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SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT.
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I definitely digged this more than the Catalyst for several reasons:
Filming and cameras - comparing this to Catalyst this was kept cleaner for sure, as some of the parts in Catalyst were filmed with random handycams, making it look pretty lowQ, but just having fullsize 3CCD footage from all these filmer-homies in the credits along with a little 8mm B-roll and DLSR clips that were cropped into 4:3, I found Armageddon to be more pleasing than its predecessor. Having Kris film and edit for TGE makes Kris inreplaceable.
The vibe - it's just too darn good. While Catalyst was kind of raw, then Armageddon has matured in a way.
Spots - i just love how this contains only street architecture and some occasional DIY ramps.
--------------------------------------------
I'm gonna take this time and go through part by part and
I'll try not to feed too much information into this full review:
BK
perfect dude to start a full-lenght video with. Brandon is usually known by his park riding skills and can kill it on the mega as well (see BK's Boxes Facebook Q&A part 2), but I love how he manages to push himself to ride the streets with classic BK style: triplewhips, dubwhips into and out of manuals, supermans etc. I also love how he incomporates his driveway flatbox skills on various spots. That superman grassgap... dude, who does that? FS 360 double downside in a good way reminds me of Martin Kimbell a little, the style I mean. And the banger... way to keep it OG, man, not very many people do those these days.
Stackson
I love how Kris edited the B-roll footage into the soundtrack in his part, favorite B-roll usage. While BK's part was kind of Catalyst-vibe-serious part showing off one side of Proto, then Manzie's part opens up with this really chill vibe and Kris did a pretty darn good job to show this. Riding wise, the opening clip: nice speed yo. This may sound a little geeky/corky: I swear I may saw only a few occasional pushes in his whole part, but the lack of pushes in the lines because of the amount of speed he has, makes his part look sooo clean overall. Also, Jackson has one of the top-2 best looking nollie 3's in the game (to me it's a tie between Johann Moreau's, personal preference/opinion). That banger... man. Balls is what he has. So even though some may have said that his part was too short, I'd say it is what it is - explicit, full of bangers and just what it needs to be. Get well soon.
Steezeman
Haha, random fact, I just recently found my "Alex Steadman is my homeboy" shirt and it's in prime condition. Nice fun/life-loving B-roll intro in this. Classic Steadman footage: fakies, mannys, fakie mannies, powerslides, wallrides. And whips! I remember watching his online edits back when he had dreads and they were mainly whipless, as in whips seemed to be overrated for him back then, so nevertheless, nice addition to his 2012 video part. The 5" wide deck that he has gives a pretty good control over fastpaced fakies and was nice to see that being incorporated in a few spots. That powerslide down the ditch, fakie manny up the long steps, three table manny, fakie turndown (there was a photo of it i believe), fakie nosemanny combo... all these were suprises to me which makes him pretty interesting to watch what he comes up with. The ender was very t-whee, that's all I could come up with.
Buff
Straight up that opening clip, people at the premiere in Tallinn were like "owwwwch!"... shit was intence. I love how Andrew has this crazy "do or die" mentality when riding certain things, just makes me wish he had more time to live on wheels and travel rather than being at the workshop/office. Nevertheless, he's one of the raddest riding CEO's today. The pool clip he had in his part, man, those sketchy OG pools take some actual skills to ride, and Andrew has them. The choice of spots he shreds in his part is just slightly beyond mindblowing, skinny and sketchy stuff in mind mainly - so who ever you are, rider or non-rider, you'll be impressed by watching his part (I had my girlfriend at the premiere too and she said that while other's parts are more technical riding, then Andrew's was insanely interesting because of the spots). Just the amount of skinnies used in his part is beyond what I had expected, like those bridges and that white fence. Probably that white spine fence transfer was my favorite clip in this whole video. His part in collaboration with a local full-lenght snowboard movie inspired me to re-view some of the spots I had taken pictures of over the summer to approach them diffirently. The ender, I had known what he was doing for his ender for some short amount of time before he actually executed and I know he went through a LOT to get the line he wanted (several days on the spot for preparations and tryouts, plus possibly weeks or months planning and worrying about it). Who ever watches the ender, not only the first trick was super hard to get but keep in mind that the last gap was stretched to 15ft (4.6m). Andrew, if you're reading this - mad props. And I'm sorry for the loss of Buddy Dog right after the DVD came out, (this next thing i'm gonna say might seem corny and uncompassionate, but it kind of seems that Armageddon prophecy became true), never had the chance to meet the dog.
