Serenity: Those Left Behind

If you're a fan of Firefly and the sequel movie Serenity, then you might be interested in this. Serenity: Those Left Behind is a comic book that tells a part of the story which takes place in between Firefly and Serenity.

If you can remember the last episode of Firefly, then you will also remember that when you came to watch Serenity that there was a big chunk of story in between the two that hadn't been explored and therefore was left for the audience to fill in the gaps.

Well Serenity: Those Left Behind fills in some of those gaps for you. This is why I love Joss Whedon, because even though his show got cancel he still can't leave it alone, and I for one am glad. The comic reads just like an episode of Firefly and I found it very enjoyable to read. My only problem was that it was too short. But thankfully this is not the only Serenity comic. In fact there are three more comics, which are called Serenity: Better Days #1, #2 and #3. There is also a bonus story on Dark Horse Comics' Myspace (which also has lots of other free comics to read including Joss Whedon's Sugarshock) called Serenity: The Other Half.

In other Joss Whedon news, if you were lucky enough to see Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog then the soundtrack is now available internationally on iTunes.

The Dark Knight Soundtrack

When I saw the film I was blown away by the music in the opening sequence. It really worked and was unlike anything I would have expected from Batman. That one note that portrays the Joker worked brilliantly in the film. However, I think you've got to be a real Hans Zimmer fan in order to appreciate and enjoy it on the soundtrack. But not all the soundtrack is like that and some of it is very emotional. I have to say that since I have bought this soundtrack and after loading it onto my iPod, it has not left the CD player in my car. This is my new favourite soundtrack and therefore I'm going to give it a track by track review.

Whilst "Why So Serious?" might not be the most enjoyable track to listen to it definitely does make you feel a bit uneasy. Especially when you hear that note. Here's a little extra information for you, if you didn't know it already, Hans Zimmer spent about six months trying to get the Jokers theme to be one note long. He spent most of those months trying to find the right sound for that note. And the end result works amazingly. Unfortunately it doesn't work quite as well on the soundtrack which is why on the soundtrack I much prefer the Batman themes, which are more than one note long.

"I'm Not A Hero" is one of those cues that has a lot of the Batman themes in it and it really does sound great. Unfortunately I found that the cue tended to change a bit abruptly at some points or felt like a couple of the variations of the Batman themes could have lasted a bit longer and been expanded upon. I think the reason for this though is so that the music matches the picture. The best bit from the cue is at the 6:00 mark. It just sounds out of this world. But sadly it lasts less than 30 seconds.

So after the Joker's theme we get Batman's theme and next we get the theme of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. This one was composed by James Newton Howard where as the Joker's theme was composed by Hans Zimmer. I'm not sure who is behind "I'm Not A Hero" but I would guess mostly Hans Zimmer because it sounds like his kind of thing.

Whilst on Batman Begins the two composers work very much together on a lot of the music, for this film Hans took on the Joker and James took on Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Considering they were in separate buildings whilst working on their themes, the themes really do fit into the Batman world, almost as if one composer had written them.

If you look at the characters of the Joker and Harvey Dent/Two-Face you can tell straight away that James' music is going to be more elegant and beautiful. Although saying that, because Harvey Dent does become a villain in the end James does do a great evil section to the track "Harvey Two-Face" with the elegant and beauty at either side of this evil section. The evil section is played mostly on brass and whilst we might not be used to brass in Batman it really does work.

"Aggressive Expansion" is the next track. The opening of this track is one of the Batman themes and is so so good. Sadly the rest of the track isn't quite so good as it slows down and moves away from the action start. It's not bad, but I think that the beginning is just so good that you just want more of it and are disappointed when you don't get more.

Back to the Joker now with "Always A Catch". Most of this track is just a rise with a few big hits and one big low note to finish the rise before we go into a quite Batman section.

"Blood On My Hands" brings back in the theme of Harvey Dent and is really just an expanded part of the first section of the track "Harvey Two-Face". Some how for me it doesn't work as well without the evil section though.

"A Little Push" doesn't really use any of the main character themes and instead is a track that seems to build up fear in the listener. At least that is what I felt. I would probably say that it is a cue written for Harvey Dent because of the use of brass, but I could be wrong.

After an absence of Batman themes for a couple of tracks you need not fear anymore. "Like A Dog Chasing Cars" brings back our hero with a great new expansion of one of the Batman themes written for Batman Begins. This one actually features a real melody unlike many of the other Batman cues. This track also features some great Joker music towards the end that is much more enjoyable to listen to then "Why So Serious?" Perhaps because it is shorter though.

With a track name like "I Am The Batman" you would expect epic drums and Batman themes. Instead though we get quite a minimal sound that isn't a great listen.

But all is not lost for long. "And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad" redeems much of the expectations had for the previous track. But with the title it has this track would not be complete with out the Joker's theme.

