BFG of an LJ Entry, Part I.

[kossage]

LJ is stupid and doesn't allow me to post all of this in one entry, so I'll have to divide my post up into several LJ entries. Sorry for the inconvenience. Stupid LJ.

PART I

I've been very busy with school, choir and family-related stuff lately. It's been a while since I last updated, and a lot of stuff has happened since then, so I've decided to divide stuff into different segments. I hope I didn't miss anything while writing this, but I guess there might be some inaccuracies. If that's the case, just bear with me. =P

In late October Sephiroth1999AD came back to Vaasa and had a birthday party. I bought a present and drove to the house and then handed it over. We only managed to talk a little bit when some other guests arrived. Seph put some KH2 CDs playing in the background and we talked about all kinds of things. Soon it was time to go to the kitchen to eat some cake. I and at least some of the others (don't know if everyone sang, but at least a girl and I sang in any case xD) sang a birthday song to Seph and then started eating the cake. We also talked about some films, music and whatnot, and I was glad to hear that some of the people present had seen The Land Before Time and had enjoyed it and its score. ^^

Some of the guests had to leave later, and so the rest of us went to watch a film Seph had got earlier, Hoodwinked. As it got darker outside, eventually Seph and I ended up being the only people in the room. I explained some stuff, mostly about The German Hunchback of Notre Dame musical and The Little Mermaid Broadway demo recordings, although we talked about other things as well. Time went by quickly, and it was time for me to drive back home. It was quite slippery outside, but I managed to get home fine.

An unfortunate thing happened at school a few days later. The group I was in found out that our original candidate thesis supervisor was ill and wouldn't come back until next year if even then (we weren't told the specifics, so we don't know what exactly is going on, but never mind that), and thus our group was given to another teacher even though his speciality wasn't in literary techniques. Of course everything seems to be messed up at the university recently, but we'll just do what we can and that's it.

I finished the assignment for the second information retrieval course (I did the home assignment in which we have to list sources that might be useful for our candidate's thesis). I also did a survey and the exam, but the latter was easy in the regard that all the answers could be found on Google rather than searching through the actual databases which we were instructed to use. =P I would've used the databases, but because I was working from home I didn't have access to them, so I was glad that I could "cheat" by using Google instead. And I got 15 questions out of 15 right with this method, so I'm not complaining! xD

I also did the exam about regional variation in Finnish dialects. I answered the questions about special features between western and eastern Finnish dialects, the use of social class in sociolinguistics studies and about what makes something become prestigious or non-prestigious in Finnish dialects or slangs. I kind of ran out of time with the questions, but I still managed to write quite a lot, almost seven pages, which isn't bad. I recently got the results from the exam, and you can say I was very surprised that I had been the only one who got 5 out of the exam. Seriously, I thought I hadn't fared well (and I ran out of time), but I still got that nice grade, which is fine and dandy. Yay. I also got the grade of the Finnish Language for Special Purposes course, and that exam went quite well too, so I'm happy. =)

During the Finnish All Saints Day dad, mom and I went to the Alahärmä to visit the graves of mom's father and mother as well as a famous relative of ours, Nikke Pärmi. We put some flowers to the graves as well as candles, and we also talked with a local veteran who had known grandfather well. We then went to meet a friend of mom's, and she recorded their conversation. The man in the house knew quite a bit about the history of Alahärmä, and it was nice listening to the folk tales he told us. I sang two songs to him and his wife (Veteraanin iltahuuto and Veteraanivalssi), and they liked the songs.

After spending some more time there we eventually headed home. It was pitch black outside, and dad was worried, especially because the road to Vaasa was quite slippery. Once we got to Vaasa, we visited the graves from father's side (mainly the graves of my great grandparents, my grandparents and my uncle) and put some candles there too. After spending some time on the graveyard we headed back home.

There were some great discussions at the university during some of the lectures. Mrs. Ruuskanen had quite an engaging conversation with us during the English Linguistics lecture, and she also invited us to see a Wicca ritual at the university later that night (yeah, isn't it interesting that many of the professors at our university are Wiccans?). It would've been interesting to go and see that "autumn ritual" or whatever they Wiccans call it, but I wasn't feeling well during the day so I decided to stay home instead. Apparently there were only 20 or so students as well as teachers attending to the ritual, but that can only be blamed on the fact that not everyone was informed of the ritual taking place that evening.

So, the complete recordings of The Two Towers have finally been released in the US. I've followed the discussion on boards where Doug Adams, the author of the liner notes of these complete soundtracks, himself is a member of. The track names of this current set are quite interesting, although there are still some funny names that were present in the first complete recordings set. I gave in to the temptation and downloaded TTT CR, and the tracks do sound magnificent and have lots of thematic development.

It's fantastic to hear TTT score in its entirety at long last with all the dropped out tracks as well as hearing the choir back in the bits it had originally been omitted of. I'm happy to hear tracks like "Sons of the Steward" with the bold Minas Tirith theme accompanying it as well as all the tracks with the Rohan theme, Heroics of Aragorn theme (heard most prominently in "Aragorn's Return") and the Éowyn themes (yes, Éowyn has more than one theme!). There are some beautiful tracks amongst all the battle, such as the ethereal "Where is the Horse and Rider". I have to say that I've found a lot more LotR themes than I thought ever existed, and it doesn't sound that impossible anymore to think that there are actually 80 or so leitmotifs composed for the LotR trilogy. I'll have to wait for my TTT CR set to confirm how many new themes and motifs there actually are in TTT, but I assume there'll be about almost as many as in FotR, but we'll see.

