Movie review: Saturation (***)

What I find a disappointing with Absinthe Films’ Saturation, and all snowboard movies, is the simplistic MTV style formulaic presentation showing off each rider in turn 'performing' to a soundtrack.

I find that after watching a few of these movies they all blend into one and there is little lasting impression. I would prefer to see a more developed narrative thread, giving context to the awesome tricks and locations and the challenges faced by riders and crew to pull them off.

None the less, the movie has some great sections like Yannick Amevet riding steep exposed faces and leaping off lips with the kind of flare you might only expect to see on safer terrain.

Another favourite section was Wolle Nyvelt’s dam ride. Nyvelt rides the snow covered side of a dam making big turns onto the concrete with sparks flying from his edges. It is like something out of a video game and truly memorable (it would have been even better if we could have heard the accompanying scrapes rather than just the pasted on music).

There is more great riding but it was all over very quickly after only about fifty minutes, looking for more on the disc I was also dismayed by the paucity of the extra features - poor value for the £22 asking price.

The movie is billed as a 16mm film yet some shots had the flat coloured look of tape to me and I was not stunned by the quality of transfer to DVD as I thought I could see some pixilation occurring now and then.

Despite my reservations about the MTV format I still enjoyed the movie and the high energy soundtrack certainly got me in the mood for my next trip to the mountains. I would give it a three star rating.

15 December 2003 Permalink
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