Imaginaerum

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.

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

In few words Imaginaerum is a dive into a man's surreal dark dreams with superior strengths in terms of powerful images and music and some minor weaknesses in character development and acting. What may appear as another childish adventure at first quickly develops into an emotionally demanding journey dealing with very adult conflicts on a metaphorical and artistic level.

In detail Imaginaerum starts off rather associative. Really strong pictures and music (reminding me of Tim Burton movies) guide the audience from the very first second deep down the rabbit hole. The Scenery is especially impressive considering the budget of the movie. While technically being a convincing and easy show, scene jumps and plot appear rather cryptic at first. The movie succeeds at creating a rough and positively incomplete idea of the plot in your head quickly and developing that idea scene by scene throughout the whole movie without letting anything become too obvious or boring. The basic ideas appear metaphorical, yet decipherable and believable. I might add that Imaginaerum demands much (but not too much) of the viewer rationally as well as emotionally: It requires active thinking to follow the central plot and it is necessary to apply yourself to the emotions of the movie to understand the scenes. Not doing so will greatly decrease the value of the experience (and may result in questionable reviews some might have read so far).

The only downside to me is that there was unutilized potential of even deeper character development. They all started interesting but ended a little abrupt. In addition I was not totally convinced by some character acting. In some moments I got that "There is an actor playing a character"-feel which shouldn't come up. Surprisingly it didn't affect emotion and meaning of the movie too much so I can overlook that weakness easily. Having mentioned weaknesses I also want to mention that there were many great moments in terms of acting as well. For example I really enjoyed the great performance of actor Tuomas Holopainen!

Imaginaerum as a "band-movie": I don't consider myself a Nightwish fan even though I don't dislike their music. I was positively surprised that Imaginaerum, in contrast to other band movies, did not make it a 2 hours narcissistic music video. A few times the band is on screen but only adding positively to the atmosphere.

As being someone who enjoys strong images, demanding plots and artistic implementations I totally recommend this movie to my friends and to you. I advise parents to be cautious showing Imaginaerum to children, as some scenes "can be disturbing" (as other reviewers already mentioned) and the movie as a whole may be hard to understand. I personally recommend this above 12 years of age.

I'm not a Nightwish fan. I haven't heard a peep about this movie til I watched it. But having come across it, I was pleasantly surprised. Imaginaerum isn't a flimsy band cash-in, but a stand-alone film, enjoyable by metal and non-metal viewers alike.

Imaginaerum is a fantasy film, a world inside a fading musician's mind. These kinds of movies can be annoying sits for me. But Imaginaerum actually has rhyme and reason to its bizarre images. Heck, they probably explain too much! There is a lot of exposition dialog. By the end of the movie, you get a good grasp of this guy's life and torments. The effects are pretty good, considering the film's budget. I've seen films with over 10 times the money look way worse.

I could have enjoyed delving further into the relationships. The music could have been better, although it was far from awful. Regardless, if you loved films like Pan's Labyrinth or The Fountain, I think this one will quench your thirst.

I had no idea what this film was about nor had i ever heard of this film until torrentday. This is truly an epic film and one that i will not be forgetting for a long time.

The acting the graphics are faultless and the music score by for me an unknown nightwish fits the film perfectly. Some scenes may be too harsh for kids.

This is a film that baffles but easy to put together with a truly wonderful and emotionally ending.

Will my friends like it? probably not. But i can truly say i will not enjoy a film like this again for a long time.

My hat is off Stobe Harju.