I also downloaded the Annotated Score liner notes (the companion to the actual booklet), and it was nice reading a detailed track-by-track analysis of TTT score. Naturally Adams's liner notes differ a lot from the ones in, say, Star Wars Episode IV-VI Special Edition soundtracks, because Adams doesn't just explain what themes are played in which tracks. He goes far beyond it, mentioning instruments, outtakes, unused music, concepts and all that as well, and that's why it's a bit harder to read the LotR liner notes (because of the complexity and all the professional music terms) than it is to read the SW ones, but it's quite rewarding nevertheless.

I was quite surprised how much unreleased music The Two Towers set actually has. When you compare the total length of the albums of FotR and TTT, it may look as if you only get about 10 minutes more music, but actually there's a lot more than meets the eye there. According to Adams both the theatrical and extended edition cut of TTT have quite a bit of tracked music used from Fellowship of the Ring (this was because of late cuts and change of tone in some scenes), and some of the actual original TTT compositions that remained in the film were shortened due to filmmaking purposes (sometimes a scene is more efficient without music etc).

So, to give you an example, the choral part played during the pivotal scene where Gandal arrives with Éomer to Helm's Deep to save the heroes (in TTT CR this is "Théoden Rides Forth") is different in the film than it is in the complete recordings set. Shore's original take on the choral bit was longer than in the film and also had a distinct variation of a certain important musical theme, but in the film the choral bit was pretty much tracked from another important scene from the film, thus negating the storytelling purposes of Shore's original composition. I'm glad we can now hear the track the way Shore meant it to be heard with its nice thematic developments and without the odd medley cuts that were in the original 1-disc soundtrack.

And there are lots of these kind of things that are now fully restored to the CDs to show what Shore had intended to use for scenes. There's a lot more choir in the score than ended up in the film (a very good example of this is "The Wolves of Isengard" track which has quite a bit of choir never heard before), and there are a lot more reprises of themes. I hadn't ever noticed that some music was tracked in TTT, so that bit was a bit surprising, but I welcome these unused concepts in the score, because they work so well in the context of the score itself. At the moment TTT is still my favourite score of the LotR trilogy. It's always nice to hear more extra choir than you would if you just ripped the soundtrack from the film itself, and I just can't get enough of the beautiful Hardanger fiddle moments. =P

I watched an online interview of Shore in which he revealed that so far it seems that the Return of the King Complete Recordings will have four CDs and two DVDs worth of music (as opposed to 3CD/1DVD we have in both FotR and TTT CR). This is because there was so much material that was recorded for the film and never ended up used (and this doesn't even count the actual pieces used in the film and the EE itself). There's also the fact that, as in TTT, RotK apparently has quite a bit of tracked music due to late edits, and at times the original compositions are mixed differently as well as cut in some places to give room to dialogue or special and visual effects.

So, that being said, it'll be very interesting to hear the unaltered RotK score in its full form (and I don't mean the score as heard in film but they way Shore meant it to to be heard). Apparently there was much more thematic development and choral stuff that ended up in the film itself, so things should be interesting. Maybe that will make RotK my favourite score of the trilogy eventually, but I'll have to wait and see. I just hope plans don't change and we end up with just three CDs and one DVD, but only time will tell what happens.

Of course it's all but confirmed that there'll be a big book about LotR score and it'll most likely include the expanded versions of both the existing Annotated Scores and the Analysis booklets found in the CR sets as well as some extra material never seen before. Adams himself is asking fans what kind of extra material they want to get with the book, and so far it seems we'll get stuff like alternate cues which are not present in the CR sets as well as something about Shore himself, stuff about the LotR symphony as well as some multimedia content about all the ~80(!!!) leitmotifs Shore had composed for LotR. Things might change, though, but still the book looks promising enough, and if it's not too expensive, I'll definitely buy it.

I'll have to wait for a proper review until I actually get my hands on the CR set itself and all the information offered by the accompanying booklet, but I'll be sure to write stuff down and put some pictures in to show what the set is like.

I recently watched all the episodes of RahXephon, and I have to say I was quite surprised by the quality of the series. Although it does have some similarities with certain anime shows, e.g. Neon Genesis Evangelion, it has enough of a difference so that it can't be said that it would be a clone series or anything; so yeah, it does have its own identity, especially later on in the plot. Although one might think the main plot is the war between humans and the Mu, it really is about Ayato, the young boy who is on the verge of adulthood and doesn't know where to belong. Of course others in the cast get a lot of screen time (particularly some of the human "villains" like in that big flashback episode).

The series makes you care for quite a few people and actually manages to explain many of them in depth. The score works surprisingly well although it too has some annoying score tracks which don't work as well as the others. The animation looks quite good too, capturing many of the subtle emotions in the faces of the characters. The voice actors are quite good in both Japanese and English and manage to make the audience care for them. The storyline itself is quite complex in the style of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and it does leave quite a bit of unanswered questions in the end, but it does bring a mostly satisfying conclusion.

There's one particular thing that I feel is developed better than NGE and what also differs RahXephon from NGE (although there are many other things as well): the love story. I really like the way the series slowly builds up the romance and how subtle it all is. I was at many times kind of annoyed how the characters were so hesitant about whether to tell the other person how they felt and I even wondered if the series would end up in the sort of unrequited love scenario which seems to be at large in many anime series. However, there were two major plot twists (or three, depending on how you look at things) regarding love, and both were very emotional. During the "revelation" scene I suddenly realized how there seemed to be parallels to Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and this became even more evident as the plot progressed (I'm not spoiling things for you, but the story of RahXephon does resemble the story of BatB in a symbolic level). Anyway, here's dialogue of the emotional scene:

