Heroes Webseries Catch Up

Since Heroes: Volume 4: Fugitives started on Monday I thought I'd take this moment to catch up on the latest Heroes websieres.

The first one is Heroes: The Recruit which is a five part webseries and follows on from the Heroes graphic novel Stuck In The Mud, which was released after the episode titled Dual (which was the last episode in Volume 3: Villains).
Here is the promo:



The second is Heroes: Hard Knox which is a four part webseries, which was released between Volume 3: Villains and Volume 4: Fugitives.
Here is the first webisode, Part 1: Choices:



When these webseries first started I was really into them because I thought that they would tie into the show and would simply provide avid fans like myself a little more info and story to enjoy. However, it seems to me that each webseries ends on a massive cliffhanger, and none of them have yet crossed over into the show itself (I'm am excluding Heroes: Hard Knox from this review as it is actually just a set of deleted scenes from the show). Whilst I'm not too bothered that they haven't crossed into the main show, I am a little bothered that they all end on a cliff hanger. It feels like we are getting fed all these cool characters and stories and then simply getting cut off from them.

If NBC are to continue with these webseries spin-offs then I hope that we will get some closure on these stories, whether it is in the show itself, in more webseries or in the graphic novels.

James Bond: Quantum Of Solace (Soundtrack)

This is David Arnold's fifth Bond score and it is by far his best in my opinion. I felt that his first three bond scores were a little heavy on the electronics. However, Casino Royale seemed to throw all that out the window and go back to using the orchestra.

Quantum Of Solace continues along the same lines as Casino Royale and has improved along the way. There are plenty more action cues on this soundtrack, which I felt were lacking from Casino Royale, but that is just down to the film content.

And as a result of the films content this soundtrack is packed full of action cues. However, this isn't exactly a bad thing because most of the action cues sound very impressive and are quite fun to listen to.

But the soundtrack is not without its slower moments and splits itself about even in terms of the amount of action cues versus slower cues. Whilst I do love the action cues, there is still a lot to enjoy listening to with the slower cues. The sweeping strings may not take the foreground like with John Barry's Bond scores but they are definitely there in the background. One thing I quite liked was the soft piano motif from Casino Royale that showed up in the Quantum Of Solace track "What's Keeping You Awake?".

Whilst this album is missing the James Bond theme which is on every other Bond soundtrack there is, this is still most definitely a Bond soundtrack. It is all in the details, and the details are most definitely there. David Arnold has definitely tuned into the Bond music scape that John Barry created.

The only bad thing about the soundtrack is the main title track called "Another Way To Die". Tagged on the end of the soundtrack, this track was written by Jack White and features Alicia Keys. If you've seen the film then you've probably formed your own opinion on this track. All I can say is that I think it is the worst bond song ever. If only David Arnold had been involved in the song, then perhaps it could have been as good as the rest of the soundtrack, and it might have made the movie slightly better.

Bolt (in 3D)

Since I watched this film in 3D I'm going to first review the film itself, then as a 3D film and then 3D cinema.

Part 1: Bolt

It might seem like the story of Buzz Lightyear all over again, but Bolt is so much more than a re-imagining of it. It puts a certain amount of freshness in an old story and gives it new life.

Bolt is a story about a dog called Bolt that stars in a TV series called Bolt (which to save confusion I'll call Bolt TV). In Bolt TV, Bolt plays a super dog. However, Bolt thinks that he really is a super dog and doesn't realise that he is simply on a TV show.

The film opens with Bolt TV and unfortunately I think the trailer shows too much of this, because the whole sequence is pretty much in the trailer. Nevertheless I still found Bolt TV very exciting and funny to watch. In fact I think that they should actually make Bolt TV into a film of its own because it really was that good.

Continuing into the rest of the film, Bolt accidentally escapes the TV studio and ends up in the real world where he meets a cat and a hamster, and they embark on an adventure to save/get Bolt back to Penny, Bolts person (who is Bolts owner in Bolt TV).

They come across many challenges on the way, including dangerous stunts, but also emotional challenges. This film has the ability to make you laugh and cry, and along with some great characters, a great story, and some brilliant directing it really is an enjoyable film for all the family.

Part 2: Bolt In 3D

This happens to be the first 3D film that I've seen, and I must admit it was very impressive. However, I found it a very different experience to watching a normal film.

I think in terms of Bolt in 3D it just kind of works as a gimmick, because it was made as a normal film, so doesn't use any of the advantages of a 3D film. Therefore if you get the chance to go and see Bolt, I would recommend the normal version.

Part 3: 3D Cinema

In terms of 3D cinema I think that it seems to be in beta (i.e. in a test phase) because there are definite advantages of a 3D film, however they don't work for every film. Framing seems to be an issue that I found because when you saw an object at the front of the 3D image move from off screen right to on screen and then off screen left (for example) it kind of lost the illusion of the 3D world. Therefore I don't think the 'rules' of framing for shooting a normal film really apply to a 3D film, and that it needs its own set of 'rules'.

Although I think that developments in the 3D experience need to be improved, such as having a panoramic screen, before the filming of 3D movies changes, because when the film is released on DVD it is just a normal film and not in 3D, so the normal 'rules' of framing would then apply again.

There could definitely be a good future for 3D movies, however, at the moment I think that we are a long way off and that now they are simply more of a gimmick. But James Cameron's Avatar could change all that.

Burn After Reading (Soundtrack)

Whilst I wasn't that keen on the film itself, when it comes to the soundtrack it is a whole other story.

I really like the soundtrack to this film and whilst it is rather short, lasting only 35 minutes, it is definitely worth the money. There are some really great themes throughout the soundtrack that are very dark and powerful. They're not exactly epic in scale, but then they don't need to be because they were composed for the film to build tension.

But they aren't just strings gradually getting louder like some tension building music. The soundtrack is full of fully fledged out themes that are orchestrated really well too. In fact I've found myself humming the themes on numerous occasions. My favourite cues have to be "A Higher Patriotism", "Linda Looks For Love (Part 1)" and "Night Running".

The soundtrack is a little repetitive, which is probably why it is so short, but then I didn't really mind, because I loved the themes so much that I just kept wanting to hear them again and again anyway.