"Agent Of Chaos" brings some beauty to the score with a small amount of piano that brings back the theme from the Batman Begins track "Corynorhinus". However, it mixes it in with some Batman drums and quickly moving strings as well as a bit of the Joker's note around the middle. But by the end those drums and quick strings are replaced by slow strings and piano.

But I prefer the faster and more epic Batman cues which is why I really love "Introduce A Little Anarchy". For me this track is in competition with "I'm Not A Hero" for my most favourite track as it contains a lot of the themes from "I'm Not A Hero" but in a more expanded form. The only thing that stops it from easily beating "I'm Not A Hero" is the part at the 6:00 mark in "I'm Not A Hero". Otherwise it would definitely be the best track on the soundtrack.

"Watch The World Burn" is another slow track which takes a while to really build up the emotion. But when it does, it does it well.

However, "A Dark Knight" does it better. At 16:15 this is the longest track on the soundtrack. It is a slow piece that creates emotion in a much more successful way than "Watch The World Burn". Granted it has longer to do so, but that is not what it does with the 16 minutes it has. The emotion is there right from the start of the track to the end, where there is a big powerful and emotional build up with drums slowly pounding away before all is gone and we are left with that one note. The Joker's note.

This soundtrack is my favourite of the year so far and if you listen to it from start to finish you experience an amazing journey with incredible ups and downs. From the powerful ups of "I'm Not A Hero" and "Introduces A Little Anarchy" to the emotional downs of "Harvey Two-Face" and "A Dark Knight". This really is a great soundtrack.

Wanted Soundtrack

Some of you may know that before Danny Elfman became a film composer he was part of the band Oingo Boingo. Well for the film Wanted, Danny has returned to his rock roots and written and performed the song, "The Little Things". I knew Danny was part of Oingo Boingo, but I didn't actually know that he was the lead singer until I heard this track and thought, "Wow. He is a really good singer." And then it clicked. I don't usually listen to this kind of music, but I actually really like it.

After the song comes the score. It starts out pretty well with "Success Montage" which is my favourite cue on the album. The score seems to calm down a bit for the next few tracks but picks up again with "The Scheme" and "Fox In Control". "The Scheme" is a slow piece that works at building tension, where as "Fox In Control" is more of an action cue.

I also like "Exterminator Beat" which had a great string motif, and sounded great with the subtle guitar over the top.

Although it used the sames themes as "Success Montage", I didn't like "Rats" that much, perhaps because of the way it was arranged.

Next we get some action cues, "The Train" and "Revenge" which are alright but nothing special. These are followed by "Fox's Decision", which starts out quite forgettable but builds up to quite a dramatic end.

Finally we end with "Fate". A cue that doesn't cause the soundtrack to end as strongly as it started, but still isn't bad.

Overall this soundtrack isn't an essential listen if you're not a big fan of Danny Elfman. But if you are then it is an obvious must, especially since he revisits his Oingo Boingo years with "The Little Things". But if you're not a big fan of Elfman then if you did buy this soundtrack then it wouldn't be the end of the world, as it does provide quite an enjoyable listen. There just unfortunately aren't that many outstanding cues.

The Happening Soundtrack

Whilst the movie might not have been that good, it doesn't necessarily mean that the score isn't very good either. On listening to the soundtrack I found that it reminded me most of James previous score to The Village. The Village used the violin as a solo instrument that played beautiful melodies throughout a lot of the score. The Happening does a similar thing, but instead uses the cello.

However, the cello is not played in the same style as the violin was in The Village. It is used in a much darker manner and instead of beautiful melodies we get eerie and mysterious melodies. A great cue which demonstrates this is "Five Miles Back".

The cello is not the only instrument that stands out though. The piano is also rather dominant throughout the score. It is quite often followed by the brass section as together these make up the basics of the main theme which can be heard best in the "Main Titles".

There is also the more traditional suspense/horror music such as "Rittenhouse Square" and "My Firearm Is My Friend", but I find these are the more forgetful cues and sadly I found that the soundtrack contains quite a lot of this type of music which doesn't make for a great listening experience.

Overall The Happening soundtrack isn't exactly anything special. I'd probably recommend it to the fans of older film music as they might like it a lot more than I did. But whilst it wasn't as big a disappointment as the film itself, I don't think I'll be listening to this soundtrack very often. If you are looking for a great James Newton Howard soundtrack I'd go for The Village if you don't already own it, as I think that it is still his best (solo) score to date.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

If you are a big fan of Joss Whedon then you are going to love this. These things seem to be all the craze now. Webseries started off as a way of lesser experienced film makers show casing themselves and making a pretty good, low budget series of episodes about 5 minutes in length. However, webseries seem to have grown beyond the amateurs and the professionals now seem to be embracing them. Some such as Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance and Heroes: Going Postal add up to become almost like a hidden episodes of their actual parent TV shows providing those that watch the webseries' with more information, but ultimately not being essential to the other fans of the TV shows that haven't watched the webseries'. But the professionals also seem to be making stand alone webseries such as this new creation from Joss Whedon (the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity and the upcoming show Dollhouse scheduled to air on Fox in January of next year).