(SPOILER)Haruka: I... uh... um... you weren't always so big...
Ayato: Huh?
Haruka: *shows that Ayato's grown taller than her*
Ayato: Okay...
Haruka: The truth is that I've loved you for a long, long time now. When we were 14, you and I were a couple. And I know that you don't... remember any of this now... but I just wanted to tell you how I felt anyway, because you were my first love.
Ayato: I may not remember the past, but I know the present... and the one I love is the current you. I'm sorry for making you suffer all this time.
*they kiss - finally! ^^*
Haruka: I've loved you always, Kamina...
Soldier: Captain Shitow, we've got to hurry!
Ayato: You should go. I'll come back, no matter what. I will.
Haruka: And... I'll be here waiting. I'll always be here... for you.
Ayato: Go on, they're waiting for you. *watches as Haruka leaves* I will come back, I swear it.(/SPOILER)

Yeah, I know, the English dub wasn't quite on par with the subtlety of the original Japanese scene, but it does get the mood right for the most part. Also note that in case you read that it isn't on par with the actual scene in the series, because none of this sounds as powerful as it is when you actually watch the series and when you've reached that particular point in the series. Anyway, I tried playing End Duet/Transformation and Beauty and the Beast (Reprise) from Beauty and the Beast Broadway during this scene, and when I synched it, to my amazement it worked perfectly with this scene. And I don't just mean the music but the lyrics themselves, and the grand choral finale came just in time during the kiss as the animation takes a beautiful wide shot of the pair.

I'd have a lot more to say about this matter, but I need to keep going, because I still have a lot to cover. So, let's keep moving and yes, if you're interested in an interesting anime series with lots of psychological levels, war, romance, terror, a well-written story and complex characters and all that, check RahXephon out. =)

I found the rare Atlantis: The Lost Empire promo score by James Newton-Howard, and I'm glad to finally have some of the awesome orchestral and choral tracks that were missing in the original release. Particularly tracks like the tragic "Atlantis Destroyed", the emotional "The Crew's Conscience" and the epic final battle track "Dogfight" (all of which have a massive choral presence) are welcome additions, although the rest of the unreleased cues are very good too. This only reinforces my belief that some of the best stuff Newton-Howard has ever composed was done for Disney films such as Dinosaur, Atlantis and Treasure Planet.

I also managed to find the complete bootleg of Dinosaur OST, and it was nice to hear some of the elusive cues, although this time the missing cues weren't as prominent as they were in Atlantis. Still, it's nice to hear some of the missing action tracks, variations of existing themes as well as some of the quiet, romantic moments between Aladar and Neera as well as the tension of the music representing the struggle between Aladar and Kron. It's a bit sad that all the Disney films Newton-Howard's scores were in turned out to be flops (just think about these titles: Atlantis, Dinosaur, Treasure Planet), even though all of these were at the very least decent if not more. The scores are superb and epic as well as emotional, so it's sad that the films and at times the scores are neglected due to bad publicity of the films themselves.

I've also been listening to Anastasia promo score by David Newman, and it's nice to listen to the full score of that wonderful animated film. I had always been confused why the choral action tracks like "The Haunted Train" and "The Final Conflict" as well as emotional cues such as "Quarrels" and "No More Anastasias" weren't included in the original album release, but at least I have them now. Newman's score does have some Mickey Mousing going on, but it does have some of those ethereal, beautiful moments, some of which were not in the original soundtrack release. It's nice to hear Newman develop several themes in the complete score, and it just confirms my thought that the score for the film is quite extraordinary and fun as well as emotional and epic.

After finally getting my hands on the 2-disc Ben-Hur score, I have to say that despite it being old it still surprises me. There are quite many themes and the score sounds magnificent. It's also nice that the choral moments are represented, and most of those had to do with Christ who has an important role in the film. Particularly the two final cues, "Christ's Theme" and "The Miracle and Finale" offer some awesome, powerful choral moments representing the Son of God. I think these are among my earliest memories of choral power in music, and the themes still hold up well and have some beautiful moments.

The choral parts aren't the only highlights, though, because there's a lot of good material dealing with the tragic relationship between Ben-Hur and Messala as well as many other characters, and the score itself works on many levels, creating a perfect blend of orchestra and choir in key scenes. Heh, listening to this score makes me want to watch the film again. It's also interesting to finally hear many of the lost cues in their entirety (although I assume there are still more cues around than are presented on the album), and I like the thematic development and all the memorable themes in the score itself.

I managed to listen to the scores of both An American Tail and its sequel, and I can't but marvel how James Horner managed to make both scores interesting, even offering some big choral moments in key scenes. The things I mainly remembered from the films were the main themes, and by them I mean the title songs "Somewhere Out There" and "Dreams to Dream". Horner does offer more themes and these, however, but he does develop the two themes and the other character themes remarkably well in the scores, offering some fun cues in the process. Whether some of the melodies are ripped off from classical composers or not is anyone's guess, but at the very least they work well in the story's context. The scores for the two AT films are definitely among the best of Horner's children's film scores, although the crown jewel is The Land Before Time.

Some of the more memorable cues offered in the soundtracks (if we don't count the two memorable songs) are "Main Title" which presents many of the themes, "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor" which gives us some wonderful choral and string moments, "Reunited" which offers some of the most emotional material in Horner's career, "Flying Away and End Credits" which offers a nice collection of themes in a pleasant suite with some choral moments as well, "Overture" which presents themes from the first film as well as themes from the sequel, "Building a New Town" which presents heroic versions of some of the themes, "Reminiscing" which features one of the most touching instrumental versions of one of the new themes, "In Training" which offers a very memorable version of one of the themes, and "A New Land/The Future" which gives us an emotional and heroic end titles music which references many of the themes heard in the score.

The Iron Giant's score is surprisingly consistent. Some of it was edited out in the final film, but on album many of the highlights are included, and even though it doesn't have a central theme (in my opinion the closest one to a central theme is the one used in for example "The Last Giant Piece" although even that could be argued), it does have many memorable subthemes. The late composer Michael Kamen managed to give the Giant an identity through the clever use of certain instruments, and the motifs for Hogarth, Mansley, Dean and others are there too as well as many action motifs. The score works very well and is a wonderful thing to listen to, but the lack of a true central theme does hinder it a bit but if one's perceptive enough, there are more than enough motifs to choose from.

All in all the score is a stellar effort from Kamen, and I'd dare say it's among his finest because of the very Disney-like quality of the music (and I'm not talking about Disney scores in this instance as a negative aspect but as a positive; Kamen just nails the childhood innocence as well as the period music and the epic and touching Giant music together). Despite many of the funny moments the score does have its touching parts (such as the heartbreaking "Souls Don't Die" and "No Following") as well as epic cues (such as "Eye of the Storm", "The Giant Discovered" and the finale "The Last Giant Piece"), and is an overall nice soundtrack with all the central cues from the film itself.

I'm quite surprised that after all this time Kingdom of Heaven is finally starting to work its way into my heart. When I first heard it, I thought the score was okay, but it didn't really connect with me that well. But, I've kept listening to the score every once in a while, and now, after all this time, it's finally starting to work as it should. The score for ths film is definitely some of Harry Gregson-Williams's most sophisticated work yet with all its Middle Ages influences (with both Christianity and Islam presented in the score with complex themes) and prominent use of orchestra and choir. I find this whole deal quite odd, though: usually it takes less time than this for me to "get used to" a score, but I guess Harry's sophistication on this matter took just more time than expected to draw me in. I'm not compaining, though. xD

I finally found Gabriel Yared's rejected Troy score, and I mean the 70-odd minute one, not the shorter one that's also around. It's nice to hear more of Yared's thematic ideas, and I do feel sorry for him that he didn't get his score in the film due to some stupid studio decisions. It's still quite shocking to listen to the score, and it's simply because I'm not used to hearing the romantic Yared composing this epic music: usually he just scored films like Cold Mountain and City of Angels which didn't really have as bombastic stuff as Troy does.

Among the many action cues are some nice Mediterranean influences, such as the wailing women's choir which adds a nice touch, the clanging of swords represented musically, and of course the romantic themes for both Achilles & Briseis and Paris & Helena. Although not a major flaw, the score does get a bit repetitive after a while, but it's still a superb effort from a composer with no familiarity with historic epic music, so I think Yared does deserve more praise than he has at the moment, and I can only hope sometime in the future we'll be hearing Yared's score in some big war film or something similar so that the big audience will finally recognize his talent.

The score and songs of Bambi 2 were a positive surprise, because frankly I didn't expect such quality from a Disney DTV midquel. First of all, the songs do have surprisingly catchy and beautiful melodies as well as touching lyrics (a great example being the magnificent "There is Life" which even presents a short cameo of the main theme from the original Bambi). The main problem with these songs, however, is that despite their admirable effort the singers and in some ways the songs themselves just don't connect with the original Bambi in a musical sense (although they do as far as storytelling purposes go). If you listen to the songs of Bambi and its midquel back to back, you can clearly hear that they're products of different times, which doesn't work as far as continuity goes.

I'm aware that it would've been a challenge to write music similar to 1940s, but it's not impossible. The songs work really well as standalone pieces (they're better than most sequel, prequel and midquel songs), but in the Bambi continuity they unfortunately stick out because they sound too "modern" to the Bambi mythos. The score by Bruce Broughton, however, is just as stellar effort that he did with The Rescuers Down Under: that is, he reprises some main themes from the original films and creates new ones while staying mostly faithful to the original source material.

Yes, Broughton's score does get silly and Mickey Mouses quite a bit (that is, follows the action on screen with the use of music), but it has an edge: it reprises particularly the "Love is a Song" theme from the original Bambi in various places and also presents at least two new themes, the Being Brave theme and the theme for Bambi's father, the Great Prince, to the mix (there might be more themes in the film, but I haven't seen the film yet and thus have to rely on the score which is short, so I can't give a proper analysis on that yet).

The highlights of the score are definitely the cues which reprise the choral "Love is a Song" as well as juxtapose it to the equally wonderful, orchestral Great Prince theme, though. Just listen to the ethereal beauty and sorrow of cues such as "Snow Flakes in the Forest", "Bambi's Dream" and "Bambi and the Great Prince/End Credits Suite" and you'll see what I mean. I truly hope we'll be hearing more of Bruce Broughton sometime later, because his return to Disney scores is quite impressive. Now if only Disney would let him score a big screen animated film...

I finally managed to get my hands on The Da Vinci Code soundtrack, and finally I can listen to Zimmer's score without interruptions. I have to say that it's very surprising to hear the score on album, because in the film it wasn't that noticeable with all the effects (apart from a couple of magnificent choral and string moments which were used in the highlights of the film). Anyway, the main theme, albeit very Zimmer-esque, works surprisingly well on album, and the score itself is quite restrained (a no-brainer to deduce, of course, because of what I could hear from the film itself), but it does have some wonderful moments, especially when the male and female choir kicks in. Particularly the cue used in the finale of the film, Chevaliers de Sangreal, uses a very simple melody and yet its mix of orchestra, synths and choir is quite nice for the most part and really builds up to an emotional climax.

And what I mean by being nice for the most part is this: in some cues the mixing seems to be a bit strange, drowning some instruments and making the choir quieter than it was in the film. I don't know if this was Zimmer's decision or if the score is mixed in a different way in the film, but somehow I felt the finale would've been even more powerful had the choir and some drowned instruments given a more significant role (although the end result in the album is still one of Zimmer's best finale cues if you ask me).

