Customer Reviews

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off: This is an excellent soundtrack. Secondly: Its not Uematsu, or even remotely Final Fantasy sounding.

Granted, this isn't our first taste of non Uematsu FF music. The music of Final Fantasy tactics was our true first, and it was incredible. This leads me to believe that square thought long and hard before choosing Goldenthal, as they wanted to maintain the quality of their other composers. Most of the tracks vary from good to excellent, and although I haven't seen the movie, i can see where they would fit in.

But the last two tracks are just incredible. I can't stress that enough, these last two tracks alone are worth buying the CD. Heck, I'd love to see a FF:TSW video game with the 17th track as its theme. If the movie maintains the quality of this soundtrack, I'd have to say its earned the FF name.

So, I give the instrumental tracks a 4. They are sci-fish without being cliche, which is nice. However, I give the last 2 tracks a 5, stressing the excellent vocals and well written music.

Elliot Goldenthal is one of the most talented composers in Hollywood and he was the perfect choice to score this movie! Powerful, haunting melodies dominate the score, and the soft, romantic cues mix in very well. Goldenthal has a talent for out--of-this-world orchestration techniques, and he shows it off in this score! My favorite cues are The Spirit Within, Code Red, Winged Serpeant, Zeus Cannon, Flight to the Wasteland, Dead Rain, Blue Light! But, they're all good! Even the vocals are good! People say it doesn't sound like a Nobuo Uematsu Final Fantasy score. Well, duh!! It's not supposed to! Sure, Uematsu's music to the games was great (I own most of the soundtracks), but Goldenthal approached the movie with a score that fits! Uematsu just couldn't have done it the way Goldenthal did, no matter what anyone says! Elliot Goldenthal was the perfect choice to score this movie, and he gave us a brilliant masterpiece filled with darkness, terror, mystery, and spirit!

I liked Final fantasy but I LOVE this soundtrack. Firstly its an instrumental soundtrack (I hate those song inspired soundtracks) and the orcestrated portion is masterfully done.

The creme on the cake however are the last 2 tracks (as everyone has said). "The Dream Within" is absolutly beautiful. Lara Fabien has an AMAZING voice. "Spirit dreams inside" is also quite good (i'd never hear of the band that does this one till now) but not as good as "The Dream Within".

Heck, just buy it for "The Dream Within".

This CD has been spinning in my CD player non stop since I got it and it'll be spinning in my CD player for many years to come.

Wow, simply the best movie soundtrack I've heard in a long, long time. Only playing a handful of the games and listening to a good amount of the music produced by the composer (sorry, don't know how to spell his name) I have gathered the movie to be a hit but I had a certain expectation for the music. Knowing that the composer of the games really makes a landmark every time he makes a game soundtrack I hoped that the film soundtrack would be nothing less. Thus, I present to you my opinion that the soundtrack meets those hopes and then some. In a way, the soundtrack didn't sound like the game music in a sense because it's not a game rather a movie soundtrack. But don't let that discourage you, because I've heard Elliot Goldentahl's last soundtracks and they were amazing also. So it would seem that Square would pick him for the job since he has the background of a real composer that could fit the criteria of an emotional and beautiful movie. He has some really "big sounding" tracks in the score and some really soft and emotional pieces also. Without a doubt, Goldenthal has captured not only my imagination, he's made me buy a soundtrack without even seeing the movie, which is something I've never done and I'm happy with my choice. Buy it.

I'm not a great fan of the gaming series. With that said, I can only lead the average (or otherwise) soundtrack patron to believe that I am basing my opinions of the series and the film on the previews I've seen, and it seems phenominal. The subject alone, with the marriage of philosophical, scientific and cult-fiction elements, has caught my attention and now, with the release of the score to this cinematic marvel, I am fully resolved to enjoy this film.

Now I don't know the mystique surrounding this Uematsu fellow, who I gather scored the games, but Elliot Goldenthal surpasses my own expectations as to the substance of music in the film. He has surprised us all before with his Heat, Alien 3, Titus and even the ill-fated Batman scores, but with this he invites us into a further developed example of his art. The score lavishes the senses with its own method of melodrama and genuine excitement, which has been evident before in only a few tracks from his latter scores, such as Alien 3's ''Adagio" and the orchestral accompaniment to the alien creature's death, with lightly falling violins and heavier, magnanimous brass. Particularly for this score, track 9 and 16 fall into the range of heavier emotion, while tracks 2 and 5 give a lighter appeal to the action in the film. On a whole, the score is a marvel, with its only shortcomings being the final two tracks, both lyrical and depressingly inadequate, and its short running length, the entirety being just shy of an hour. A must have for any Goldenthal or film score enthusiast.

