Customer Reviews

HIM - Poison Arrow

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What the heck is Poison Arrow, you may be asking yourself. It is the self-described "unauthorized documentary film packed with exclusive interviews." The first deceit that will get you is the part that says "exclusive interviews". You will think, oh cool, exclusive band interviews. Nuh-uh. These are interviews not with the band, but with people close to them. This is similar to the show "Driven" on VH1, where they have all these close people talk about the band or artist in question, without ever talking to said artist. Turned off from it yet? There's more. Driven features footage of the artist/band growing up, lots of photos, and background music from the artists. This does not.

This documentary has pretty much one real HIM clip that is divided over the length of the movie, and it was taken in an HMV music store. The only background music-and there is a ton-is by everyone but HIM. There are a few pictures, 10 tops, most of which are re-used over and over.

This documentary does have a plus side in that it talks to people the viewer would not often hear from, namely:

* Ville's father, Kari Valo
* Close friend and colleague of the band, Silke Yli Sirniöe
* PR and Tour Organiser, [sic] Tomi Saarinen
* Finnish DJ, Steve Price
* Founder of Goth Metal Meltdown magazine, Natasha Scharf

But that does not make up for the fact that it has next to no HIM-related material. It features no music by the band, nor any performances by them, for this DVD is unauthorized. On top of that, they add insult to injury by showing tons of footage of people who kind of appear to be HIM, but they cleverly (or not?) never show their faces. It uses "rare footage" (the HMV clip??), "exclusive interviews" with everyone but the band, "previously unpublished photographs" (half of which are readily available on the internet), and a bunch of other stuff just vague enough to trick the average shopper into thinking this DVD is worth buying. You know I had my choice recently: to get a special edition of Dark Light or to get Poison Arrow for 6 dollars less. Damn my thrifty ways.

Another bothersome point is that they chose to get a narrator who obviously knows nothing about the band. If she did, after all, she would pronounce their names right. This isn't just your standard "vill-uh" vs. "vill" vs. "veel" debate... she calls him "vill" about four seconds after they show footage of his father calling him by his name, and pronouncing it "vill-uh"... and she messes up all the other names she can, too. She has not a freaking clue, and she has a very forced, snooty British accent.

The "documentary" is only 60 minutes long, and so one might hope that the bonus content makes up for it. Nope. Firstly, there is a redundantly named "trivia quiz" which is only 15 questions long. Nextly, is the "full discography". The albums section is painfully inaccurate, not only by not citing any of the special editions with bonus songs, but by messing up at least one song title, and by using the American version of Razorblade Romance with the German release date. It also lists "Poison Heart" and "And Love Said No (New Version)" [i.e. the 616 version, unbeknownst to the fools who made this thing] as tracks 11 and 12 on the newest album, Dark Light. It is, like all other HIM albums, basically a 10-track CD, with two bonus tracks... but those are not them. Even if they were going to go ahead and break their non-bonus-track-listing habit for the new album, I would at least expect them to know the freaking tracks [which are Venus (In Our Blood) and The Cage, respectively].

Continuing about the discography, the Singles section too, is messed up. It lists the 666 Ways to Love EP as a single, and the entire format of the singles section is messed up. It is also worth mentioning that they show this EP a lot in the documentary, and they have completely removed the words His Infernal Majesty from the cover, possibly in a way to keep it more legal, or possibly in an attempt not to have to explain the band name origin. I don't have the attention span to sort through all of the singles and tell you what all is wrong, so we will move to the curious Miscellaneous section. Within, the first pages are of DVD's... it lists the Video Collection and Love Metal Archives... it gets points for being up-to-date. Nextly is the Maximum HIM CD that can be found on eBay as a fraudulent album... it turns out that the same rats behind this DVD made the CD and are marketing it through this DVD.

Then there's the Beyond DVD section. It's noted on the back of the DVD case. One would think there was something really good, really beyond here... the one thing that makes this DVD worth owning. It is this: an ad for the Maximum HIM CD they sell on eBay.

Basically, this DVD contains some cool info but not enough to merit watching its entirety, nor meriting the price I paid ($20). I would pay three dollars for this after having seen it, and that's being generous considering there's not even an insert piece in the case, and that even the boxart is poorly done.

If you go off of the price I would pay against what I did pay, then this is a

1.5/10: Worthless

I honestly didn't like the DVD. I am a big fan of the band, but it was like watching PBS do a special on HIM. It was almost as if it was a student made film. It was slow moving, had interviews with a lot of people who didn't seem all there, not to mention their PR person was totally wasted the entire time she was talking. Way to represent the band.

