Full Metal Challenge
Battle is about to commence between the World's leanest and meanest fighting machines. Twenty seven teams from India to Iceland and China and Chile are given one month and £2,000 / $3,000 to build their supreme dream machine. These monster machines have to be capable of incredible feats of endurance and speed...
Battle is about to commence between the World's leanest and meanest fighting machines. Twenty seven teams from India to Iceland and China and Chile are given one month and £2,000 / $3,000 to build their supreme dream machine. These monster machines have to be capable of incredible feats of endurance and speed, as they must out-smart and out-manoeuvre their competition who are all hungry for victory. The location is a disused power station in the south of England which has been completely transformed to house a series of hair raising circuits designed to push man and machine to their absolute limit. The contest is both a battle of wits and engineering wizardry as teams from five continents compete for the title of Full Metal Challenge World Champion. Presented by Henry Rollins and Cathy Rogers, we are guided through the creation of the games, with the highs and lows, as well as seeing some of the key battles play out as we find out who is World Champion. Effectively a "best of" compilation from the recently broadcasted Channel 4 series, it takes the ideas of Scrapheap Challenge and combines it with the best parts of Robot Wars to provide an exciting gladiatorial event which also showcases the ingenuity of these teams from around the world.
The diversity of ideas for the machines is incredible - caterpillar drives, 8 wheelers, articulated vehicles, even one based on the common shopping trolley (!) all are superbly designed and assembled by these teams of engineers from around the world. The games are designed to challenge every aspect of the vehicles, from speed to power to maneuverability. Each game is introduced in turn and explained before we see highlights of the vehicles that took each game. For the most part the games are extremely entertaining, and there's more than a fair share of Robot Wars style carnage, particularly in the gladiatorial games such as Sumo. As a compilation from the series, the programme is commentated by presenter Cathy Rogers, who explains the highlights, as well as some of the problems they encountered with the games themselves. Each team is briefly introduced as they arrive on-screen but this leads to some confusion. At one point we are told that a certain game was only played in the final, and it is very exciting. Later we are told that another game was also in the final, but with completely different vehicles, one of which is crowned champion, but the vehicles supposedly in the final are nowhere to be seen. At this point I searched the DVD for details of which teams got to the final, semis etc., but this was nowhere to be seen. To me this seems to be a glaring omission, almost as if the actual victors are irrelevant. I understand that they have tried to cram many hours of footage in to a single hour, but it seems to me that the format they have opted for, grouped by game rather than documenting the progress of the tournament, is confusing and only really plays to the strengths of the game, rather than highlighting some pretty exciting moments in the series. The end result is a pretty uninspiring document on a very exciting series. A 2 disk release charting the actual tournament would appeal to fans of the series, rather than this odd account which isn't enough to keep the fans happy, yet is too lightweight in action to appeal to newcomers. A little more thought in to what the viewers want from this production could have made this programme so much better.
As a DVD of the show, we get an anamorphic picture which is clear and colourful, coupled with Doliby Digital 2.0 surround sound, which is sufficient to handle the pounding music and smashing noises made as the vehicles plough in to each other. Delving in to the DVD we find a wealth of information the interviews section runs at 20 or so minutes and includes interviews with Rogers and Rollins as they explain how they got involved in the project. there are also interviews with the director and chief rigger on more technical aspects of the production. Some of it gets a little boring, though Cathy Rogers, being involved from the beginning, has a lot to say on the concept and ideas behind the various games.
The Set takes you on a 25 minute tour of the game sets, explained by lead engineer Greg Bryant. Now we all know that engineers should be kept away from the public eye (don't take offence, I'm one too and I know what you guys are like), so to give one a 25 minute feature is to make a mistake. Sure there was a lot of good engineering put into the design, but this guy Greg needs to get out more. Initially interesting, the guy is so anal about the nuances and technical challenges he considered in the design, that by the end of the piece (if you can last to the end), I guarantee you will be laughing. The teams allows you to look in more detail at the specifications of the vehicles, including 360 rotations of the vehicles. Also within the feature you can select Interactive team info whenever an icon shows up on the screen - that takes you to further information on the team and the vehicle. This should have been included in the main feature. one of the best bits of Scrapheap challenge is seeing how the creations are built, and on the series, seeing how these teams built such impressive vehicles in a single month is fascinating, yet it's not included in the main feature. Finally, occasionally you can select Multiple angles of certain games, so you can see the action from inside the vehicles, or a wider shot. This is cool, but restricted to select games. This would have also been much more interesting if there were more full games shown, allowing you to really get in to the excitement of the event. As it is, it's a gadget to show to your mates that you won't use twice.
In summary I must say I am disappointed with this release. I saw some of the series and hoped that this would be a comprehensive document of the best bits. It is of sorts, but it's poorly organised and skims over too much, giving me the impression that this was rushed for time or budgetary reasons. I can't really recommend this as a good buy for anyone really, it's interesting enough but is too lightweight to appeal to fans, and too disorganised to attract new ones. Rent it if you like me saw some of the original series, but don't buy it expecting a comprehensive document of series 1.
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