There's also something surprising: the score itself doesn't hurt my ears most of the time, which is rather remarkable considering most Zimmer scores almost make my ears bleed with the blatant use of horrible-sounding synths and stuff. I don't know for sure why The Da Vinci Code isn't that blatant, but I guess it might have something to do with not being an action score per se but more of a mystery cue. And yes, Zimmer does manage to create the mystery which was so apparent in the novel itself, and the highlights of the score take place in the revelation scenes in the film, which is rather fitting.

But all in all, I'm glad Zimmer uses the choir as much as he does, and the strings and such don't hurt my ears most of the time (there are some moments where they do, but those are few), so the end result works quite well. Maybe someone else might have written a better score for The Da Vinci Code, but I find this Zimmer score mostly fine as far as the subject matter goes, so this certainly isn't a wasted effort on Zimmer's part and does show some of his complexity as a composer. True, it's not as great a Zimmer score as, say, The Lion King, but it's still better than many of his recent scores.

Advent Rising is one of those video game soundtracks that I feel sorry for, because not that many people are aware of the quality of music in the release. The game itself seems to have been a flop even though its story and gameplay seemed to have potential, and the score itself certainly is bombastic and epic, offering many memorable themes. Well, you just can't go wrong with the composer Tommy Tallarico utilizing real orchestra and a big choir in the action moments, one of the most memorable being "Bounty Hunter" with its dies irae choral power.

There are other nice themes as well, and many of the action cues are quite fast and aggressive and yet retain some of the thematic material. It's not the best game music out there, but it's still very impressive. Tallarico and co thought that the game series would be a trilogy (but poor sales dropped that idea), so it would've been interesting to hear how Tallarico might have developed the music in further installments. Oh well.

I was quite surprised by the consistency in the Casino Royale score by David Arnold. This latest James Bond score goes back to the John Barry roots, and it works quite well and has relatively few electronic moments and is instead dominated by orchestra. Oddly enough at times the brass and strings hurt my ears, but most of the time the score delivers fantastic action cues as well as emotional moments. It's a bit sad that we don't get to hear the choral Bond theme heard in one of the trailers, but such is life. And at least the orchestra works very well, and the various themes heard in the score are quite memorable.

In a curious and logical move Arnold actually doesn't use the primary Bond theme that much except in the final track, and it's understandable: Casino Royale is really the origin of Bond and thus he hasn't yet become the Bond we know and thus we don't get to hear his theme until the end when he really becomes the one we know. Instead Arnold uses another theme "You Know My Name" which is sort of a precursor of the actual James Bond theme, and I have to say that the tune is kickass and definitely one of the best recent Bond themes even with its Generation X -esque soundscape.

I'm basing this on the album, naturally, but as far as this music goes so far, it's on par with Arnold's effort with Tomorrow Never Dies. The trailer looks awesome, and the music's very good, and people have liked Daniel Craig's performance as Bond and praised the story of the film. I'm not getting hyped yet, but it could be possible that Casino Royale ranks up there with Bond classics such as Goldfinger and GoldenEye. We'll see about that, but I hope things turn out fine. =)

Well, one more thing about Casino Royale: I have to say that the film's title theme "You Know My Name" ranks up there with the best Bond themes. Despite the Generation X-esque influences the song is quite beautiful and determined in its own right and fits into the Bond world in the perfect way possible. I haven't seen the film yet, but what I know of it seems to suggest that the title song is very fitting (with all the gambling stuff implied in the lyrics as well as the cold-blooded determination of the main characters). The melody is catchy and the instruments and the singer work quite well. Sure, it's still a long way to go from some of the John Barry classics, but in my opinion it comes very close with its sheer relentlessness. Here are the lyrics:

Chris Cornell - You Know My Name

If you take a life do you know what you'll give?
Odds are, you won't like what it is
When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me
By the merciless eyes of deceit?

I've seen angels fall from blinding heights
But you yourself are nothing so divine
Just next in line

Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you
The odds will betray you
And I will replace you
You can't deny the prize it may never fulfill you
It longs to kill you
Are you willing to die?

The coldest blood runs through my veins
You know my name

If you come inside things will not be the same
When you return to the night
And if you think you've won
You never saw me change
The game that we have been playing

I've seen this diamond cut through harder men
Than you yourself
But if you must pretend
You may meet your end

Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you
The odds will betray you
And I will replace you
You can't deny the prize it may never fulfill you
It longs to kill you
Are you willing to die?

The coldest blood runs through my veins

Try to hide your hand
Forget how to feel
Forget how to feel
Life is gone with just a spin of the wheel
Spin of the wheel

Arm yourself because no-one else here will save you
The odds will betray you
And I will replace you
You can't deny the prize it may never fulfill you
It longs to kill you
Are you ready to die?

The coldest blood runs through my veins
You know my name x 7

So, what else did I discover when I listened to the song? Well, it has a surprising connection to a certain character at tGA RP: Jonathan Ferron. First some background info about the character. As some people know, I was having trouble finding a proper theme song for Jonathan Ferron who was one of my characters at tGA. I really like to have some kind of a theme song for my characters when I write about them in order to get in the proper mood of the character and all that. Still, Ferron was one of the characters who didn't have any definite theme music, and it was a shame. After all, in my opinion Ferron was one of the characters of mine that I liked simply because he was such a doublecrossing bastard and neither good nor evil, because he was a blend of both.

Ferron, as a character, offers so many possibilities simply because of his nature. At first he started out as an all-around bad guy henchman for one of the major villains, Zarnagon. Then, as time moved on, he was betrayed (the reasons for this are somewhat complicated, so I won't cover the specifics of that here) by Zarnagon, the very man he was serving. Stripped from power and barely escaping with his life, he vowed to make Zarnagon pay for the betrayal. Naturally the only way to really bring a powerful sorcerer like Zarnagon down would be to ally with the heroes who also opposed Zarnagon, and so Ferron did so. The heroes, of course, were unaware of Ferron's past even though Ferron himself had been the one in the beginning who had sent henchmen after the heroes.