Elmerrrrr
Elmer had thrown in some hardcore combos and lines in his part. Fence hop doublewhip, dang bro. Oh and that spot that was created by the hurricane, I love how this was used. The handycap railgap 3 and Guadalajara minivert to minivert transfer was unexpected. Textbook-perfect combo down the unridden mexican white ledge. And that launch off a skinny banked curb piece? Man. All his shit consisted of fast-paced tricks and made it really enjoyable to watch and his style reminded me of all the NYC trips i've had, cause people in NYC have their own style collaboratively compared to people in the west coast.
Dylan
That intro. Was intense. Dude, if you're reading this, wear a cup. Cups don't show out on videos anyway, hahah. Seriously good lines in this part and seriously good hops. Dylan is one of those dudes who isn't afraid of high rails and puts them into good use. Didn't expect the alley oop 180 / 270 over the banked rail spot. Everything in his part is done in such steeze like it's not even hard, even though they're not that easy in real life. FS 360 over the two handycap rails and the noseblunt bonk at the chicago seaside spot straight up awesome. Wallride to FS board? What? FS board to heel? And his fakie manual game in couple of the clips near the end of his part is just so good.
Chemaa
Biggest threes ever along with the coolest looking single whips and nigga-barspins makes his part so enjoyable. True eye-candy. In his case, less is definitely more next to average day-to-day scooterflippidyflyoutshit edits. Plus everything is so fast. His brakeless style definitely stands out from the rest of the world. That chainfence line was so gnar. Suicide no-hander flatgap? Railhop to manual? No problemo for this guy. That BS dubpeg grind to nosemanual looks so flawless. There are some crazy gaps going on in his parts. And that 60-40 grind? Damnnnn.
Conclusion
in overall, ... dang, i just realised I can't summarize this just with a few words. All this riding and all these spots make me think that maybe I should have taken Andrew's suggestion to move to California more seriously back in 2010.
- Madis Kukk
SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT.
-------------------------------------------
I definitely digged this more than the Catalyst for several reasons:
Filming and cameras - comparing this to Catalyst this was kept cleaner for sure, as some of the parts in Catalyst were filmed with random handycams, making it look pretty lowQ, but just having fullsize 3CCD footage from all these filmer-homies in the credits along with a little 8mm B-roll and DLSR clips that were cropped into 4:3, I found Armageddon to be more pleasing than its predecessor. Having Kris film and edit for TGE makes Kris inreplaceable.
The vibe - it's just too darn good. While Catalyst was kind of raw, then Armageddon has matured in a way.
Spots - i just love how this contains only street architecture and some occasional DIY ramps.
--------------------------------------------
I'm gonna take this time and go through part by part and
I'll try not to feed too much information into this full review:
BK
perfect dude to start a full-lenght video with. Brandon is usually known by his park riding skills and can kill it on the mega as well (see BK's Boxes Facebook Q&A part 2), but I love how he manages to push himself to ride the streets with classic BK style: triplewhips, dubwhips into and out of manuals, supermans etc. I also love how he incomporates his driveway flatbox skills on various spots. That superman grassgap... dude, who does that? FS 360 double downside in a good way reminds me of Martin Kimbell a little, the style I mean. And the banger... way to keep it OG, man, not very many people do those these days.
Stackson
I love how Kris edited the B-roll footage into the soundtrack in his part, favorite B-roll usage. While BK's part was kind of Catalyst-vibe-serious part showing off one side of Proto, then Manzie's part opens up with this really chill vibe and Kris did a pretty darn good job to show this. Riding wise, the opening clip: nice speed yo. This may sound a little geeky/corky: I swear I may saw only a few occasional pushes in his whole part, but the lack of pushes in the lines because of the amount of speed he has, makes his part look sooo clean overall. Also, Jackson has one of the top-2 best looking nollie 3's in the game (to me it's a tie between Johann Moreau's, personal preference/opinion). That banger... man. Balls is what he has. So even though some may have said that his part was too short, I'd say it is what it is - explicit, full of bangers and just what it needs to be. Get well soon.
