Oh, you mean Level 1 trimmed the fat and dumped the riders who weren't at all keeping pace with the current roster?
I totally agree.
Who exactly are you clamoring to see...? Craig Coker? Tim Russell? Steele Spence? Mike Clarke? JD? The only guys really conspicuously absent were Stefan and the Seans.
Most of the guys who have stopped filming with Level 1 have all pretty much stopped skiing at a film/comp level and have moved on with their lives, or have suffered significant injuries. How could you possibly make the argument that Level 1's current crop of athletes isn't stronger than what they had 3 years ago? Without a doubt, their athlete pool is deep (for the sort of movie they set out to make). You could make the argument that the overall production was underwhelming as far as your tastes are concerned, but come on...
Also, I'm verrrrrrry curious about people's thoughts as to why Revolver was a better overall movie. I thought Revolver had some excellent segments (JP, Julien, Sammy, Jossi, Simon, and if you trimmed Dane's twenty minute segment to 5, it would have been crazy), but overall, the movie was flat and monotonous.
The night pow shoot should have been completely cut, and the theory 3 mini movie was painfully long, redundant, and mediocre.
Biggest athlete let down for me? Charley Ager. His shots in Journal blew my fucking mind (burliest switch pow landings to date at the time, and surprisingly, a couple of DIRTY urban and park shots), and I mostly thought he killed shit in EDIAS...but man...why would you spend time filming him hit a hardpack/park style jump...on pow skis....at night time? Those spread eagle octos were awful, as were the 4 point switch landings to switch snowplow. Honestly, no hate to Ager because tech jumping isn't really his game...I just can't understand why PBP felt those shots were movie quality.
If you gave a talented editor the PBP footy, told him/her that the movie had to be under 60 minutes long, and they dumped the soundtrack all together, a good movie could have been shaped. No doubt.