UKC

just seen it (took a while to get to where i am). pretty impressed all round. now i want to go to baffin island.
what did anyone else think of it? (particularly anyone who saw it at a festival where leo houlding had his say).

In reply to ice.solo: Cool vid, but too much swearing so couldn't let my son watch it. Shame they had to leave that in.

In reply to ice.solo: Well, where to start - too much glory to the God Houlding - too much damned sponsorship - who gives a sh*t about base jumping off the top wearing a bat suit while the climb team nobodies have to pick up the gear and hump it down - the climb line and sequence of the apparently two teams on the face was unclear and confusing due to poor filming and bad editing - the three training thingies at the front of the film were boring - did I say Leo Houlding was doing his climbing celebrity thing all the way through? He was - big-time.

The swearing in the film rapidly became tedious. The film rapidly became tedious. It needed severe editing so it told a story well and didn't big-up the already self-bigged-up celebrity climbing bore who, it turns out, was the executive producer of the film. In that case how could the poor editor reduce Houlding's central and over-inflated role in the film?

If you want to see big-wall climbing as extreme sport with bat-wing suited base jumping, lots of f*cking words, and oh-my-God-we're-great-climbers celebrity glorification then watch away. But take a head torch and good book for the many tedious bits.

In reply to Chris_Mellor:

yes but did you like it ?

In reply to Chris_Mellor:
Nice work

In reply to ice.solo:

I thought it was interesting to watch, there were a few bits that made me think that the poor support team really deserved a bit more credit, the whole we can jump down in a couple of minutes but the other guys had to clean the entire route in another day of work! Bit Cheeky! I thought the quality of the picture was great, and the training routes in Riglos blew me away, I cant imagine the skill required to simul climb two 7a/b routes in two and a half hours! So overall I enjoyed watching it and would recomend others to see it.

Interestingly I watched Cold Haul afterwards, and although its filmed by Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell on route, I enjoyed the simplicity and comedy of that more than the big show of the Asgard Project!

Craig

Yes, I've seen the movie and it's pretty sick.

By the way, anyone know the name a where is the place when Leo is bouldering and soloing at the begining of the movie (the place with the small lake). Looks pretty.

Cheers

In reply to Chris_Mellor:


About sums it up.

Should have been half the length it actually was, without the "gee-whiz, you a such a super-hero" stuff. When I made a (entirely for private consumption) video about ice-climbs I had done, even then it was severely edited by a friend/climbing partner, with all the swearing removed/beeped out. Where I would have loved to have every second of a pitch I led included, with lingering close-ups of every ice-screw being placed, these were brutally rejected on the grounds that the audience would die of boredom or old age otherwise.

Perhaps Leo Holding would like his contact details - he needs them.

The funny thing is that they did have a compelling story to tell, just ruined by being so self-indulgent and by over-egging the pudding so much.

In reply to Simon4: and now there's a game too - I modelled for it (cue countless comments on my footwork...) haven't seen the film but had a quick play on this once the developers had finished putting it together and think it's come out quite well. climbmountasgard DOT com

f.

In reply to Chris_Mellor:

"big-wall climbing as extreme sport with bat-wing suited base jumping, lots of f*cking words, and oh-my-God-we're-great-climbers celebrity glorification"

Actually, that sounds f*cking great.

In reply to ice.solo:

i saw leo's lecture about asgard at the works just before i watched the film - the lecture was a lot better.

In reply to ice.solo:

cheers for those interesting responses.

i can see it did have a lot missing and it suffered for the sake of being such a commercial film.
felt to me there was a lot of stuff they could have dropped that would have made it more interesting to climbers: would have liked to have seen more on the climbing and less on the walking in, playing cards, hauling etc.
i think too there was a tad more BASE jumping than needed, which took away from the climbing. still, its the rush needed for a highly commercial venture.
i wonder how the BASE community sees it.

to me the swearing was fine. ive spent time in such places and thats just how it is. in the end its a bunch of 30-something blokes under stress.
i really like the scene of the guy flipping out on lead - the most realistic expedition moment in the film i thought.

i thought the beginning sequence of houlding and friend climbing in china was odd. a crappy, easy route in the drizzle with tourists watching?
fun to see, but there must have been better stuff?

the actual climbing stuff i though was good, but the hollywood attempt at slicking it up felt superficial at times.
leo and his scratched up fingers wasnt quite the tradgety it was portrayed as, and none of the characters were profiled enough to even remember who was who, let alone create some kind of plot with.

houlding tho i thought wasnt as bad as some seem to. he a 32 year old living a dream thats pretty awesome (way more awesome than any rockstar or footbal player) and yes he has a nobbish accent and is a drama queen, but he gets results. theres worse.
i am jealous as f*ck tho.

film-wise i liked the general look. im tired of scratchy home made stuff done on a budget. the graphics and landscape shots made a possibly unwatchable thing watchable. how else can you show somewhere like that without spending big on aerial shots?

i did also like the youthfulness of it. the grumbling professional sufferer bores me at times. i do like a bit of gear porn and whiz bang - so long as its relative to the climbing. 5 shirtless yobs yahooing glaming it up for a boulder problem is lost on me, but a big wall free attempt above the arctic circle with a squirrel suit descent IS something to get excited about.

also, why the hell couldnt they parachute in a proper base tent instead of that dodgy mish-mash of parachute silk and mids?
the 'oh no theres snow getting in/leos fingers are scratched/heavy hauling/twisted ankles etc were lame attempts at hollywood drama that could have been done without - really, the story itself held its own.