The webseries has 3 episodes or acts (as they are called in this show) totaling at just over 42 minutes. But hopefully that is not the end of the webseries as Joss Whedon said at this years San Diego Comic-Con that he would love to make a 4th act.

View the trailer below or click the image above to watch the webseries.

UPDATE: The webseries is now only available to watch online if you live in the US. So if you live in the UK or any where else then you're just going to have to wait for the DVD. But unfortunatly it could be a long wait.

Heroes: Going Postal

If you remember a few weeks ago I posted the trailer for the new webseries Heroes: Going Postal. Well unfortunately the webseries is not available to watch for those of us in the UK on the NBC website. So after searching YouTube I've managed to find all 3 episodes and have compiled them all in one place. Enjoy.


Chapter 1: A Nifty Trick



Chapter 2: The House Guest



Chapter 3: Let's Talk

The Dark Knight

I'm going to keep this review short, simply because I don't really have a lot to say on the film. When I first watched Batman Begins I didn't think that it was that great a film. But after watching it a few more times I eventually grew to love it. With The Dark Knight however, it was love at first sight. I absolutely loved this film and it has easily gained a place in my top 5 films. I'm still wondering whether or not it is worthy of the number 1 spot but even if it isn't you have got to see this film.

(9/10)

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Soundtrack

Even if you're not a big Indiana Jones fan you'd have to have been living on Mars all your life to not know John Williams' "Raiders March". Probably better know to most people as the main theme from the Indiana Jones films. However, the main theme only featured as it's own track ("Raiders March") on the Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Ark soundtrack. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom and Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade just mixed the main theme in with the rest of the cues like this soundtrack does with the track "The Journey To Akator". This is why I was quite surprised to see the "Raiders March" as a track on the Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull soundtrack. But then I guess it has been 20 or so years since Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, a time when some of us weren't even born, so the chances of us owning the Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Ark soundtrack are slim.

However, it is not the same "Raiders March" from the first Indiana Jones film and it is in fact an expanded version. The original version was 2:50 in length, where as this version is 5:06, which is substantially longer. The reason for it being longer is because it also includes Marion's theme. Yep. If you didn't know by now then you probably weren't going to. Marion who was Indiana's love interest from Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Ark is back for Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.

Marion's theme isn't the only returning theme though. "The Map Room" theme from Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Ark can be heard at the beginning of the track "The Spell Of The Skull".

Some great cues from this soundtrack include: "The Adventures Of Mutt", "The Snake Pit" and "The Journey To Akator". Three playful little pieces which provide a very enjoyable listen.

But it wouldn't be Indiana Jones without some of the more mysterious cues. Whilst "Call Of The Crystal", "Irena's Theme" and "Orellana's Cradle" do sound very nice, I don't quite enjoy listening to them as much as some of the action cues such as "The Jungle Chase" which is quite a comical action sequence. A darker action sequence and equally great listen is "Grave Robbers" which goes a bit crazy on the percussion at the beginning but sounds great anyway.

I found the last portion of the soundtrack pretty average and the only cue that stood out was "Finale", which revisited most of the major themes including Marion's theme and the main Indiana Jones theme ("Raiders March").

With this soundtrack John Williams definitely returns to his usual sound which he pretty much threw out the window with the last film he scored which was Memoirs Of A Geisha in 2005. This soundtrack is really for fans of the movie, fans of Indiana Jones, fans of John Williams, and probably fans of the older style of film music composing. I'm more of a remote control/media ventures man myself, although I did still enjoy listening to the soundtrack and there are some definite cues I would go back and listen to. But there are also some cues which I would probably only listen to again if I decided to listen to the whole soundtrack. In my opinion, Memoirs Of A Geisha is still John Williams best score.

Out With The Old And In With The New

Last week saw the end of the season for a number of TV programs: Chuck, Heroes, The Graham Norton Show, House and Doctor Who. But what new programs are coming our way? Well considering how many great programs finished there weren't many more that started this week. Bonekickers was pretty much the only one. Although the BBC has been showing the teasers for a new series called Merlin. I am guessing that it is about the wizard and so is probably going to be something like Robin Hood, which has been on the BBC for the last two years on the approach to Christmas. It will most likely take the place of Doctor Who on Saturdays. Although it doesn't look to be arriving to our screens for another few weeks. I am guessing that they are waiting till closer to the air date for the website to launch, since the page does exist, but is currently blank (http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/).

As for Bonekickers, it is about a team of archaeologists and the best way to describe it is probably Waking The Dead meets Time Team. It was pretty fast paced and kept me interested throughout. It possibly went a bit too far at the end, but so far the series looks promising.

Another upcoming show is Burn Up, which is a two part political thriller addressing one of today's big issues, climate change. It sees the battle between politics and economic success against fighting climate change as oil executives, environmental activists and politicians fight it out. For more info click here.

Another show to keep an eye out for in the future is Survivors, which is set in the present day in the aftermath of a virus which has wiped out most of the world's population. The remake of the 1970s program, which ran for three series, is set to come to our screens this autumn. For more info click here.

BBC 2 has also unveiled which shows will be coming to the channel this autumn. Returning shows include Heroes season 3, the popular documentary series Horizon, Jack Dee's Lead Balloon. Brand new shows include Einstein and Eddington and My Zinc Bed. And that's just for starters. For more info click here.

In other news, with season 2 of Heroes now at an end we have caught up with the US. NBC (the network behind Heroes) is launching a web only mini-series called Heroes: Going Postal. It follows a postman named Echo De Mille who is a new hero. I imagine that he will also appear in season 3 of Heroes, but for now you can catch the webseries on NBC.com from Monday. In the mean time here is the trailer for the webseries:

Wanted

The Matrix was a kick ass film. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions I still thought were good, but not quite as good as The Matrix. But then I loved the whole Matrix universe. However, most people thought that the two sequels sucked because most people aren't Matrix geeks. Good news for them, this film will remind you of the first Matrix film.

At first I only really thought that it looked visually like The Matrix, but then I thought about it and it seemed pretty much like The Matrix on every other level as well. That is not necessarily a bad thing though since as I've already said, The Matrix kicked ass. Whilst Wanted isn't quite as good as The Matrix it is still a pretty good film.

An interesting thing I read on Internet Movie Database was a quote from the director of Wanted. Whether or not he was talking about Wanted though, I'm not sure. But anyway, the quote read: "...but the most powerful special effect is the actor. All the visual style is an extension of character." If that is the case then this film certainly has a lot of character extension. But to be honest, the extension seemed to be on what they could do. But when he says, "the most powerful special effect is the actor" I'm not sure that really plays across in this film because there wasn't really a lot in terms of character development and therefore you could have replaced the actors with bad actors and it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.

James McAvoy plays the character of Wesley Gibson who could be compared to Neo from The Matrix. Angelina Jolie plays the dominatrix character called The Fox and could be compared to Trinity. Morgan Freeman plays the character of Sloan which could be compared to either Morpheus of Agent Smith. And then there is the rest of the gang who play the rest of the crew from the Nebuchadnezzar (Morpheus' ship). However, the characters from Wanted seem to play toned down versions of the characters from The Matrix when it comes to them as people.

But if all you're after is an action film and you don't particularly care about the character development then you're in luck. However, if what you're after is a realistic action film then you'd better sit this one out. With crazy things such as a man jumping out of a skyscraper window and making it to the other side of the street, people curving bullets around objects and some crazy car stunts that could only exist in The Matrix; this film is all about what looks cool.

Now for the real Matrix comparison.

SPOILERS: The film starts off in the same office like environment as The Matrix as we see Wesley in his little cubical at work. We find out his life is shit just like Neo's is. (Although Wesley isn't living two different lives.) Wesley gets shot at in a shop by the bad guy and saved by The Fox. Whilst Neo finds Agents coming into his office and tries to escape but sadly gets caught, but is then released where Trinity finds him and saves him from that bug thing in his stomach. The Fox introduces Wesley to Sloan and the rest of the gang. Trinity introduces Neo to Morpheus and the rest of the crew. Wesley goes into a state of denial as to who he is. Neo goes into a state of denial that he is the one. Wesley realises his full potential. Neo realises his full potential. Wesley goes to avenge his real fathers death by killing Sloan. Neo tries to save Morpheus by killing Agent Smith. But before Wesley can kill Sloan he has to get into the building and so manages to jump in through the window and run through a load of bad guys killing them all, with his first shots being two machine guns which he uses to kill the two people to his side buy switching his hands over. Before Neo can kill Agent Smith he has to get into the building and so enters the lobby with all the pillars, the metal detector goes off and Neo kills the guard in front of him, he then uses two machine guns to kill the two guards to his side buy switching his hands over. Wesley kills Sloan. Neo kills Agent Smith. The End.

The Matrix was released in 1999 and Wanted was obviously released in 2008. However, Wanted is based on a mini-series of comics created by Mark Millar. So the obvious question is, which came first? The Matrix or the Wanted comics? Well I can say with great pleasure that the winner is The Matrix. The Wanted comics where published in 2003, four years after The Matrix.