Yeah, it's kind of like the philosophy of "my enemy's enemy is my friend": Ferron would use his enemies to bring down an even great enemy. And of course Ferron had other motives: the heroes would serve as cannon-fodder, and Ferron would really kill four birds with one stone: a) kill Zarnagon who had betrayed him, b) get rid of the annoying heroes in the process when Zarnagon would kill them in battle, c) kill Refan (my character) who had been responsible for the death of the woman Ferron had been in love with, and d) Ferron would take Zarnagon's place as one of the most powerful villains in the saga. Zarnagon doesn't know Ferron's involved with the heroes, and the heroes don't know of Ferron's shady past. Basically Ferron is playing both sides for his own purposes and gets rid of both factions when they're no longer useful to him.

What a perfect plan, you think? Well, it gets more complicated than that. The problem with this is that despite his efforts Ferron is slowly befriending the heroes. At first it's just his act to hide his true feelings, but soon he realizes he's actually starting to care for these people. Particularly Refan, one of the people who Ferron wants to see suffer, has become one of Ferron's best and most trustworthy friend. This in turn complicates matters as the growing friendship between Refan and Ferron forces Ferron to re-evaluate his plan. Can he really betray the heroes after all or should he just get done with the pesky heroes when the time is right? This kind of duality is what I like about the character, and this brings me to the song "You Know My Name" and how it's related to Ferron.

When I listened to this theme song for the very first time, I realized it fits Ferron's character well. It's basically him singing to Zarnagon: he says no matter what, he'll kill him eventually. He's almost literally seen "angels fall" when he's helped the bad guys invade foreign countries as well as help with other machinations, he's cold-blooded and is furious at the person he's singing to (although he tries to mask it with a calm attitude) and gives a warning that the time will be up for the bad guy soon and that the bad guys (and good guys) will know his name in the end. Also note the phrase "The odds will betray you/And I will replace you" which fits in perfectly with Ferron's plans to replace Zarnagon as the right-hand man of the main villain of the saga (yes, even the powerful Zarnagon is only a henchman of the main villain).

I could keep talking and talking about the references of this song and tGA, but I think this is enough and makes the point clear. I've finally found a proper theme song for Ferron, and I have to say it's somewhat surprising that the song ended up being a James Bond song. Oh, the irony. xD

I've watched a few films lately, and here are the reviews of them:

Hoodwinked was a film I saw during Seph's birthday party. It was an alright film, twisting the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story a bit to make it a detective story where each of the participants in the original scene (Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, The Woodcutter and the Wolf) tell the investigators their own version of what happened at Grandma's house. The big question is who exactly is the culprit and what exactly is going on behind the scenes. Although I figured out the culprit quite early thanks to a not-so-subtle hint, I was glad to see that the mystery was kept most of the time so that even adults could keep guessing what was the purpose of all of that stuff.

The score and the songs were alright albeit not that memorable, but they fit the story well anyway, so that's that. The animation style was a bit awkward (Little Red Riding Hood just looked odd, making her appearances unintentionally funny in the film), but I got used to it, and at least it served the story well. The voice actors were quite nice, and some of the celebrities in the cast even managed to disguise their voice so that I didn't even know some famous people were voicing the characters until after I'd watched the end credits. The plot itself was surprisingly solid considering the setting, so it was nice to see that the writers had managed to keep it from becoming a mess. All in all it was an interesting film that had some creativity in it. I'll give it 3+ stars out of 5.

I finally pulled myself together and watched through The Nightmare Before Christmas, this time in its entirety. Now that I could finally grasp the whole story, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. Sure, the visuals, score and songs are alright or spectacular in some cases, but the problem comes with the story itself. I'm not going to reiterate the plot carefully, but I'll say that it has a lot of plot holes and some things that simply make no sense. One of the worst things that comes to my mind is the deus ex machina like role of Oogie Boogie. I would've assumed that he would've been given more screen time, and now he just seems to be a guy that pops out of nowhere and there's never any proper reason given for Jack and Oogie's antagonism. A loss, I suppose.

Sure, there are some other annoyances in the story, but for the most part it works at least in some way, and that's what saves it. The concept is quite interesting, but more time should've been given to the actual story as now most characters just look like filler (yes, even many of the main characters), and it almost falls flat. Still, the film does have its redeeming qualities as mentioned earlier, and it is enjoyable most of the time despite some quirky stuff going on. I'll give it 3 stars out of 5.

Juoksuhaudantie is a film based on the famous Finnish novel of the same name, and it tells the story of a man who gets obsessed with buying a house built by Finnish war veterans when he thinks the only way to get his wife and daughter back is to buy such a house. This obsession goes to the extreme, and soon the man starts disturbing the neighbours, going all the way to even hurting and blackmailing people (namely a family, a real estate agent and a Finnish war veteran) in order to achieve his goals. The story's quite intense and tragic, and in a way we can sympathize with the protagonist in his quest for the ultimate home.

The music is rather bland and repetitive, although at least the two major motifs are played the most to show both the man's obsession and isolationalism. Cinematography works really well, diving deep into the man's psyche as well as exploring the point of views of other characters who at first are ignorant to the man's obsession. The actors do a great job, particularly Eero Aho, Tiina Lymi, Kari Väänänen and Aake Kalliala. Especially Aho is the one who brings that sort of madness to the protagonist and thus makes the film believable. Some scenes are a bit cut off and could've been longer (and some great scenes from the novel have been omitted), but the result works for the most part. I'll give it 3+ stars out of 5.

