Into the Mind (2013)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Absolutely Fantastic

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Into the Mind" sounds like a pretentious title for a ski film, but in reality it's flawless, and surprisingly moving, from the beginning to the end. It ups the artistic standard for sport movies to a whole new level, and takes your mind to a crazy voyage.That means it's a great film not just for skiers but for everyone. All.I.Can (the first movie) was great for skiers, and had a nice message, but was far from being as artistic and universal as Into the Mind. The fact that there are almost no words (which you might not like if you have a short attention span) makes it all the more powerful.On top of all this, the choice of music is just awesome! The way the soundtrack is edited, and the timing of the whole thing is perfect. Whoever made this soundtrack is a genius!In short it's a flawless movie which I would recommend to anyone, even if you're not interested in skiing. I hope to see more artwork like this from Sherpas Cinema in the future.

Beautiful enchanting artistic movie of epic proportions in my humble opinion. To all the naysayers on here looking for your typical run of the mill warren miller ski movies galore, then look away. To anyone who wants to see a gorgeous artistic masterpiece, then you've found the right place. There are so many ridiculously awesome scenes featuring amazing hi- def footage that is interwoven into a poetic and enchanting storyline. The kind of footage in this film reminds me of other beautiful movies of similar genre, like Baraka, Samsara, the Koyaanisqatsi(or qatsi) trilogy, chronos, Anima Munda, etc. The kind of movie that shows breathtaking scenes of nature, people and movement. The theme present in this movie, is Man's undying thirst to ride the waves of water, in all its forms. To dance, swim, play and dream of water. Whether its skiing, snowboarding or surfing, or dreaming. It's Man vs Water....and it's an amazing flick. 4 Thumbs up, if only I had that many thumbs!

Wow, was I impressed after the first five minutes...Wow, was I overwhelmed after the first ten minutes...Wow, was I speechless after the first 15 minutes...and wow, was I bored after the first twenty minutes...It never stops. It never comes to rest. It just keeps going and going and going. Between the tides, night and day, spring and autumn, summer and winter, life and death, breathe in, breathe out, jump up, jump down, vrooooom, it just never stops.This is INSANELY good footage of, well, kinda everything. This is not a freeride movie, it's not a spiritual movie either, it's not an ongoing introduction clip of great athletes, it's not a permanent product placement film either. It's an ongoing flick about showing off how much budget was burnt. It is meant to feel inspiring - yet it quickly becomes tiring. Have I already already mentioned that it just doesn't stop? It keeps bombarding the viewer with probably the best footage ever assembled for a film with this, uhm, theme.Everything is so perfect, ...for a moment. But its relentlessness to stay top notch in every second ruins the whole adventure. You can't get attached to anything because the film won't let you. It just speeds on in light speed and doesn't give you any insight on anything except pure awesomeness. In the end, after seeing and hearing all this expensive material you end up feeling kinda empty.Also the "chapters" are very forced. In fact there are no chapters as there is no developing story. Instead we have very cryptic titles for the forthcoming music video (called "chapter"). It actually makes me sad. There was obviously so much potential, so much money, so many talented people - but in the end the film appears like a life long trailer of itself.

When I went to see "Into the Wild", what I expected to see was a sports documentary with nice footage of snowboarders and skiers, and magnificent locations. I did not have great expectations, and did not know that "Into the Mind" won awards for "Best Editing" and "Film of the Year" at iF3.And thanks luck I did not have great expectations! While all the necessary scenes are present, the film suffers from tons and tons of useless footage, bad editing, awful choice for soundtrack (in the sense "not fitting the theme"), and pretentious imagery, that does nothing but burdens the film.The film opens with the image of a Sherpa holding a device similar to chaplet. The movie returns to this way-to-direct imagery of the "wise old man" so often, that I feel they might just rename the movie "Into the hand of the Sherpa".These aren't the only unnecessary scenes in the film. Footage of clocks, waves, slow-motion of water droplets (as if it hasn't been done countless times before), drums and folk dances water down the most important part of the movie - the skiing and snowboarding. And even when we are presented with such footage, it is badly edited, either jumping between scenes when there's no need to, or using too long single-shot sequences that only kill the suspense.As if the movie wasn't suffering enough from tons of useless footage, the movie itself is divided into several "chapters" that rarely differ from each other, with the exception of two. One of them shows badly edited sequence - an army of clones snowboarding down an infinite ski bowl. Even if this sequence had a message to convey, it is lost in the absolutely horrible and totally unneeded special effects. The second one is actually the most enjoyable part of the movie - a band of snowboarders and skiers race down an urban area while Justice's "Stress" plays in the background. However, it adds nothing to the movie and should be released as a stand-alone short film.There are countless other problems with this movie that I neither have the will nor the desire to list. Instead of having a soundtrack to fit the footage, the whole movie feels as if it was made for the soundtrack; the soundtrack itself feels like a mix-tape of the favorite tracks of the athletes involved in the production. There are tons of "upside-down" scene transitions that give you headache, and worst of all, there are more endings than in "Return of the King".To sum up, "Into the Mind" is an awful movie with beautiful scenery and amazing athletic skills that suffers from pretentious imagery, awful soundtrack choice and terrible, terrible editing. If this indeed is the best skiing movie of the decade, as some argue, I do not intend to see another skiing movie soon.