Steezeman
Haha, random fact, I just recently found my "Alex Steadman is my homeboy" shirt and it's in prime condition. Nice fun/life-loving B-roll intro in this. Classic Steadman footage: fakies, mannys, fakie mannies, powerslides, wallrides. And whips! I remember watching his online edits back when he had dreads and they were mainly whipless, as in whips seemed to be overrated for him back then, so nevertheless, nice addition to his 2012 video part. The 5" wide deck that he has gives a pretty good control over fastpaced fakies and was nice to see that being incorporated in a few spots. That powerslide down the ditch, fakie manny up the long steps, three table manny, fakie turndown (there was a photo of it i believe), fakie nosemanny combo... all these were suprises to me which makes him pretty interesting to watch what he comes up with. The ender was very t-whee, that's all I could come up with.
Buff
Straight up that opening clip, people at the premiere in Tallinn were like "owwwwch!"... shit was intence. I love how Andrew has this crazy "do or die" mentality when riding certain things, just makes me wish he had more time to live on wheels and travel rather than being at the workshop/office. Nevertheless, he's one of the raddest riding CEO's today. The pool clip he had in his part, man, those sketchy OG pools take some actual skills to ride, and Andrew has them. The choice of spots he shreds in his part is just slightly beyond mindblowing, skinny and sketchy stuff in mind mainly - so who ever you are, rider or non-rider, you'll be impressed by watching his part (I had my girlfriend at the premiere too and she said that while other's parts are more technical riding, then Andrew's was insanely interesting because of the spots). Just the amount of skinnies used in his part is beyond what I had expected, like those bridges and that white fence. Probably that white spine fence transfer was my favorite clip in this whole video. His part in collaboration with a local full-lenght snowboard movie inspired me to re-view some of the spots I had taken pictures of over the summer to approach them diffirently. The ender, I had known what he was doing for his ender for some short amount of time before he actually executed and I know he went through a LOT to get the line he wanted (several days on the spot for preparations and tryouts, plus possibly weeks or months planning and worrying about it). Who ever watches the ender, not only the first trick was super hard to get but keep in mind that the last gap was stretched to 15ft (4.6m). Andrew, if you're reading this - mad props. And I'm sorry for the loss of Buddy Dog right after the DVD came out, (this next thing i'm gonna say might seem corny and uncompassionate, but it kind of seems that Armageddon prophecy became true), never had the chance to meet the dog.
Elmerrrrr
Elmer had thrown in some hardcore combos and lines in his part. Fence hop doublewhip, dang bro. Oh and that spot that was created by the hurricane, I love how this was used. The handycap railgap 3 and Guadalajara minivert to minivert transfer was unexpected. Textbook-perfect combo down the unridden mexican white ledge. And that launch off a skinny banked curb piece? Man. All his shit consisted of fast-paced tricks and made it really enjoyable to watch and his style reminded me of all the NYC trips i've had, cause people in NYC have their own style collaboratively compared to people in the west coast.
Dylan
That intro. Was intense. Dude, if you're reading this, wear a cup. Cups don't show out on videos anyway, hahah. Seriously good lines in this part and seriously good hops. Dylan is one of those dudes who isn't afraid of high rails and puts them into good use. Didn't expect the alley oop 180 / 270 over the banked rail spot. Everything in his part is done in such steeze like it's not even hard, even though they're not that easy in real life. FS 360 over the two handycap rails and the noseblunt bonk at the chicago seaside spot straight up awesome. Wallride to FS board? What? FS board to heel? And his fakie manual game in couple of the clips near the end of his part is just so good.
Chemaa
Biggest threes ever along with the coolest looking single whips and nigga-barspins makes his part so enjoyable. True eye-candy. In his case, less is definitely more next to average day-to-day scooterflippidyflyoutshit edits. Plus everything is so fast. His brakeless style definitely stands out from the rest of the world. That chainfence line was so gnar. Suicide no-hander flatgap? Railhop to manual? No problemo for this guy. That BS dubpeg grind to nosemanual looks so flawless. There are some crazy gaps going on in his parts. And that 60-40 grind? Damnnnn.
Conclusion
in overall, ... dang, i just realised I can't summarize this just with a few words. All this riding and all these spots make me think that maybe I should have taken Andrew's suggestion to move to California more seriously back in 2010.
- Madis Kukk
