News Burning Ambition Documentary

I saw Burning Ambition last night here along with about 20 or so other folks (honestly, not bad for a 6PM showing on a week night in Fairfax. VA). Overall, I really enjoyed it.

Pluses -

A good deal of footage I have not seen before. And some scenes started with footage I had seen but then segued into something I hadn't. Mostly 84/85 era stuff but thought that was cool.

I did not expect to see Dave Lights involved in this and it was super cool seeing him again!

The fan segments were generally really well done. Javier Bardem had the most interesting things to say and I thought his segments were the best of the fan stuff. I recognized nearly all of the IMFC members and it's cool there were involved in this project.

I thought they handled the Blaze era really well and respectfully. I still love Blaze's quote about how the world is a better place for having Maiden in it.

Audio wasn't crazy loud or anything but it was a good volume. Really good sound and visuals. Then again, I haven't been to a movie in the theater since maybe 2019 or something so it's not something I bother with, but the in person experience is a blast.

At my showing there were NO other movie previews. Lights went down and we had like 3 "go buy $8 popcorn in the lobby" ads and then right to the movie. That was so nice.

Really felt like a celebration of the band and fans. I got teary eyed at the end with the Nicko segments as it really hit home that there is likely not much time left.

A few minuses -

I could have lived without the Eddie animations. They seemed there to sort of pad the length and will likely not age well.

Lots about Eddie but barely any mention of Derek Riggs.

NO mention at all that I recall of Martin Birch.

Song segments jumped all over the place. Example - Brave New World at RiR was shown at one point and consisted of most of the intro and then edits to other parts of the song which was a little jarring when you are so used to the final versions.

Particularly at the beginning, images on screen didn't always align with the eras they were covering. I know this is super nerdy Maiden fan shit, but it took me out a bit.

Is there some sort of requirement that anything tangentially hard rock related has to contain Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Gene Simmons and Lars Ulrich? Is there some union law I'm not aware of heh?

Overall -

All in all, I certainly never thought I'd see a Maiden film in the theater and now I don't have to wonder what that experience would feel like because I've experienced it. I have one more showing near me on Saturday and may go and see it again. I'd say if you can make it to a showing by all means try and get to one.

Goddamn I love this band!
 
BludBrutha said:
View attachment 46098

Is this accurate?
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I would actually say that this is accurate. If you are here you certainly know at least 90% (if not more) about the things mentioned in the documentary.

Now I was expecting this and I definitely didn't feel ripped off. It was a nice Maiden tribute aimed towards new or less informed fans.

It is about your expectations I guess.
 
Ledges Bitten In Dust said:
This. Also there is a really cool cinematic thing that mixes live after death, fear of the dark and brave new world. Brave new world Eddie on big screen looks amazing. They must use it in the future can't be just for the film.
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An art mix of LAD, FOTD and BNW? Now that's really curious. All blue arts and the ideas for continuation kinda fit together. Btw, a potential RFYL Part 2 (shorter tour in 2027 lol) could be with BNW screen Eddie during Iron Maiden.
Ledges Bitten In Dust said:
Proshot footage from LOTB and TFP really got me. They gotta release those shows.
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TFP is a missed opportunity because of Nicko, LOTB was a must with its stage, but they released its live album during wild times.
 
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Kalata said:
An art mix of LAD, FOTD and BNW? Now that's really curious. All blue arts. Btw, a potential RFYL Part 2 (shorter tour in 2027 lol) could be with BNW screen Eddie during Iron Maiden.
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It was supposed to symbolize the rebirth of the band with the reunion. The scene started with Live After Death Eddie laying in a coffin, bursting a hand through the ground from the grave and rising out of the ground as tree Eddie from the FotD cover in the middle of London along the Thames. The tree then explodes and Eddie's now in the sky as in the Brave New World cover.
 
onurb said:
Where did u got this info?
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There were interviews with him posted on this forum. Steve wasn’t exactly happy that the other band members voted not to tour in 2027, or something along those lines.

“Pissed off” is my exaggeration, of course - just joking.

Did you miss those interviews? I’m not sure where they are now, but they’re probably in the Iron Maiden news and interviews thread.
 
Azas said:
As for Infinite Dreams, I think Bruce is dropping hints. Buckle up - they’re going to play it instead of The Clairvoyant.
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It's a hint for sure. Cause I never heard sth about Infinite Dreams from Bruce for a long time in interviews. He probably worked on the song byhimself before the actual rehearsals and remembered how good it is.
 
