MovieChat Forums > Top Spin (2014) Discussion > Criticisms

Criticisms

posted 8 years ago by RainmanCT
3 replies | jump to latest

- studio shots - WAY too much time showing slow-motion studio shots of the players jumping in the air and pretending to slam the ball. Cut out some of those 10 minutes and show more of the absolutely stunning Olympic match between Ariel and her inside-out forehand against top-ranked Li Xiao Xia. This was BY FAR the best showing by a U.S. player since Table Tennis became an Olympic sport...it is baffling to me how little of this footage was shown given how much of the film centered on Ariel.

- match editing - admittedly if you aren't going to show a full match it is difficult to select which segments will convey the flow of a match - but at least put them in order. When the graphic presented is clearly a different game then represented by the scorecard we can see in the footage - it is distracting.

- announcers - [Edit: removed comments about Sean O'Neill which are really not the fault of the filmmakers]

- little to no recognition of other competitors - I understand that the film is basically about the showcased 4 players...but why not at least name (or show a quick shot) of each the 8 players in each of the qualifying Round Robins? There was maybe 10 seconds dedicated to the other players who made the Olympic team and no mention at all of the other worthy players in the Round Robin groups who fought just as hard as everyone else.

- end credits - ok this may be picky, but was there a need to thank every human being whoever walked the Earth? There was some interesting footage through the credits but rather than keeping it in a box, it scrolled with the credits. Couldn't they figure out how to keep the box tethered?

Overall not a bad film but disappointing. It seemed like it's target audience was an attempt to win over non-table tennis players by showing the beauty of the sport through staged studio shots rather than giving the real table tennis audience (we are out here!) the real stuff we want to see.

[–] TxMike 8 years ago

So, what do you hope to accomplish by stating your list of objections for a documentary that came out 2 years ago? It is what it is and it ain't going to change just because you think parts were not done as well as you would have liked them to be.

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes not.

[–] RainmanCT 8 years ago

We have this thing called the "internet" which has these things called "forums" where we share ideas, including (when it's on a site such as imdb) giving feedback about a movie.

To answer your question - no; i did not think they were going to release a re-edit based on my feedback.

What I was hoping to accomplish was to hear from other viewers whether or not they felt my points were valid; this is not atypical for imdb forums although perhaps you are new here.

What were you trying to accomplish?

[–] TxMike 8 years ago

I am not usually critical of this kind of documentary, it is a small effort to follow 3 young American table tennis players who each aspire to compete on the Olympic team. It is done very effectively, it accomplishes its purpose to allow us to get to know them a bit, what they go through to compete at the highest level. Every filmmaker would have done it a bit differently, so what! There is no purpose served to be overly critical of the effort. Most of your criticism comes across as a "know it all" who seeks to impress readers that you think it should have been done differently.

Your criticisms of this nice documentary come across as very petty. Naturally each of them is a better table tennis player than you could ever hope to be, maybe you are just jealous!

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes not.