006 there’s no real need for me to wax overly lyrical before we dive right into the review itself and take this baby apart. Follow me this way to the projection room friends.

Technical ability:
This is a movie which right off the bat will throw you a curveball creatively. The intro comprises the standard scenes of 3rd person footage of terrorists running around but in presented in quite a unique manner. The aim behind this intro is apparent to me but despite it being admirable it was not executed to quite the extent I wasn’t left feeling a little cynical about the whole affair. Clearly the intro was not just meant to inform us this is a movie about unknown players but also to try and inject some art and culture into the world of CS moviemaking all the while combining these ideas into an overall theme. We see images of high art, shots of babies in jars and other such oddities which leave one mildly confused and yet also with one’s interest piqued to see what else will come of this strange beginning. The synching on the intro is as well done as one could expect and all in all while a little off kilter in nature the ideal behind it is a commendable one and so we are lead into the movie itself on a high note.

The actual movie didn’t seem phenomenally technical in nature, that really didn’t come across as an issue though. This was not a movie where polishing and polishing was required to make up for other aspects. The effects and techniques used were ones seen in a number of movies over the years but they fit the circumstances under which we encounter them and as such there are no complaints as far as they go. The gun theme which introduced each player was somewhat cheesy but it served a purpose and wasn’t offensive to our viewing sensiblities.

The outro returns to the birth theme and once more the ideas as likeable but in the context of a CS movie they aren’t well developed enough to make a lot of sense beyond the aesthetic realm.

Visual content:
As clothes maketh the man so frags maketh the movie in this genre. From the first scene you’ll quickly realise that this movie has some crazy frags in it, crazy in that really good sense where when you factor in the unknown status of the players in question you have to reserve a certain amount of doubt in the back of your mind as to their legitimacy. That is not to say there was any cheating involved, perhaps a better way to phrase it would be to say that you can’t be iron clad sure there wasn’t and even if there wasn’t you might perhaps be inclined to just call a couple of the kills luck or bs. Now that we’ve gotten that point out of the way, much the chagrin of the people who would have rushed to post in the comments section no doubt, we can move onto a much lighter note. A few eco kills and a rather tired dust2 catwalk kill setup aside I enjoyed this as a frag movie throughout. At times what was on display was really good and at other it was merely good. To draw comparisons for the less mentally apt amongst us this probably fits the role of a French ‘Underground’ movie, though with less of a bs/blatent factor than was on display at times in that series of movies.

Even in spite of what I’ve said the varying level of quality in the kills and the odd sequencing of them will leave you surprised at points when you expect the movie to lull into a poorer movie than it is and then all of a sudden out comes something impressive again like the inferno B hold with the awp. The best scenes are certainly what we came to see and those which are of a lesser quality are on the whole not bad, merely something we watch to get to the better ones. The scene at double doors on dust2 is silly but in an amusing way as we see a somewhat tired angle where a CT kills ecoing terrorists but then despite seeing the fifth doesn’t even fire his gun until the T has retreated, apparently the French unknown in question has the reactions of a dead lemur.

Audio content:
The intro plays out to a recent Beastie Boys track and this is a good selection which works well with what the author wanted to do with the intro in terms of theme, visual synching and overall feel. This track choice combined with the rest of the intro actually let me believe the rest of the movie may end up being some crazy artistic music choices which wouldn’t necessarily have been a bad thing. Once the main track of the movie kicks in it becomes quite clear that is not the case however. Unless you despite rock music chances are Guns n’ Roses’ classic “Welcome to the jungle” will go down well enough with you. It isn’t outstanding as a background to fragging but it is a rather iconic rock track and likeable enough that it does its job and rather than worry about it we concentrate on the fragging action instead, if a soundtrack can’t be exceptional this is what it should aim to do.

The outro is that evanescence ballad you’ve all most likely heard and quite possibly in a CS movie before. Personally I find it rather trite but based on feedback I’ve seen to other movie and its prevalence in movies clearly someone likes it so if you’re one of these people enjoy yourself and have a cup full of uninspired pretentiousness on me. Bearing in mind this is the outro though and also the fact the images matching this musical sequence tie into the themes of the movie I can appreciate why it was chosen and ignore my own distate for the track. This is telling in itself as regards the movie.

Overall:
This movie really surprised me on a number of fronts. Firstly while I can easily pick flaws in the execution I like the ideals and ideas behind the birth aspects of the movie. Fragwise there were a number of moments where some crazy frags took place which were good enough that I expected the movie to fail to live up to that level again but lo and behold it did at least a couple of times more. This is not a movie to go into expecting amazing things but as a nice and compact little movie with unique ideas of its own I am left liking it a fair amount and interested to see what the author will come up with next. Take a moment out of your CS movie viewing day to take a little detour into this bizarre but strangely enticing and fun French frag movie.

Rating: 3.5/5