Imaginaerum

So I found this by googling horror on prime, it's no way a horror, it's so much more. A little over stylised in places, but generally a thoroughly enjoyable film. Sort of a pans labyrinth meets still Alice. Liked it

I went to Hartwall to see the premiere on 10/11-2012. As a longtime fan of the band it was really exciting too see if they could transform a great celebration to life such as the album Imaginaerum to a full time (almoast) movie. They did! For all nightwish fans this is a must see. For others that don't know much about Nightwish this is a weird movie indeed. A mixture of The classic Snowman (1982) and some Tim Burton mixed with Holopainens (I guess) fear for what will happened after his roller-coaster has stopped with Nightwish. The Imaginaerum album is for me an emotional journey within myself. The movie projects that journey to Whitman thankfully. (My fear was that the movie should touch me as deeply as the album. But thankfully it did not. ) Still its a great Nightwish movie and the score is also beautifully arranged. I believe the movie will have some reference audio class for the home movie enthusiast. Could be wrong, but the sound and volume was impressive in Hartwall! And if you like me also love the moodier instrumental arrangements by Nightwish you must go buy The Score. Animations (lots of them and green screen effects) was also well done if you consider the budget. A great step forward compared to the Nightwish videos you have seen with animations.

Having just finished watching this, and then reading the other reviews I am at a loss for all the fuss about the sub par special effects. They looked a lot better than the 250 million dollar Oz the Great and Powerful, which felt sadly fake in near every scene, and both movies are fantasy, so I saw nothing lacking in the special effects. The dialog in the opening of the movie for about 20 minutes is really just not great, but being a fan of Nightwish I stayed with the movie, and was glad to do so by the halfway mark. The other reviewers pointed out the homages so I will skip them. Coming at this film after seeing Tommy, The Wall, and Harry Potter films, I was not left in the lurch as many were about what was going on. I knew darn well I was seeing symbolism at every turn and was enthralled by it. The scene where the generations overlap in their pain was pure brilliance on the screen. I had never seen optics used in such a way to juxtapose two time periods and create a mood while still piling on the symbolism to even deeper meanings. The skipped words between characters in certain scenes is tasty for those who like being appreciated by the filmmakers to be smart enough to recognize what they were - like with the combination. It may not start out tidy but it gets that way. I was surprised by the idea that it was a movie with music and not a music movie. I was under the impression it would be more like Tommy than The Wall, it's not. The brief appearances by the band did leave me wanting way more, because I am fan of the group, but it didn't hurt the movie a bit. If only the beginning was as good as the rest I would give it all the stars, but it does open so poorly it would not be honest.

Imaginaerum was a random pick & mix movie I went into knowing nothing and was immediatly struck by how good everything looked. This Finnish made title looks like a AAA Hollywood movie except here the rest of the quality matches.

Otherwise known as the Nightwish movie as it was scored & soundtracked by the Finnish band, this is a dark fairytale that really took me by surprise.

It tells the story of a man in his final hours living a bizzare fantasy in his head while his embittered daughter deals with his condition in her own way.

It is a true visual treat that though very fragmented and not the easiest movie to follow does in fact have an outstanding payoff and all comes together in the end.

Looking great, sounding fantastic and with a story that comes together this beautifully my one criticism was that I wanted it to continue for longer.

A wonderful movie worthy of anyone and everyones attention.

The Good:

Visually stunning

Fantastic soundtrack

Devastatingly well written

The Bad:

Should have perhaps been longer

Couple of weak moments that damage the flow

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I should start listening to more Nightwish

Finnish Book of the Dead. Or perhaps of Dying. Or perhaps of Living? This film is imagined to life by the band Nightwish. Don't get me wrong - you can watch it even if you haven't heard of them at all. But it would be a bit like watching Dune without having read the books. If you are a Nightwish fan, this is a must see. I'm a fan myself, not die-hard, but still fan enough to have all their albums and having listened to them many times over. I loved seeing them in the film, I enjoyed seeing Tuomas, Marco and the rest very much. I used to cherish Tarja-era Nightwish and rejoice to hear Floor joining them, but I didn't appreciate Anette much and felt ashamed because of it. Now I'm happy to have shed my guilt and to appreciate Anette much more. But back to the film. Right away I have to draw a few parallels: The Velocity of Gary, The Book of Stars and Big Fish jumped to mind. Tim Burton has been rightly mentioned here already. This is a film to be contemplated and returned to and, as such, it is definitely not a kiddie movie. I've seen my fair share of fantasy flicks in my time and wasn't in the mood to add one more to the collection, but, as the story - or rather, the flashbacks of a fading mind - progresses, the fantasy becomes a visual framework to illustrate the story and the ideas behind it - and the story doesn't get beaten up and buried by special effects. That'll be the first, yeah? I wish Hollywood would learn this neat trick - to preserve the story, despite all the visual fireworks. Perhaps its the budget? If Hollywood would cut a few billions off the CGI department, maybe the movies would become better? Imaginaerum is beautiful as a whole: the special effects are stunning (unless you're a Transformers fan), the cast look like they really care about the story - which does become clearer towards the end - and it's all well carried by the soundscape (by Nightwish). I live and breathe science fiction and for me it is always about us, human beings (unless it is really badly written). Imaginaerum is - at least for me - about the human spirit, about our essence. It is about us striving to finish the last page of our story - even if everything around us - or we ourselves - is falling apart and fading into nothingness. "As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water." ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince