Because copyrights are adamant on being full retard, I can't embed the video (again), so here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gi0CJCRe0
Gameplay by: The Halo community
Edited by: Marruk
Date of Original Release: 7/2/2009
Current View Count: 25,789
Like I said in my review of "Bliss 2", I love Marruk's editing. I also loved TheFuntageCrew back when it was around, and I actually was around for when they first started making videos. Auron (one of the original members of the crew who pretty much disappeared after the crew moved into Halo 3) was fucking hilarious, and right after seeing a couple seconds of his live moments, I became an avid follower of the group. Anyways, when TheFuntageCrew was revived by Marruk, Dutchy, Nepr, and friends, I was eager to jump on board and gain more attention for their Halo 3 community funtage series, which I'm sad to say still never got the attention it deserved. Anyways, let's jump into the review.
Gameplay: The gameplay is great, and I was really surprised at how high the caliber of the footage given how TheFuntageCrew has never been incredibly well-known. There is a wide variety of Halo hilarity, going from your WTF moments (falling underneath Valhalla) to your fails (the clip where an Elite shoots his teammate who has the sniper and backs off, leaving this teammate to conclude that the Spartan currently watching him fired the shot and betray him due to said conclusion). The gameplay in this video is sure to bring a chuckle here and there, and there's a lot of original content too.
Editing: The editing, while not as developed as Marruk's later work, is still good. While it has more of a "solid" feel instead of an "incredibly well-done" feel, this is a funtage after all, and there's no problem with that. The editing really is just syncing, and it does it rather well, establishing flow while keeping the clips very intact. Like all other cases of relaxed editing, I can't say anything negative or glowingly positive about it. One thing that does set it apart from other instances of laid-back editing though is Marruk's trademark injected humor, which I really liked as usual. Clip placement isn't as much as a concern with funtages being more laid-back and all, but I think a stronger clip could have been used in the beginning. The finale clip (the weird snipe on Narrows) and the random post-finale humor were both awesome, and I think they were placed well.
Flaws:
- Messy camera work
- Poor quality, even for SD
I have a couple theories as to why this series didn't take off despite its good song choice, stellar gameplay, and great editing. First, the stagger between releases due to TheFuntageCrew's constant problems (the 8th installment came out nearly a year after the 7th), there wasn't much motivation for people to submit their clips because they didn't know when they would be given the spotlight they deserved. Second, "funtage" isn't as much as a known term as "montage" (the amount of searches for "Halo montage" dwarfs the amount of searches for "Halo funtage", and this is most likely because it's simply harder to get funtage clips. Funtage clips are spontaneous, while montage clips can be forced by following certain formulas or by simply being ridiculously good at the game like Kampy. Third, there was the much more popular "Dancetage" series, which was concurrent with this one, producing an effect similar to that of CoD's current crushing of Halo. The Dancetages got more views and because they had so much of the spotlight, there wasn't much left of it for TFC's community funtages and people were naturally more inclined to send their clips to the Dancetages instead of TFC. Lastly, YouTube is stupid. Anyways, theorizing aside, this series is great, and you should really check out the link above if you haven't already.
Previous Underrated Montage of the Week: Phurion Fluxy 2
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