While my experience with the
Final Fantasy line of video games has been limited to a few minutes
playing the PC demo for VI, I am still highly interested in the
upcoming film. The CGI animation looks to be stunningly impressive, though
the trailers so far have basically concentrated on the look of the new
film rather than really giving a good indication of just what the story
itself is about. In fact, when I first saw the trailer, the first couple
of shots had me thinking that someone had made a Freespace
adaptation too. I don't know how alien encounters fit into the Final
Fantasy universe, but I'm still interested in seeing it nevertheless.
Initially, I was a little
concerned that Elliot Goldenthal was attached to this film. To be
completely honest, I
haven't heard a lot of his work, but though I somewhat enjoyed Batman
Forever, most of the other stuff I've sampled was quite odd. Thankfully, this score
is a little more conventional than Batman Forever (it shares a lot
of similarities as well), and it is the best Goldenthal score I have heard
yet.
The performances by The
London Symphony Orchestra are top notch as usual, and Goldenthal also gets
a lot of mileage out of the London Voices. This is a big, epic orchestral
score that is sure to have a lot of Goldenthal fans quite pleased with
themselves. I was quite struck at the thematic development that Goldenthal
employs in this score as well. It's quite good and this is one of the
major factors that cause this score to stand out from the other Goldenthal
works that I have heard.
While the main theme is,
indeed, quite epic in nature, the basic style of this score is what I would
describe as "bleakly mystical". The epic nature of the score is firmly
entrenched with a supernatural or otherworldly feel that is fed even more
by the frequent use of the choir. In addition, this is a very dark score
with a lot of disturbing elements. Still, this only serves to make it a
fascinating listen and the music possess a lot of power. The few romantic
cues that are present here last for only a short while before the darkness
overtakes them again, and Goldenthal weaves in and out of these cues quite
well. Some of the more awe-inspiring sections remind me of the score to
the LucasArts PC game The Dig, but hearing this style performed by
a full, live orchestra puts it on an entirely new level.
Like the
Jurassic Park III release, this album
contains the enhanced CD feature, although the promos on the disc are for
the next Final Fantasy game and the film's trailer is sorely
lacking. The two songs are somewhat interesting, especially The Dream
Within which was composed by Goldenthal and keeps the same style as
the rest of the score. Still, with those two songs the CD only runs 54
minutes which some may find disheartening. I found the running time to be
quite appropriate as while I found this to be an enjoyable score, I really
wouldn't want the running time to be too much longer.
I'm a very happy boy right
now. 2001 has been a very good year for film scores, and the months of
June and July look like they might be extra special. All in all, I am very
pleased with Goldenthal's score to this film, and I look forward to
hopefully more of the same in later works. ****
