Running with Speed

I was hyped to finally have a look behind the curtains of speedrunning.

And I'm disappointed.

First, it's a very long "Summoning Salt" video, intercut with interviews and background stories of famous speedrunners. But it's still basically built as a Summoning Salt video.

And the way it's built, it's sometimes repetitive. And I mean, the documentary is 2 and half hours!! They could have cut a lot it, and that would have made it a way better experience (which is ironic coming from a documentary about people trying to get to the point as fast as possible!).

The second big issue is that the documentary spends A LOT of time trying to explain the basics of speedrunning, and I mean, it does make sense that you want people who know nothing about speedrunning to be able to understand what's going on, but for someone who already watches a lot of speedrunning, it quickly becomes boring.

But there are some interesting moments, like learning about how GDQs work in the background, and getting to know a bit more about some speedrunners.

But in the end, it's very unsatisfying.

I watched this very long documentary having no real interest or knowledge (or interest to gain knowledge of) Super Mario Brothers, which came out after I was done playing video games (I am glad Colecovision was mentioned here, which I grew up with)...

But I gave it a try as it started playing directly after a RoboCop documentary, and they did a good job showing what's involved in the games and how to play the games fast...

But the best aspect is how to figure out the glitches of each game to save time... that alone could have been an hour-long documentary: on mistakes in video games that have become more iconic than the actual games...

Anyhow, all the young adults centered here wound up making money streaming, and it seems like the whole purpose was to say, hey, you can make bundles of money by sitting around playing video games... but believe me, that's extremely rare, like winning the lottery...

The four or five different gamers shown (no girls, by the way) are somewhat interesting, and they're very skilled, but what this doc lacks is what made A Fistful of Quarters so great, and that's a worthy villain...

That is, an egotistical "star" who is the opposite of the humble and very affable people here, making each story feel the same, overall lacking tension in when these people compete against each other...

Plus there's too much time centered on each person, so that when former interviewees turn up again, you've almost forgotten about them...

Overall, you're not really rooting for anyone since everyone's so friendly... But it's an intriguing glimpse into a niche world.

This film was was structured in a way difficult to convey what it means to speedrun it focuses on a speedrunner then goes to the game then goes back to the runner then talks about gdq. (despite having other speedrun charity events) Then it goes back talking about another runner then back to gdq. Having this pacing makes the film stuck in repetition like an essay trying to reach the word count, then the guy who narrates the film says he wants no attention yet gives himself the biggest ego stroke at the end which rubs me the wrong way. Overall this film I feels like it doesn't present it's topic well by adding multiple scenes which doesn't make sense or irrelevant at times which results in a complete mess of a documentary. The should have focused on one single topic of speedrunning (History of speedrunning or GDQ) and organized it in a way (chronological and etc.) that it is engaging for the viewers.

The featured players in this doc are unreal first off. Best in the world, crazy how they got them all in the same doc.

Second, I was just perusing this page after finishing the series. And having just read one of the few reviews I felt compelled to rebuke the opinion of someone who claimed the doc being hard to follow.

In my opinion, each episode followed the history, story and lives of characters and a specific game. The story builds into a bigger story of the community of speed runners which was nothing I would have imagined.

As a person who hasn't played games for a long while, the doc surprised me by showing gamers in a different light then typical pop culture which can look down on gamers as nerds, outcasts and non contributing members of society.

That couldn't be more false when examined in here. The amount of time and effort that is put into becoming a world record holder (as trivial as one might think) is an impressive achievement. And I thought it was great to see how this work was paying off and how most were just normal people trying to succeed at their skills and even inspiring others AND! On top of all of that, also came together to raise a ton of money for an amazing cause.

From a style stand point the documentary had clean simple graphics which were easy to follow which matched the cinematography and structure of the piece overall.

If you are into gaming this is definitely a sub culture to check out and the filmmakers did a good job of taking a ton of information, history and characters and condensing it into an enjoyable storyline.

An incredibly educational and good-natured documentary that doesn't require exaggerated rivalries or antagonists to tell a coherent story.

Despite being a niche topic, this film deserves a lot of credit for nearly (but not entirely) bridging the gap between its target demographic of hardcore gamers and the average mainstream viewer who doesn't know what "speedrunning" even is.

That's not an easy feat while staying genuine to material like this. Here we have a film with great narrative. Human stories of the people involved. Rational explanations of what you're seeing and why it matters. Proper scope and portrayal of the community. There's a lot done right.

It is, however, overly long. I saw chances to trim it down, that would serve to broaden the film's appeal and make it an easier recommendation. But that's not to say there is "wasted" time, it's just not as streamlined as it could be.

For those willing to stick it through, there's a good presentation here, done by people with true experience and care for the subject matter.