Starblind said:
It's a hint for sure. Cause I never heard sth about Infinite Dreams from Bruce for a long time in interviews. He probably worked on the song byhimself before the actual rehearsals and remembered how good it is.
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It would be great if they changed it for 2MTM, but probably clairvoyant is going to be dropped. So sad...
 
Starblind said:
It's a hint for sure. Cause I never heard sth about Infinite Dreams from Bruce for a long time in interviews. He probably worked on the song byhimself before the actual rehearsals and remembered how good it is.
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Didnt reaheral the song during maiden england historic tour and bruce said he wasnt into it?
 
Flaming Blimp Crash said:
Oh, man, the bit where Steve was talking about the label trying to market them as punk and him going "I didn't want to wear stupid clothes." I was completely expecting a cut to the Somewhere in Time era.
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Or some of Steve's incredible 70s wardrobe!

I was also hoping they'd cut to SIT era stuff after Bruce's ' nah, you can't play metal with synths' comment
 
I watched this and I enjoyed it a lot. Enough that I would love to rewatch it again when the cinema loop finishes. I loved the bits that were, though I missed some bits both sentimentally and generally.

Admittedly, there are my top 3 albums from them - but I didn't think they'd gloss over Somewhere in Time-Virtual XI as little as they did.

Not even a Fear of the Dark whoa-oaa-oaaaahh spot?

My initial thought was that it would be too hardcore for the casuals and too casual for the hardcores. Not necessarily saying that I wasn't wrong, but then again that's the mindset I went into this with. I think that the soundbytes over archival footage was superbly executed. It was a sweet love letter both from and to the band all in all
 
Donner said:
I thought they handled the Blaze era really well and respectfully. I still love Blaze's quote about how the world is a better place for having Maiden in it.
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I kind of gave the screen the side-eye when they had the fan up there touting the Blaze era, going further to say he was at his strongest live (or something of that nature) --

*editors proceed to smash cut to Blaze performing The Trooper, arguably the song he struggled most on. At least they had the volume of the performance waaaaay down.

The Blaze era, IMO, was handled about the way I expected--a fairly brief footnote--which, to be fair, the movie is mostly about the magic the golden era/reunion era lineup created.

Having seen it, though, I'm a bit mystified as to what problems Steve might've had with it to give it such a "meh" response in the interview he did a ways back. It seemed to go right down the middle as far as what you might expect in a documentary such as this--well-paced, balancing band history and fan testimonials, and not really exploitative of points of drama (i.e. the Blaze era).
 
Abas said:
Admittedly, there are my top 3 albums from them - but I didn't think they'd gloss over Somewhere in Time-Virtual XI as little as they did.
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My friend who went thought it was a missed opportunity to have Bruce with his infamous response to the fan about synthesizers to not do a hard cut into the intro for Caught Somewhere in Time.

But yeah, they really did skim over several albums. Seventh Son got almost no coverage at all, just inserted live clips, Somewhere in Time and Virtual XI the same, and it basically jumped from Bruce and Adrian rejoining to Bruce having cancer. For the sake of pacing, I get it. It's not an album-by-album retelling of the story, but a bit jarring for fans hoping to see more of their favorite albums/eras being represented onscreen. But again, can't please everybody.
 
CA Bryers said:
For the sake of pacing, I get it. It's not an album-by-album retelling of the story, but a bit jarring for fans hoping to see more of their favorite albums/eras being represented onscreen. But again, can't please everybody.
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I agree, and I'd just also like to clarify that I am in no way displeased at all. This might very well become comfort media for me in the future
 
Azas said:
There were interviews with him posted on this forum. Steve wasn’t exactly happy that the other band members voted not to tour in 2027, or something along those lines.

“Pissed off” is my exaggeration, of course - just joking.

Did you miss those interviews? I’m not sure where they are now, but they’re probably in the Iron Maiden news and interviews thread.
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I know about it and i even talked about. What i didnt see its the part that i quoted. I read that he would talk with the other guys prior the 1st show to see if this is really what they want (a year off).
 
Brigantium said:
I was also hoping they'd cut to SIT era stuff after Bruce's ' nah, you can't play metal with synths' comment
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The way bruce spoke gives the impression that the band sound was going to become something like europe song the final countdown. There were countless overreacting comments by him over the years.
 
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