Super 8 is an Aussie production that travelled the entire eight rounds of the World Cup circuit, covering 8 countries and capturing all the downhill and mountain cross races. Super 8, eight World Cups and 8 countries, get it?

The main film focuses purely on the downhill with a few rider sections in between plus commentary and insight from the riders themselves. There’s a second section just for the mountain cross. Along with the racing you get to see Chris Kovarik on his home Gold Coast trails, the G-Cross Honda team in La Bresse and Little Darren and Mick Hannah at Woodward West which has to be one of the coolest dirt jump and indoor skate parks I’ve ever seen. Apart from these three sections the footage is straight world cup downhill action, and I must say some of the best I’ve seen. 

At first glance it doesn’t come across as professional as Hypnosis or Earthed 3, I mean in a big budget flashy kind of way. However this doesn’t matter at all. The footage is first class and it is edited very well. There are lots of wide shots so you can see the terrain as well as the rider. I don’t like when all you can see is half a bike, I want to see what’s happening and Super 8 does this very well. Also the majority of the shots are longer than a few seconds so you get a good grasp of the track and the riders style not just a random flash across the screen. 

However my absolute favourite part of this film is how they finish off each race. The top three riders at each World Cup get shown in reverse order. Plus it’s been edited together so you get a heap of footage of that rider doing a run. For example at the Angelfire World Cup, Kovarik was third, Graves second and Minnaar was first. So you get to see about 20 seconds of Kovarik doing a run, then 20 seconds of Graves on his run and the same for Minnaar. I know all the footage isn’t from their race run but I don’t care. It gives the film so much more atmosphere and you can clearly see the riders different styles and the lines they take. 

Super 8 creator Tony Butler also runs a split screen at various times throughout the film. At the start there’s a split of Minnaar and Hill, they both enter a section at the same time and then you can see who hits the corners better. This is done a few times throughout the film and it isn’t overdone which is good. I could really see myself getting sick of it. I think you’d need  a really big TV to make the most of it as the viewing area is halved and it’s hard to concentrate on two riders at once. However it isn’t overdone and I really enjoyed comparing the two riders. Just for the record Sam Hill did carry more speed through the corners. Surprise, Surprise. 

Music is relatively mainstream, Aussies readers think along the lines of Triple J. It is different to what you would normally expect for this type of video with bands like Gerling, Interpol, The Bravery, Mint Royal, Block Party, Rocket Science, Snow Patrol, Handsome Boy Modelling School plus others. Overall it works pretty well with the riding, The Go Team! with The Power Is On was pretty damn cool for the Angelfire World Cup. My only complaint and this did really annoy me was the music for Mont Saint Anne. I don’t know what it was but it was bloody annoying. Tell me what you think about it on the forum.   

So overall? Very cool indeed. It seems that the last few mountain bike films I’ve reviewed have been great. This is no different. All the 2005 racing films I’ve seen have all been exceptionally good. The footage is first-class and I love to top three finish to each race. There’s not much more I can say really. Go and buy it, you wont be disappointed.