Signs is a story about a priest, played by Mel Gibson, who has lost his faith and who lives with his brother and his two children in the countryside. When strange signs start to appear in the local cornfields, things start to get mysterious as people start to wonder who is behind those actions. At the same time the priest has to reconsider his relationship to God as things turn out more and more violent around him. The actors, particularly Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, do their job properly, but the kids are rather annoying most of the time, which is a shame, because the audience is supposed to care about them. Still, the film does build the suspense all the way to the climax, but I would've thought it would've been more shocking than it was. It's an alright film nevertheless, and the subtle score by James Newton-Howard works in the film well. I'll give the film 3 stars out of 5.

Madagascar is, for the lack of a better word, total drug fest. Why so? Well, let me explain, dear diary. I was having low expectations despite the rave reviews because I didn't want to be let down. And yes, this has to be the worst Dreamworks picture I've seen so far. Let's start with the good things first and then move on to the bad things. The voice actors do an alright job although most of them sound tired. The score by Hans Zimmer does work occasionally, but most of the time it's just a themeless, boring thing that it even makes such scores like Badelt's Pirates of the Caribbean score a masterpiece. Too many scenes in this odd Madagascar film are left unscored, and many scenes have stuff ripped directly from other films or just use some groovy music on their own right (the only highlight of this boring use was the somewhat funny "Chariots of Fire" ripoff scene).

I can say right now that the Wild's score will be 100 times better than the stuff Zimmer worked on, but at least I'm glad Harry Gregson-Williams was taken to score Kingdom of Heaven instead of this trash. As for the visuals, they're surprisingly ugly (heck, even the first Shrek looks better than this even though S1 does look a bit outdated now) although luckily I got used to the style relatively quickly. And as for the plot, it's weak and loosely put together. It does have some alright twists (particularly the meat-induced moments of the lion character), but most of the time it just doesn't work.

The characters themselves are annoying (except the rare sad moments with the lion which almost made me root for him) and I just couldn't care what happens to them. I won't even bother mentioning them or the plot, because that'd be a waste of time which I'm already using on writing this review. So, to keep things short, avoid this film like the plague. It's not funny most of the time, the plot is practically missing, the visuals just don't work (most of the time), the score is pretty much nonexistent, the VAs just don't put enough emotion behind their acting, and the characters suck. I never thought I'd give a rating like this to a Dreamworks film, but I have to say it: I'll give this film 2 stars out of 5.

It was about time I watched the cult classic Transformers: The Movie. You can say I was surprised to find out some famous actors in some roles, most notably Orson Welles as the infamous Unicron. I, like most kids back in the days, was crazy about the whole Transformers phenomenon, but sadly I'd never seen this film until now. Basically the film takes place during seasons 2 and 3 of the age-old series, and it's quite controversial for the fact that it kills off a bunch of heroes and villains. One of the most controversial decisions was definitely (SPOILER)the death of Optimus Prime. Heck, I was shocked when I saw that, but it was a good decision on the film makers' part (except that for some reason it made me resent Hot Rod even more than I used to xD).

So, basically the plot is as follows: The Decepticons prepare to wipe Autobots out once and for all, and a fierce battle ensues. During the epic battle many of our favourites get killed in brutal ways, and eventually the Decepticons flee when they see their leader Megatron getting wounded. While Autobots mourn their losses, the Decepticons, namely Starscream, decide to get rid of all their injured members, including Megatron. Being betrayed by his subjects, Megatron swears revenge but is left adrift in cold space. Luckily for the villain, he meets the planet-consuming Unicron who makes a deal with him: Unicron will bring Megatron back to life as an even more powerful Decepticon and Megatron will destroy the one thing that Unicron fears and which is in the hands of the Autobots. Naturally things turn rather sad for our heroes when Megatron is revived as Galvatron, and even so Galvatron still plans to betray Unicron at some point. And there are more forces at work, some nicer than the others. The audience will wonder whether the Autobots succeed in defeating Galvatron and Unicron or if the universe will be doomed.

The animation looks surprisingly good for a film as old as this, and the soundtrack is alright although not that special. The only great song is the actual Transformers theme and its heroic finale (as well as the music track during the epic fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron), but the rest of the score tracks and songs aren't memorable (although one could say Unicron's theme is catchy, but I found it somewhat clichéd and twisted). The actors do an alright job, and the battles are interesting, particularly for the fact that many heroes and villains get killed. The story, albeit being interesting, has some serious plot holes and some weird sequences (WTF was that freaking dance all about?), and the plot fails in some areas. All in all, the film is alright although I suppose only Transformers fans will find any true merit in it. I'll give it 3 stars out of 5.

Spanglish is a story about the Mexican woman named Flor who moves to the US with her daughter and then goes to work for an American family (dad being Adam Sandler and mom being Téa Leoni). Problems arise when the family finds out that Flor can't speak English, and most of the time the film deals with the language barrier between Flor and the American family, the ways how they communicate, and the ways how the American and Mexican cultures differ (and which eventually causes some big clashes in the household). And Flor makes the thing even more complicated when she starts helping the family out in solving its inner, complex problems all the while her daughter's getting more and more attracted to the American way of life despite Flor trying to keep her Mexican in both mind and spirit.

Although the film has many funny moments, I was a bit surprised that it wasn't as much a Sandler comedy fest as most Sandler films have been. Instead the film deals with the concepts of hybridization, the third space, language barriers, and cultural clashes as well as a bunch of other things. The film doesn't go the way of Hollywood clichés but instead surprises the audience quite many times (heck, the one instant in the film caught me off-guard, because I was expecting a somewhat happier finale than the film offered). Hans Zimmer's score was also surprisingly refreashing after his monotonous efforts in many action films, and he managed to put some nice subtle motifs to the score and making it a pleasant, amusing and at times a tragic listen. Yes, Zimmer's score had a heart in this film and was very emotional at times.

