7 comments

1. I have seen it. I was definitely not impressed. After all this time and money, I expected a much better end result. I’ll tell you bluntly that I would never recommend that anyone waste their time and money on this. If you’re a fanboy, you might as well stop reading now because you won’t like what I’m going be saying.

   They bragged at the shows about all the interviews they did – tens of hours. Maybe they did but there wasn’t very much in the final film. Many of the “interview” spots were just sound bites under a minute.

   A quarter of the film was about the demo scene and chiptune. Sure they’re a big part of what’s left of people using an Amiga but 25% of the movie? What does it have to do with the time of the Amiga that this movie is supposed to celebrate?

   I’m guessing that most of the money they raised went to 3D modeling. That’s unfortunate because the quality is pretty bad. A newcomer with an old copy of Lightwave. Even worse some of the models of the computers aren’t accurate and they reused some of them. In total there was almost 15 minutes of the CGI.

   Let’s see, that leaves about 40 minutes for actual content. Sadly some of the “content” was just old Commodore advertisements.

   This movie was _supposed_ to be a celebration of the Amiga. What it ended up being was a boring film with bad animation, much of it wasted on garbage that has nothing to do with the history of the computer. It was really confusing having interview soundbites from the original team and Dave but most of what they showed of the Amiga working was the demos chiptune from 30 years later.

   In short, it was a waste of the backers’ money and the time wasted waiting YEARS for what is basically garbage.

   If you want to watch a movie about the Amiga, I’d recommend “Bedrooms to Billionaire the Amiga Years”. It isn’t perfect but it is much, much better than Viva Amiga in practically every way.

   If I were a movie critic, Viva Amiga would definitely get two thumbs down.

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   • Hi Tom Arnold! Many thanks for your honest review of the film. I have yet to see it myself, but will do so during the weekend. Cheers!

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     • I know it sounds like sour grapes but I really expected a lot more from it after all this time. Maybe my expectations were too high after all the hype. It really surprised me. As I was watching it I kept saying to myself “OK that was boring, maybe the good bits are next”. Unfortunately I was saying that until the credits.

       I’m really sorry for posting such a negative review. I really wanted it to be great.

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       • Hi again! No need to be sorry, mate. 🙂 I appreciate your honest opinion about the movie. I’ll let you know my opinion after I’ve watched it. I’ve seen others being disappointed as well on various Amiga forums.

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   • Have to agree with Tom. Overall, disappointing. Could have skipped all that chip tune non-sense from kids living in their moms basement trying to piss off mom and dad.

     But, come-on, the Amiga computer was this phenomenal break-through and it impacted two [perhaps three] industies.

     First, at the den of the computer graphics market, it impacted the way graphics were produced and developed. True enough, Apple worked with colleges and basically took over that market, but Amiga was represented well until Mac finally got color. Interview those people. (This is why I bought an Amiga 1000!)

     2nd, desktop videography became a nitch market and propelled Amiga another several years. Very little coverage here, but they did give kudos to NewteKS Video Toaster. I expected a possible interview with talented videographers or Newtek or an explanation of this impact and how commodore helped or hindered collaboration.

     So, so much more could and should have been done here. Half the reason the 2000 series was successful was this market. Did the even mention this update or upgrade? Did they even explain why the 1000, 500, 2000, etc? Major fail here. My own sustained use and love for Amiga was Videography…and we used it for college classes.

     And don’t get me started on how Commodore failed college and university markets because they were a hinderance, while Apple bent over backwards to claim that market. Oh, we heard enough about how marketing failed them. But Amiga was outstanding they just didn’t know how to develop those markets.

     The possible third market that was covered a bit was the gaming market. Enter the lowly A500. Hey, it wasn’t so bad. The 1200 was a tad too late to that game, however. My brother and his family bought into A500 for the gaming…and I imagine others did too.

     It is fun to see some of the people involved. I, myself never knew these people. I was busy using the Amiga as a tool. So that was the best part of the dull show.

     I was REALLY surprised that some companies are producing or were producing new machines with AmigaOS 4.1. Really? I tried a site. ..but there was no ordering information so I assume that is no longer being done at AmigaKit. Still, those endeavors could have been highlighted more and given dome more detail.

     As an interesting documentary I give it 1 or 2 stars. Just too many ways that even an amature producer like myself could have improved it to make it more compelling and engaging. As it stands now, it’s kind of depressing.

     And the chip tune thing shouldn’t have gotten more than 20 seconds mention, if any.

     I saw it streaming on Hulu.
     JJ

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2. […] time for the first episode of The Retro Hour in 2017! This time they bring us a review of the Viva Amiga documentary, as well as the inside story of Team 17 with Martyn Brown. […]

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3. […] The topic for episode 83 is the game Lost Vikings. They also discuss recent Amiga news, as well as the Viva Amiga documentary. […]

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