Saw it last night. What a load of rubbish – arty filming, very little riding and some cod philosophy narration. Is it just me?

it is more mainstream than most in appealing to a wider auidence, I suspect this is on purpose.
Its enjoyable – IMO.

I think the section that let itself down was cam McCaul flying through the corn field, by not seeing the jumps/landings it lost something and the jumps weren’t so impressive to watch.
I like seeing how the forks react on landing – all geek type stuff.

Against Seasons, no competition is it.
I tried to swap my lifecycles copy for friends Follow me and I was under impressed with follow me, but upon reflection love the last section with Gee and Stevie smashing it down the mountain – that bit was worth owning the DVD for alone.

I went to the Premier of Lifecycles – drunk a lot and think that affected my first view – think beer goggles. When watching my purchased DVD I did come away under whelmed and therefore, to a lesser extent, agree with your OP.

I liked everything apart from the narration. Even my other half, who ordinarily couldn’t care less about bikes, thought it was good, but almost pee’d herself laughing at some of the “life is like a box of chocolates” crap. I honestly couldn’t decide whether it would have been worse just hearing how ‘rad to the power of sick’ and ‘gnarly’ it was for all the ‘dudes’ and ‘bros’ involved.

Is it just me?

Nah, I thought it was a bit naff too.

Us clever Brits are probably not the target audience though, eh?

I think every “American” MTB film I have seen has had far too much talk, philosophy and arty shot experimentation in it. The earthed series are the only MTB films I have seen that are worth re-watching.

edit: actually that’s not strictly true, klunkers was quite good, but that’s kind of different, that had a story to tell. Ride the divide and race across the sky are also quite good, again stories to tell even if just of individual races.

So it isn’t just me!

I’ve never been interested in chat in bike films, at best it’s ‘all about having fun and riding with your friends’ at worst it’s ‘life is a journey’ nonsense. I just want to see some good riding. I haven’t liked many mtb films recently, too many narrow shots, too much slow mo, not enough long sequences of riding.

Saw it last night. What a load of rubbish – arty filming, very little riding and some cod philosophy narration. Is it just me?

I had to turn the sound off after a while, so it’s not just you.

Odly, I really didnt get the Earthed DVD’s, just felt like really bad versions of the NWD films, but without the comedy plots.

I saw it on youtube… thank god for fast forward.

Best video I’ve seen recently is the Freecaster 2010 video – pretty much the exact opposite of the recent US stuff.
It’s the one DVD that genuinely makes me want to get out on my bike – “proper” riding ( 😉 ), not sped up, no arty camera angles and a bit of insight into the pro DH’ers lifestyle. I know Warner’s a bit of a tool but I almost warmed to him too, especially on his helmet cam commentaries!

I thought it was bobbins – what annoyed me was a few of the shots would’ve made lovely photos but had no business being in the film – & the main issue I had was all the riding was in sslllllooooooooow motion….

I liked it 😆

I liked it too 😆

I can see why people don’t like it, but I think it’s great. Not the best I’ve seen, but still up there. Going back and watching Earthed and Sprung these days is amusing, more for how young they all look.

Slow motion? I like that too, there’s so much going on with the bike moving, tyres deforming, suspension doing it’s thing – like someone up there ^^^ I like to see a bike working.

And I liked it too!

Still waiting on my copy to arrive though – been ordered since late-Nov but went missing in the post, apparently. Only seen it on the big screen at a premiere but looking forward to seeing it again. The other film at the premiere (Glasgow) was VAST, which I thought was superb – great riding and scenery in it, with a decent soundtrack.

I bought the blu ray and loved it, I love that arty slo mo pretentious nonsense, but I do know what you mean, my 7yr old son wasn’t convinced, a bike film without any biking.

I liked it too.. something a bit different.. theres some lovely cinematography and it’s really good to chill out with.. Looking forward to getting my mits on a Blu-Ray version… 😀

Really didn’t like it.

I would have preferred Lifecycles if I was still smoking dope. TBH though I thought some of the riding was excellent.

I tried to swap my lifecycles copy for friends Follow me and I was under impressed with follow me, but upon reflection love the last section with Gee and Stevie smashing it down the mountain – that bit was worth owning the DVD for alone.

Agreed – that section is cracking.

The stand out dvd for me last year was reset films find, much more my cup of tea. I prefer well shot trail riding to arty stuff and the nwd style films. Also love watching the scottish and welsh trail centre bits in earthed 4.
Each to their own though. Follow me was ok, fairclough section my fave, life cycles had good aspects but too much slow mo and an irritating dialogue for me oh and the fact we over hyped it as they teased us with trailers long before it was released.