The cast did a wonderful job. Adam Sandler was in one of his best roles, although sometimes he was a bit too eccentric for his own good. Téa Leoni, who is one of the most annoying actresses around, fit really well into her role as the annoying mother. Other cast members did well too, and Shelbie Bruce had a nice role as Flor's daughter. The real star, however, was Paz Vega who played Flor. She managed to have just enough of that sassy spirit and yet enough tenderness and quiet contemplative characteristics to make her character work. The audience really sympathizes with her, laughs when she misunderstands some American customs and cries with her as she's feeling vulnerable. She is the heart and soul of Spanglish and without her superb effort the film probably wouldn't have fared as well as it did.

Cinematography is very good with some clever visual gags as well as some beautiful camera moves in some shots, and the location itself looks quite interesting with some subtle hints put here and there to give the audience a clue of what will happen later on in the story. The direction is solid and the film itself is funny, sad and clever enough to really make you feel for many of the characters. All in all the film is a comic and somewhat melancholic film about cultural differences and communication. Definitely worth a look. I'll give it 3½ stars out of 5.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre is one of those classics of cinema that I'd never seen until now (yeah, where I'd been hiding all this time if I haven't seen this, you ask xD). The story's about two poor guys who, after hearing an old miner talking about gold, decide to hire the old man and then head off to Sierra Madre to find gold. Although things turn out fine at first when the friends finally find gold, things get more complicated when they start to turn against each other because of being consumed by greed, and later some other people searching for gold arrive at the scene, not to mention bandits.

The cast is wonderful, but the real highlight in this is the awesome Humphrey Bogart as the tragic hero of the story. I've never seen him act in a truly villainous way, so it's fascinating to see how he descends from heroism to genuine madness as the story progresses. Cinematography is excellent as in many of the films Bogart stars in, and the score by Max Steiner is truly epic and memorable, giving us some great themes and excellent choral moments. The main theme in particular has quite a few variations to depict the thoughts and actions of the three protagonists. The plot works really well too and gives us quite a few surprises and memorable moments. The film's definitely a classic, and thus I'll give it 4 stars out of 5.

Kuutamosonaatti is a Finnish horror film, although I'd list it as a comedy simply because it's so crazy and hilarious. It's a story about a Finnish supermodel who, after being tired of the spotlight, decides to head to Lapland to spend some time in the quiet wilderness. Unfortunately for her there's a crazy family of an old woman and her two sons living nearby, and soon the sons take an interest in her and are quite violent. The girl eventually finds herself trying to escape from the madmen who kill anyone who cross their paths.

Basically the film is somewhat like a Finnish and comic retelling of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (that's the closest film in terms of plot and characters I could think of), and it's very confusing. The actors aren't really that special for the most part, but one of the crazy sons (the younger one who has the best lines in the film, the one who is the main villain in the story) is the highlight of the film. The other crazy son might look intimidating, but actually he's a nice fellow who does have some brutal, animalistic side when he decides to protect the weak (such as a certain dog).

Cinematography works well, and there are some nice, ethereal moments (particularly the opening and some of the stuff in the end), but even these moments of haunting beauty can't save the lackluster story. I'm aware that this film and its sequel have become cult classics among the Finnish youth, but in my honest opinion the film is just way too surreal to work properly. The score is that bland synths stuff, so it's nothing special. All in all, the film is alright but nothing special. Its surreal feel might actually drive out audience, but in any case I'll give this film 2+ stars out of 5.

Batman vs. Dracula actually surprised me. The series itself wasn't as good as Bruce Timm's cult classic Batman the Animated Series, but in any case I decided to watch this film to see what the fuss was about. First the plot seems to be on Batman's hunt for the Joker and the Penguin, but soon we're introduced to the reawakened Dracula, the original terror of the night, and we get to see some rather scary scenes when people are turned into vampires. There's one particular vampire that looks quite nasty (let's say he's an acquaintance of Batman's), but I won't spoil your fun if you haven't seen this film yet. Anyway, there's lots of action as one might expect, and the score does suck.

However, the plot does have some interesting elements, and one is the kind of identity search Batman is going through as he chats with Dracula and others. And as opposed to many series Dracula is a formidable foe here, beating Batman more than once. Also, the show is a lot darker than the series and shows some gruesome things. Third, to my surprise we get to see Vicki Vale in her animated form for the very first time, and she actually looks cute (and is voiced by Tara Strong). ^^

All in all I'd say the film is average but it does have some nice character development, some thrilling scenes and some good dialogue, but there are many things that are lacking. Although Kevin Michael Richardson and Rino Romano are fine actors, they just can't reach the level of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy in the roles of The Joker and Batman. But still, the film's worth a watch and is somewhat of a curiosity. I'll give it 3+ stars out of 5.

The Pianist is a moving film about a Jewish, Polish pianist (Adrien Brody) who sees his life shattering before him as the Nazis invade his country and start harassing the Jews. There are few moments of comedy and the rest of the film is very melancholy and dark as the story relentlessly keeps going. Indeed, it's quite shocking to see how the protagonist tries to stay alive in these harsh conditions against all the odds, and eventually he'll meet a Nazi officer (Thomas Kretschmann) who will quite literally change his life. The score is emotional and uses many classic music pieces to set up the mood, the actors do a fine job and the cinematography is quite beautiful. I also enjoyed the plot which was sophisticated and tragic with deep strokes of melancholy. All in all it's a very touching film, and I'll give it 4- stars out of 5.

CONTINUE TO PART II.