My brother was a huge fan of Criss Angel's show. I watched this live with him. I was 15, he was 17.
The entire thing was advertised as a live event of Criss Angel escaping a hotel about to be demolished.
Sounds cool, right? Well it would have been if they didn't lie.
When the escape started, Criss only had 4 minutes to escape to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting to pick him up.
He was handcuffed to a balcony and had to throw up a key he swallowed. I felt like the fact that he had the key whole time was a bit of a misdirect, but other than that, good start so far.
The real problem is this: The moment he breaks the window and runs inside the building, it cuts to prerecorded footage.
My brother caught on to this immediately and it was all but confirmed in the ending, which I will get into.
When the timer reached 30 seconds, the helicopter pulled out without Criss, meaning he can't escape the implosion. When it reached 0, the sounds of demolition started.
After the building finished imploding, they all search the rubble for him and he climbs out unharmed. This really annoyed me. He actually wanted us to believe he survived an implosion unharmed.
Here's the truth: Criss did not escape the building. Not how he said he was going to, anyway.
When the implosion started, no vibrations or shaking is shown in any of the cameras placed in the building. Instead, they all cut to static.
Now, this shouldn't need to be pointed out, but cameras don't do that. Static is when you can't get good analog signal on your TV. The cameras were digital and would have cut to black had they been destroyed.
Also, if they actually had been destroyed, they wouldn't all go out at exactly the same time. This was done deliberately to hide that it was prerecorded.
Criss kept saying how the goal was always to reach the helicopter, but the fact is that, while the fake prerecorded footage played, he actually went downstairs and went through a secret exit that the cameras don't show, got to a safe spot, and then pretended to climb out of the rubble unharmed.
Before anyone says it, yes, magicians lie. I know. Of course they do. They kinda have to when they perform their illusions.
But this was not advertised as a illusion. This was advertised as a live escape attempt where Criss Angel could have died.
It was not live, and it was not an escape attempt, and Criss was never in danger. It was none of these things.
I never blamed him for lying when he did illusions, those were cool!
But all his fake escapes and daredevil crap got old quick. Criss liked to pretend he was the next Houdini (Literally, comparisons have been made) when he simply wasn't.
I wouldn't have even minded this if it actually was live and actually showed how he really escaped. In fact, I would have laughed my ass off if they just went "Oh... He's just going through the door........ I thought he'd......... Okay."
Watching this was a waste of time. Criss Angel, his show, and A&E all advertised a lie. We waited through an hour for a lie.
In my eyes, this event was worse than "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" (At least they admitted their might not be anything inside) and on par with "Eaten Alive" with that jackass who said a snake would eat him whole. You know the one.
The entire thing was advertised as a live event of Criss Angel escaping a hotel about to be demolished.
Sounds cool, right? Well it would have been if they didn't lie.
When the escape started, Criss only had 4 minutes to escape to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting to pick him up.
He was handcuffed to a balcony and had to throw up a key he swallowed. I felt like the fact that he had the key whole time was a bit of a misdirect, but other than that, good start so far.
The real problem is this: The moment he breaks the window and runs inside the building, it cuts to prerecorded footage.
My brother caught on to this immediately and it was all but confirmed in the ending, which I will get into.
When the timer reached 30 seconds, the helicopter pulled out without Criss, meaning he can't escape the implosion. When it reached 0, the sounds of demolition started.
After the building finished imploding, they all search the rubble for him and he climbs out unharmed. This really annoyed me. He actually wanted us to believe he survived an implosion unharmed.
Here's the truth: Criss did not escape the building. Not how he said he was going to, anyway.
When the implosion started, no vibrations or shaking is shown in any of the cameras placed in the building. Instead, they all cut to static.
Now, this shouldn't need to be pointed out, but cameras don't do that. Static is when you can't get good analog signal on your TV. The cameras were digital and would have cut to black had they been destroyed.
Also, if they actually had been destroyed, they wouldn't all go out at exactly the same time. This was done deliberately to hide that it was prerecorded.
Criss kept saying how the goal was always to reach the helicopter, but the fact is that, while the fake prerecorded footage played, he actually went downstairs and went through a secret exit that the cameras don't show, got to a safe spot, and then pretended to climb out of the rubble unharmed.
Before anyone says it, yes, magicians lie. I know. Of course they do. They kinda have to when they perform their illusions.
But this was not advertised as a illusion. This was advertised as a live escape attempt where Criss Angel could have died.
It was not live, and it was not an escape attempt, and Criss was never in danger. It was none of these things.
I never blamed him for lying when he did illusions, those were cool!
But all his fake escapes and daredevil crap got old quick. Criss liked to pretend he was the next Houdini (Literally, comparisons have been made) when he simply wasn't.
I wouldn't have even minded this if it actually was live and actually showed how he really escaped. In fact, I would have laughed my ass off if they just went "Oh... He's just going through the door........ I thought he'd......... Okay."
Watching this was a waste of time. Criss Angel, his show, and A&E all advertised a lie. We waited through an hour for a lie.
In my eyes, this event was worse than "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults" (At least they admitted their might not be anything inside) and on par with "Eaten Alive" with that jackass who said a snake would eat him whole. You know the one.