Today we’re ranking every pre-rendered StarCraft cinematic! There is a bit of oddity in Sc2 what is considered pre-rendered, so the rule is “If you can pause the cinematic, it is pre-rendered.”
It is imperfect, but the line had to be drawn somewhere, and I am not good at art.
TimeStamps
0:00 – Introduction
0:26 – Introduction…s
5:38 – StarCraft 1 and Brood War
15:32 – Wings of Liberty
16:45 – Heart of the Storm
23:22 – Legacy of the Void
32:11 – Outroduction
source
I agree with almost everything (I'd obviously make some small, one-tier shifts), but there is one big blunder. Fenix's death is easily F-tier. I remember it when I played SC as a kid, and even then it was… weird. It does him a disservice, it changes the environment, it's weird. No way is it in tier with Reclamation, which obviously has some inconsistencies, but at least has an interesting setup. Don't get me wrong. Reclamation is probably C-tier, but Fenix Death? No.
The xel'naga did not uplift the zerg, i thought? I thought it was Amon alone and thats why the overmind was shackled.
I district disagree. Your first intro cinematic was tier S. Actually most of these into were S tier.
28:22 hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
23:10 yeah
Also I give a Grant/10 on "Its Karah Serigan" at 28:19.
Reclamation gives me chill everytime. It made me ridiculously hyped for LotV
Fury of the Xel'Naga should get GGG tier, not what you put it at
The Wings of Liberty intro deserves an S tier. It was an announcement to the world that Starcraft is back, and it's dripping with so much coolness that I've seen many parodies and cinematics inspired by it.
16:45 I don't consider this character assassination on Jim, I think this is just Jim having a breakdown. think about it, he just found out that Mengsk used him to do his dirty work for the second time and also he was forced to kill Tychus because of Mengsk which means that, once again, a rebellion Jim was part of was all just done to serve Mengsk's personal goals so all those lives weren't sacrificed for Jim's rebellion but for Mengsk's ambitions again. Something rarely brought up is why Mengsk has kept trying to kill Kerrigan, even as far back as the betrayal. The reason isn't because she called him on what he did to Tarsonis as Jim believes or even to "save humanity from the Zerg" but because Kerrigan was one of the ghosts that assassinated Arcturus' family other than his son. He left her to die after she helped bring down Tarsonis and this whole "kill the queen of blades" thing was just Mengsk wanting personal revenge on the weapon the Confederacy used to kill him family, as Kerrigan was one of their brainwashed ghosts back in the day. After all this, Raynor is just done with everything and he's trying to just get away from Mengsk and everything the Korprulu Sector has forced him to deal with. The raid on Umoja probably snapped him back to his senses about that.
I do agree the romance is poorly written but very few people can weave a good romance into any narrative and I don't think I've ever heard of Blizzard doing a good romance. Even Tyrande and Furion's relationship is kinda just "there" in the story with little development
Starcraft alive?? 👀
I think the tychus intro to SC2 is the overall worst cinematic, boring and Tychus is annoying. It basically just tells us the marine exists, and there's nothing to get excited about. This basically says it's almost the best cinematic in the game.
Personally I think many of the character centric cutscenes that you don't like are great, I think you have the wrong idea about Kerrigan and Raynor, both are incredibly broken mentally and are basically being forced forward with very few things keeping them just barely afloat – for Jim it's Kerrigan above all but whenever she isn't directly available as either friend or foe he tries to be the old Jim that would fight for what is right, meaning he "tries to" get rid of Mengsk, of course he isn't really putting any energy into it. Kerrigan on the other hand mostly wants Revenge but Raynor's presence keeps her from diving back into her living nightmare as the queen of the zerg because she thinks she owes it to him to at least try, when he "dies" all she can do is push forward towards a big enemy, whether it's Mengsk or Amon it doesn't matter, she doesn't have anything else.
I don't see Kerrigan letting civies and injured soldiers go as a "redemption" moment, I see it as her proving to herself that she can let go of her rage temporarily, that she isn't the same as the old brainwashed queen of blades that would have laughed and gloated in Warfield's face.
I absolutely agree that they fucked up the epilogue, why does Kerrigan look like a glowing angel as a Xel'naga, you would think she would become closer to a zerg with incorporated psionic stuff much like the other Xel'naga and hybrids, and why does the old Xel'naga look like giants manatee squids, I don't see how that falls in line with purity of essence. It also absolutely sucks how badly the final confrontation with Amon was handled, he's supposed to be the only other god level being besides ascended Kerrigan remaining, why don't they duke it out? it could have been a cool final with both of them fighting in the middle in a stalemate while you control someone to tip the scales (personally I think it should have been Raynor, with Ziggyzags as the mission 2 girl).
I agree with pretty much every rank on this list, with the sole exception being Homecoming from F to D. Yea it’s not great, but having the last words of StarCraft 2’s final cinematic being the exact same as the first gives it that nudge of finality that makes it feel… some level of thought out to some extent. It’s not good, but it’s not F tier imo.
Early LotV is some of my most favorite experience in gaming. The sheer coolness and gravitas of how Protoss talk and fight, and the normality behind it all just makes all the cutscenes hit. Unfortunately it falls off slightly since then, until the Epilogue nose dives the story (Into The Void is still a pretty cool mission though).
Zeratul going out like a bitsh is low tier. Actually everything in SC2 about zeratul is a travesty compared to how cool he was in SC1.
now do a 3 hour long ranking video of all unit quotes
That last cinematic actualy brought a tear out i dont remember ever seeing it
My Life for Aiur
The ending for HoTS: ascension just reminds me of the scene from the Lorax where the Lorax just decided it was a good idea to fly up into wherever he came from
I really liked the LOTV intro cinematic but the inclusion of the Archon spewing "pOwEr OvErWhElMiNg" like a stupid catchphrase made me roll my eyes. Really just another instance of Blizzard's WoW-ification bleeding into a series it doesn't belong.
What's the story behind "the original starcraft" that you mention?
28:25 but at the end of Heart of the Swarm cinematic she actually leaves kinda floating away.
Isn't that flying? Or is something pulling her up?
The typos on DuGalle's screen @14:36 are my favorite detail.
Awww Grant didn't include WoL's two Tosh/Nova in-engine cinematics in the rapid-fire at the end, as well as the one that plays after Media Blitz. I particularly liked the one that plays after siding with Tosh and breaking out New Folsom.