When I got this CD, I didn't expect a good soundtrack, but to my surprise, Elliot Goldenthal put together a great sounding score for Final Fantasy. There is almost 40 minutes of really good music with a few tracks having some not so good music. The soundtrack has some very powerful music and big sounds. I think this soundtrack would make a great addition to any collection.

This is a nice and emotional CD. But there is something that buged me the most. Alot of Reveiwers said that the last track,"the Spirits Dreams Inside" was a waste. I LOVE THAT SONG! Infact, right now that is my most favorite song in the world. And I have to say, that is a very cool song. L'Arc~En~Ciel is a good band, and will always be. And for some of you who don't know, the main singer that sang most of it was Hyde. So back off of that song, it rocks

Let me start off by saying that while I'm a Final Fantasy fan, and have loved Nobuo Uematsu's influences on the game series, I haven't heard Eliot Goldethal before now. This has all changed. I wasn't really execting the happy sounding music of Mr. Uematsu's music to enter this music, as I tend to look at each composer with a fresh light. Eliot Goldenthal's style is a refreshing change. The London Symphony Orchestra made the action tracks exciting, terrifying and fascinatingly complex; while the beautiful piano part created a romantic and sad setting in 'The Kiss' and 'A Child Recalled'. Track 16, sung by Lara Fabian is a beautiful love song that has none of the cheesiness of the Love themes from many other films. Track 17 by Arc-en-Ciel I have to say was a surprise after the generally gloomy music of the rest of the CD (I'm not saying that the gloominess was a bad point), but it grew on me after a couple of listenings. Though it's not a perfect all round CD, it has so many good points that it deserves repeated listenings.

This has to be Goldenthal's best score to date! It's an orchestral masterpiece performed by none other than the London Symphony Orchestra.

Let me explain a few awesome tracks before giving the downside to this release.

The album opens with ambient noise and dark choir, much like Horner's Aliens. The second track, "Race to Old New York", doesn't appear on the film, or as this cue version does on the album. It's played by racing strings and low brass. Very good track and one of my favorites.

"The Kiss" proves to Hollywood and Goldenthal skeptics that he is able to pull of romantic, soothing themes. "The Kiss" is a romantic theme played by piano with some strings.

"Toccata and Dreamscapes" is the longest and most difficult track to perform. Goldenthal employs 40 French horns (!) to blast, grunt and shrill away every once in a while during the percussion and interrupted string action. One of the best tracks!

"Adagio and Transfiguration" closes the score album with a sad, sweeping reprise of the romantic theme and finishes on a solo trumpet.

Between all of these reviewed tracks are mixtures of sweeping cues, rolling strings, tense moments and dark choir. All this makes for a very diverse range of music on about 50 minutes of score for this release.

The album ends with two songs. Lara Fabian's rendition of the love theme in pop form is nice but is ruined by the last song on the album not worth mentioning. The rock song ruins the entire listening experience.

The Complaints:
One I've already mentioned: the stupid rock song at the end of the CD; two, the music is not in chronological order, but I guess it makes for a better listening experience; and three, much good music is missing! "Dead Rain" is almost 8 minutes long on the film and we only get about 2 minutes on the album cut. The good thing about the special edition DVD is that we get the option of an isolated track and commentary by Elliot Goldenthal. Goldenthal is smart leaving the music cues that didn't appear on the album uncommented.

Get this soundtrack and the special edition DVD. They're worth every penny!

If you've seen Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within DVD, you've probably listened to the isolated score with commentary by Elliot Goldenthal, during which you will notice that he talks over certain bits of score but leaves other chunks of score alone, un-interrupted.

It more or less translates to this: The sections of score he talks over seem to all be here on the soundtrack and well covered. The several chunks of score he doesn't talk over some over eight minutes in length: completely axed and not used for this soundtrack.

"Dead Rain" is missing about seven minutes of great scoring which blend into it seemlessly in the film. Why do those responsible for cutting the score for a film's soundtrack axe some of the better parts (in my mind) in exchange for one or two tracks that don't seem to tell as much of a story? I've experienced this with so many scores I've bought. Exceptional pieces used in films getting axed.. and for what? The expense of a second disc? I'd gladly pay for a second disc or for a third folks. I really would, especially with scores like this.

Which is why I'm giving this soundtrack 3 stars. Not because the music sucks, it's great and I enjoyed every minute of it. Just remember to own the film on DVD as well as this soundtrack so you can get a little extra from Elliot.