Running with Speed (2023) User Reviews

It's long, sometimes repetitive, yet interesting (sometimes)

[voussoir-79654 · 6/10 · 5 February 2023]

I was hyped to finally have a look behind the curtains of speedrunning.

And I'm disappointed.

First, it's a very long "Summoning Salt" video, intercut with interviews and background stories of famous speedrunners. But it's still basically built as a Summoning Salt video.

And the way it's built, it's sometimes repetitive. And I mean, the documentary is 2 and half hours!! They could have cut a lot it, and that would have made it a way better experience (which is ironic coming from a documentary about people trying to get to the point as fast as possible!).

The second big issue is that the documentary spends A LOT of time trying to explain the basics of speedrunning, and I mean, it does make sense that you want people who know nothing about speedrunning to be able to understand what's going on, but for someone who already watches a lot of speedrunning, it quickly becomes boring.

But there are some interesting moments, like learning about how GDQs work in the background, and getting to know a bit more about some speedrunners.

But in the end, it's very unsatisfying.

morbius had better film structure

[maclittle-75393 · 1/10 · 20 January 2023]

This film was was structured in a way difficult to convey what it means to speedrun it focuses on a speedrunner then goes to the game then goes back to the runner then talks about gdq. (despite having other speedrun charity events) Then it goes back talking about another runner then back to gdq. Having this pacing makes the film stuck in repetition like an essay trying to reach the word count, then the guy who narrates the film says he wants no attention yet gives himself the biggest ego stroke at the end which rubs me the wrong way. Overall this film I feels like it doesn't present it's topic well by adding multiple scenes which doesn't make sense or irrelevant at times which results in a complete mess of a documentary. The should have focused on one single topic of speedrunning (History of speedrunning or GDQ) and organized it in a way (chronological and etc.) that it is engaging for the viewers.

How does anyone get this good at a game!

[trailof2000 · 9/10 · 23 January 2023]

The featured players in this doc are unreal first off. Best in the world, crazy how they got them all in the same doc.

Second, I was just perusing this page after finishing the series. And having just read one of the few reviews I felt compelled to rebuke the opinion of someone who claimed the doc being hard to follow.

In my opinion, each episode followed the history, story and lives of characters and a specific game. The story builds into a bigger story of the community of speed runners which was nothing I would have imagined.

As a person who hasn't played games for a long while, the doc surprised me by showing gamers in a different light then typical pop culture which can look down on gamers as nerds, outcasts and non contributing members of society.

That couldn't be more false when examined in here. The amount of time and effort that is put into becoming a world record holder (as trivial as one might think) is an impressive achievement. And I thought it was great to see how this work was paying off and how most were just normal people trying to succeed at their skills and even inspiring others AND! On top of all of that, also came together to raise a ton of money for an amazing cause.

From a style stand point the documentary had clean simple graphics which were easy to follow which matched the cinematography and structure of the piece overall.

If you are into gaming this is definitely a sub culture to check out and the filmmakers did a good job of taking a ton of information, history and characters and condensing it into an enjoyable storyline.

Finally someone covered speed running like this!

[jamesgavintfs · 10/10 · 17 January 2023]

Super interesting with a lot of interviews of the greats! Definitely entertaining too because they show events as well. The ppl behind this obvz put in a lot of effort or are gamers themselves because they went into some info and coverage that is specific and important for speed running so koodos for bringing this into the light more. Alotta ppl don't really know much about speed running and the people behind it and the amazing things they've done and the skill it takes so I'm definitely hoping this will kinda ignite more people to get involved and lookinto it and help it get bigger. Stoked for this stuff to get arena level big!

The Ultimate Fast-Paced Odyssey!

[Malvenido · 8/10 · 22 January 2024]

I love every single aspect of this documentary because it has a little bit of everything: gaming and speerun history, extremely high levels of nostalgia due to retro games such as Mario Bros, Metroid, Zelda and so on and even philosophical and real life aspects of what involves being a true speedrunner.

After watching this film, you'll feel like either watching speedruns or even becoming a speedrunner yourself. It's never too late!

Just look at these guys still facing off after so many years! It's a never-ending adventure!

SPOILER:

The only thing that felt kinda off was a fragment dedicated to Narcissa/Cosmo, I think they could've depicted in a better way but I guess the idea is to show us both the positive and negative sides of gaming so it's okay.

Mitch and GrandPooBear are my fav speedrunners by far!

Such charismatic characters!

If you like retro gaming, watching "Running with Speed" is a must!