Poison Arrow is a great DVD full of clips of HIM and Ville, live footage and photos. Those that work with the band reveal the stories, and also Ville's dad is interviewed. At the end there is a fantastic section with a quiz about the band, for those that are new to HIM and their music this is a fantastic film to get the low down on where they came from and what they're about!

Greetz Him Family and those curious about the band that has caused so much attention from Finland reaching all over the globe creating even HIM Families (Trust me they do exhist.. many of us have traveled quite far to meet our Him sisters and brothers..but this isn't about that)

***TRUTH ABOUT POISON ARROW ONCE AND FOR ALL!! ---- ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO DONT READ THEIR DVD CASE AND/OR DESCRIPTION ON HERE THEN SCREAM AND GET ALL CRAP GIVING 1 STAR SAYING THIS DVD IS A LIE............... WELL. HERE WE GO! **********8

Seems there is entirely WAYYYYY to many people who are angry and making this DVD look bad by giving 1 star when in fact what they have received is EXACTLY what the DVD case says, the EVERYTHING says which is this..ok..FRONT COVER.. "POISON ARROW ... An UNAUTHORIZED DOCUMENTARY FILM PACKED WITH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS" ____ ok everyone WHERE does it say this is a HIM MUSIC VID??? Hmmm NOWHERE!

^^^ IN FACT THIS DVD DELIVERS EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS WHICH IS ..... A DOCUMENTRY...WITH INTERVIEWS! ^^^

How DARE you call yourself a FAN when then you give THEM bad ratings on a DVD that CLEARLY states it is UNAUTHORIZED!! They are allowed to use their music DUH! Ever hear of a LAWSUIT? Ville allowed his father to give extensive information of Villes life and all the guys from early on which is a GIFT to us!! Do you REALLY think the record Label would let their music be on this?? If you wanted a concert than you should have bought a concert..there's plenty to choose from.

****** ^^ -- This DVD is FULL of never before seen photographs, has a digital trivia quiz (super cool!) a "beyond DVD" section and much more. Also the interviews are never before seen from the D who was there thru it all AND talks about the rise of HIM plus other things.TONS OF UNKNOWN BEFORE THINGS.

SO, before screaming all over this DVD in the comments and going ballistic at least give the facts to people before you get all crazy about where's the HIM music. If you expected it I don't know what to say except for what I already have.

FOR HIM FANS------------------- THIS IS A MUST FOR ALL OF US AND YU'LL LOVE IT!! VILLES DAD'S CLASSIC and you can see how supportive he has always been. He has things to say of all the guys when they were young. Mige in the Army *OMG* haha..I won't give it all away but PLEASE don't judge this DVD by the peoples comments who didn't read a word B4 buying...

DEFINATELY GET IT NOW CUZ THERE'S NOT MANY LEFT..This DVD is extremely Out Of Print.

RAZORBLADE KISSES AND HEARTAGRAM HUGS ......always ;)

Even though there isn't much of the band in it, it's a great source to get to know more about the band. It was how I found out that Lily Lazer also went by more than just two names, and that Ville had a bit of a anti-social problem as a child. If you're a new die-hard fan and want to know as much as you can about them, this is the perfect video to get. Watch it as many times as you want, it never gets boring. ^_^

NOT AUTHORIZED BY HIM. NOT OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE. ADD THIS DVD ONLY IF YOU ARE A HIM COLLECTOR. CONTAINS CLIP ART, COPIED INTERVIEWS - NO LIVE MUSIC...IN FACT NO MUSIC AT ALL!!!

This crappy documentary is a complete waste of time! There isn't even any HIM music - just some "rockin" documentary filler music... it's so bad, hard to describe... There's nothing on this anyway that you haven't seen before, except perhaps for the footage of Ville's dad, which was kind of cool... but not cool enough to make up for the painfully lame rest of the DVD. !!!

recomend for any new fans but if you have a fancy dvd player this will not work for you time to go to wal-mart

I really enjoyed this DVD. Ville Valo rocks & HIM are brilliant!!!! There were long interviews with his dad - which showing what Ville was like from an early age. It has loads of interviews with people that know the band - including a lady that helped break them. There could have been more photos of Ville, but I did have fun doing the quiz!

All you want to know about H.I.M, very unusual recordings, videos and interviews. Made for H.I.M lovers!!!