Imaginaerum by Nightwish - DVD

Content: Nightwish is not only one of the most successful bands in Finland. Also in many other countries, including especially Germany, Sweden or Norway, the band has been able to celebrate great successes with their symphonic metal sound for many years. In the course of releasing their seventh studio album Imaginaerum at the end of 2011, Nightwish have ventured into a very special project. The songs from the album provide the basis for a fantastic story, which director Stobe Harju then turned into the effective film Imaginaerum by Nightwish.

Told is the story of 75-year-old composer Thomas (Francis-Xavier McCarthy), who has been suffering from dementia for some time. His memory lapses are getting bigger and bigger and soon he can't even remember his daughter Gem (Marianne Farley). When Thomas finally falls into a coma, his life seems to be coming to an irrevocable end. But in his mind, Thomas is drawn into a dark fantasy world where he relives his childhood as an orphan boy (Quinn Lord) and must confront his traumatic relationship with his father (Ilkka Villi). And this takes on truly dangerous proportions at times...

What makes Imaginaerum by Nightwish so unusual is the fact that this is not, as one might have expected, a film aimed solely at fans of the band. While the musicians, and especially founding member Tuomas Holopainen, do make a few appearances within the story, they are not so dominant as to make this a Nightwish film. Also the songs that were the inspiration for the story were sometimes alienated for the movie in such a way that they sound more like a classic soundtrack than Nightwish. So if you expect some kind of long video clip, you will definitely be disappointed.

But if you get involved with the story, which is very nice at its core, you will realize that there is a lot of Nightwish in the project after all. But even viewers who aren't familiar with the band or aren't big fans of their music can be well entertained here, especially visually. The whole movie seems to be very artificial, because it was shot in front of a green screen in the studio, whereas the effects and most of the equipment were added on the computer later. But this artificiality fits very well with the dark dream world that Thomas must fight his way through. An evil snowman, spectacular flying scenes, a scary circus visit, all these are elements that radiate dark magic in a very special way that is hard to resist.

Surely not everyone will be able to get along with this very special style, especially since the story doesn't exactly shine with great dialogue sequences or subtlety. Dramaturgically seen Imaginaerum by Nightwish is no masterpiece. But the way the film tells its story about coming to terms with the past, getting rid of deep-seated fears and healing a destroyed father-daughter relationship in the face of approaching death is ambitious, imaginative and in some scenes really emotional, which makes small weaknesses in the dialogue or the acting performances easy to forget.

If you can get involved in this very special trip and focus mainly on the visual power of the film, you will be offered a truly magical world that could become a very special experience not only for fans of Nightwish. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The DVD's image is absolutely clean and captures the film's fantasy world very well with its sharpness, coloration and well-matched contrasts. However, the high level of sharpness also makes the computer origins of the effects more apparent, making the image seem very artificial at times. This takes some getting used to, but on the other hand, it fits the story very well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix allows voices, the bombastic music as well as the numerous smaller and larger sound effects to ring out powerfully from the speakers. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has a very good, just under 45 minutes long Making of to offer, which uses interviews and footage from the shooting to trace the making of this unusual film. A music video, a picture gallery and the trailer for the film are also offered to the interested viewer. Good!

Conclusion: Imaginaerum by Nightwish is a very unusual project that has not become a classic music film, but rather a fantasy drama inspired by the music of the Finnish band, which is somewhat weak on a dramaturgical level, but visually has some quite great and fascinating moments to offer. If you can get involved with the very special style of the film and don't expect an overlong Nightwish video clip, you will be drawn into a really magical world here, which is worth seeing even for non-fans. The DVD is technically well done and also offers a very interesting extra with a quite detailed making of. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp