Introduction

Jirka "JiGetus" Ryhti is one of the up and coming Finnish players who has seemed for the past year to be poised on the brink of getting a shot in one of the top teams. This hasn't entirely worked out though as joining astralis (previously known as Crack-Clan) when naSu and lurppis departed didn't yield any worthwhile fruit due to the team's lack of sponsors, tournaments to attend and failure to win the Finnish WCG qualifier. He is now a member of Elukkaveljekset Gaming Club (EGC) who recently became wooSai. Despite some of his kills being used in Kajis' 'JiGetus 2 BETA' this new movie looks to show off what this young Finn can do with his individual skillset in Counter-Strike.

Name: JiGetus 2
Editor: aba

Technical

The technical side of this movie was in fitting with the movie itself: too much of a blur at times and in too much of a hurry to find the right pace or focus on the key element at the time. This isn't a movie where the editing ruins it or actively annoys me but rather it's one where scenes go by where I wish things had been done a little differently as the impact of the scene was lessened because of the choices the movie-maker made. This is especially pertinent since this movie features kills which were released in the unfinited "JiGetus 2 BETA" by Kajis, who is a much better movie-maker. As a result the mind instinctively compares certain scenes which are lacking to those same scenes in the Kajis movie.

One of the key problems with this movie is over-editing in the respect of not allowing kills or sequences enough time to breathe and be taken in by the viewer and circulate in his mind for a moment. When a movie-maker has seen kills a hundred times while editing he can too easily take for granted that a short cut directly into a kill looks fine to a viewer, what he is not taking into account is that he has the frag sequence seered into his brain at that point. For the viewer who is coming in fresh such a sequence goes by too fast or can be mildly confusing as his brain tries to figure out what happened but due to that style is then being immediately bombarded with the next kills.

There are just way too many scenes which are end up like that too, you are watching the end of one sequence and all of a sudden the first kill of the next is slammed right into your face so you have no time to assimilate what is coming at you. A perfect example would be when the movie cuts into JiGetus quickscoping a guy behind the boxes inside B on inferno. This sequence begins literally a fraction of a second before the kill. There is no flow to it and when you combine this style of very fast cuts with no breathing room between the clips it really removes some of the impact the kills can have, especially in that all important first viewing. The first AWPing sequence where JiGetus is shooting Ts who are moving down the stairs on train is way too quickly cut together. This should be a really nice sequence but each kill is cut and pasted directly into your face despite the fact this scene seemed like one which required little to no editing to be fully enjoyed.

The 3rd person camera swings in this movie are not done well. Firstly the purpose they serve is not a useful one, they are often used to connect different sequences within the same round which actually disrupts the flow of the action. Also due to the angles picked these swings can be disorientating at times which is a little irritating since the viewer wants his eyes to be enjoying the frags, not struggling to keep up with this kind of unnecessary movement. Again it's not that these things are all done terribly on their own, it's that when the negative effects of all of them are combined the overall effect is to bring the movie down a little. It seems a crime to waste good frags with poor editing decisions.

Likewise use of motion blur is mildly annoying and brings certain scenes down in enjoyment level. Using motion blur too much means the viewer's sense of surprise can be completely hijacked as he is aware, even in a very basic intuitive level, that when the blur effect is applied there will be no kill and when it is then suddenly removed that a kill is imminent. For that vital first viewing of a frag movie the element of surprise is huge and can really elevate a movie and excite the viewer. This effect seems to really work against that aspect which should be a plus for most movies which aren't HLTV frags we've all seen from big tournaments.

A less important but worth mentioning side point concerns the AWPing scenes where there is no dot on the crosshair when the AWP is scoped in. This is often the result of overusing the viewdemo command and a fairly standard bug. Assuming the movie-maker didn't intend this effect, I can't imagine why he would choose it, this is a wicked annoying bug. All it takes is a couple of minutes extra to reload the demo and move to that sequence to capture it with the crosshair as it should be. This may seem minor to some but it is unnecessarily annoying when watching the movie and always seems to me like the movie-maker didn't apply enough rudimentary effort to the fundamentals of capturing his footage.

Visual

This movie is all about the frags, make no mistake. This is what we came to see and this is what we see. That we've seen some of the kills in the Kajis beta already is mildly brings down the buzz of anticipation once you view this movie but all the same there are some great sequences. Some of the deagle sequences in particular are very very good and up there with anything you've seen in other movies, especially since this is a good player performing them and not some random internet hero. There are a few AWP sequences which are nice and have that relentless feel that a great AWP sequence has where it's one kill after another with noscopes thrown in there to make it even more impressive.

The eco killing situation has to be addressed with this movie though my stance on it may surprise some. While in most movies I am the harshest critic of eco killing, usually because the rounds aren't even that impressive and the enemies are clearly helpless ruining any kind of tension. This movie is a little different though. For the most part every eco killing sequence on its own is actually pretty good in this movie and occasionally some of them are spectacular. A good example of some excellent ones would be JiGetus killing enemies rushing out of the stairs at inner on train or when he is at the CT arch on inferno at A and they are moving up from T mid past the corner he is sat at. In both of these sequences we see precise USP headshots directly onto opponents who are moving past quickly and one after another. Regardless of what gun they hold these are satisfying scenes to observe.

There are, however, a couple of sequences which maybe should have hit the cutting room floor because in comparison to the other footage they aren't that great and the actions of the enemies means we are all too aware of the eco frag nature of them. One of these is where JiGetus is outside what the Americans call 'mini' on nuke, basically the small entrance building to upper. Here JiGetus is killing ecoing terrorists but for the last one, who is crouching, JiGetus seems to have forever to aim and then kill him while the enemy futilely shoots glock bullets at JiGetus. This sequence doesn't really belong in the same movie as the more spectacular scenes. There is also too much eco footage in terms of the movie as a high. The actual standard of raw fragging is pretty high in practically every scene and yet at the end one has the uneasy feeling that there have been way too many eco fragging sequences, especially if one considers what kind of score such a movie deserves. The sheer number of eco scenes means some of the great non-eco scenes get a little lost in that wash of glock-powered helplessness.

This is a movie which delivers frags regardless of its downsides. The Virtus.Pro scenes are a fine example of what it has to offer during its better moments. People will say that there are a lot of scenes which come from playing bad players but with 5 ping and I'd certainly agree, but all the same there are some great sequences and a lot of good scenes overall.

Audio

The intro track seemed nice enough and did its job though when the movie then cuts into the next track I found it a little lacking in transition. The two don't mesh together well. The second track is ok, I don't particularly like it but I don't dislike it either. It's the Marky & Bungle remix of Snow Patrol's 'Open your eyes'. I'm quite an enthusiast of the modern drum and bass genre so the bassline of this song and the beat structure is nice enough, especially for a frag movie. The Evol Intent track which follows it is a better track to my tastes but again is nothing amazing. These tracks basically provide a soundtrack with a decent to occasionally good vibe to them, certainly I'll take them over the crap that's been in the vast majority of CS movies but all the same they're not having the effect great songs have in CS movies over me which is to fully engage the epic or emotional context of scenes and push the movie up to a higher level.

Nothing really seems to have been done with the songs either, they're just there in the background. That's not a problem really but it's noticeable since every other aspect of the movie seems to have had editing elements thrown at it.

Overall

While some of the scenes were done better in Kajis' 'JiGetus 2 BETA' that movie was way too unfinished to be considered a real movie, so this is a better movie overall. There are noticeable downsides to the movie and areas where one wishes different decisions or directions had been taken but still the frags which make up the meat of the movie do deliver and have a positive effect on the viewer. Oscillating between above average and good this movie was worth a watch and likely will get another in the future from this reviewer. It's also always nice to see movies of up and coming players who may potentially break out in the upcoming years but for now must show us what they can do in private or against lesser opponents to earn our interest.

Thorin Rating: 7/10

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