the cinematography and visuals are always really great in cinematics it's a shame we barely get any these days lol. and it's only 3 minutes like pls I've taken pisses that were longer give us something MORE! But at LEAST we didn't get bbno$ singing so its okay. Nobody spoke, either. More thoughts at the bottom, tho.
so they strap Sage in a torture machine to face her demons and over come them. (i'm joking but that's what it looks like 😭)
LOOK AT HER DELTS, TRICEPS AND FOREARMS! Skye makes her look small in comparison but Sage is still jacked. Like calisthenics versus a bodybuilder lmao.
Side note: I think Skye should do more overhead pulls, skull crushers kickbacks and dips. Her triceps look very flat. i LOVE triceps work because they're the reason why my arms look big despite having very small biceps right now lol.
I assume Iso came along as extra protection but also why is he here? Because he's Chinese? 😭😭 whatever sure. Jett and Neon are also close to Sage (closer I would argue) but like ok.
I like how Sage and Omega Viper are the only ones seen in different outfits this cinematic. They're the only two agents that own a wardrobe. Also yess girl wear that mid-riff who cares if you're pushing 50 you look great.
And that's like FOUR agents with a motorbike now. Harbor, Brimstone, Yoru and now O-Viper. They should start a Motorcycle Club. But also, let's get some variety. Make someone own a moped. Make someone own a Toyota Corolla. 🤷
Okay, so, nice looking screencaps out of the way, let's compare this to the last three map reveal trailers, Corrode, Abyss and Sunset.
Corrode was short, and most of it was gameplay, but it at least had voice acting. It was more of a gameplay showcase than driving the story forward, mostly because Corrode didn't really have a story presence, unlike Abyss and Sunset. It sort of was just a thing to show during the tournament or whatever was going on at the time in Paris, and because the map was set in France. Adding in gameplay rather than animating anything just feels lazy. Like they made the cinematic around the gameplay clips. Gameplay clips are not a good thing in a cinematic.
Abyss was also three minutes, but was linked to the Scions, Omen and Iso, and had no gameplay cuts so it "felt" more cinematic. I don't mind this one. The map trailers generally show the "newest" agents at the time it was released, which were Clove and Iso. It was pretty to look at. I personally liked the lighting in this one, even if the character models weren't necessarily my favourite kind of design. Up close, Clove and Iso looked good, but some scenes they looked a bit funky. I think their faces were modeled really well, just some of the animations looked a bit off. Nit-picky, yeah, but I like animation and film so I like talking about it lol. I think the Abyss trailer is fine. There isn't much to say about it.
Sunset was roughly five minutes. It was part of the Gekko and Deadlock Radivore arc. There's no gameplay at all, either. Gekko and Deadlock were the "new" agents at the time so they were present and spoke. I don't know if this would work with any of the other maps, but Sunset's cinematic was clearly portraying how the map became what it was. I know Duelists, I think, showed O-Jett blowing up Ascent, too, so I'm guessing all the cinematics chronologically take place before the map is in the game. I don't know if you get what I'm saying, but like, yeah. I'm trying to say that the cinematics give context to the maps in-game, or at least, they should. I think Sunset is my favourite map trailer (mostly because DEADLOCK!!! is present) but also because the agent interactions were great between Deadlock, Sova, Gekko and Wingman. And Brimstone has a tattoo, that's cool. I think more trailers should be like Sunset, where it pushes the arc forward while also introducing a new set piece. Unfortunately, Riot believed this was a decent enough "conclusion" to the arc and has never brought up anything relating to Radivores again.
So going back to Summit, it was three minutes, had no dialogue, pushed Sage's arc forward, and had no gameplay. It makes it sort of a blend between Abyss and Sunset, but not quite checking all the boxes. I believe Riot has been putting in less and less effort into the cinematics, starting at Clove's trailer and continuing on. The videos are getting shorter and shorter, have less substance and most dialogue has been replaced by musical artist collaborations.
They aren't even doing meet the voice actor videos anymore, with the two most recent being Clove and Deadlock. I get that's more dependent on the VA's, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't bother to reach out to them to ask if they wanted to do an interview. Carolina Ravassa has probably done more Q&A's with the voice actors than Riot have on her Instagram 😭
I am almost certain all the budget from overpriced skins and cosmetics is going towards the E-Sports and not towards the creative teams, which is probably why we are getting such lackluster content in that department. Yet, they go above and beyond for VCT or whatever the fuck.
Summit would have benefited a lot more from dialogue. Even just a little bit. It's a visual and auditory medium, therefore, we will not be able to understand these characters and inner monologues without external actions. Body language is good, but not good enough when you can also have DIALOGUE. All we can do is make assumptions on how Sage is feeling through what is essentially mimed to us and visual metaphors. Facial expressions and everything. But no words. No "thoughts" expressed through a voice in Sage's head. How is she feeling? What is she thinking? What is she planning? What is Viper feeling? Ect. This is Sage's arc, her cinematic, had it hyped up with the three most angsty agents ever pacing around a green screen room lamenting in bitterness, sorrow and pain, the Range emails and phone calls, and it was basically a music video. 😔
People are eating it up, and while I wouldn't call it slop because it is a very beautiful cinematic, it's just... Mediocre. Like, okay, sure, whatever, thank you, next. I think Riot peaked with REVELATIONS, and it's all been downhill from there.
Riot will put more effort into the next Premium skinline than their next cinematic.
I'm not necessarily disappointed since I was not expecting the next coming of Christ but it cannot be denied that Riot is getting lazy.
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