The Best Cinema I've Seen All Month...

...And it's a freakin' video-game trailer.

This week as my tech-savvy, cutting edge friends are all Facebooking about their lust for the new iPhone, my music-maven, pop-loving, and gaming pals are raving over the opening cinematic animation for the new Beatles: Rock Band game, set to arrive in stores in early September. (And some are giddy about both.)

Now I don't play Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but I'm sure I'd instantly become suitably addicted if given half the chance, especially if it's the music of the Beatles (or better yet, the Stones). I do love the Beatles, like any right-minded human being--they're one of the few pop culture phenomenons that cannot be overexposed, overhyped, or backlashed on. They are just too good, too timeless, too important. (I'm an Abbey Road guy, myself.)

But that's besides the point. This isn't about the Rock Band game, or really even about the Beatles: it's about roughly a minute of animated footage, at the end of the trailer, that is not only some of the coolest imagery I've seen in a long while, but absolutely inspiring, invigorating in its creativity. It was created by Harmonix, the company designing the game for Electronic Arts and MTV Games.

If you're already feeling a bit bloated and logy and sugar-crashing from just six week's worth of summer styrofoam movies, let this cleanse your palette and squeegee your third eye clean. When James wrote so eloquently a few weeks ago about how Pixar needs to bust out of the box, this is the kind of thing that leapt to my mind--what I dream of seeing them doing on a grand, epic scale. Something that gets back to the sort of experimentation and imagination that fueled the animation of folks like Ralph Bashki in the '70s.

The first half of the Beatles: Rock Band cinematic is very cool stuff, but be sure to hang in for the last third--that's the point at which this goes beyond a game ad or a nostalgic trip down Penny Lane and becomes something breathtakingly dazzling. The sort of soaring creative imagery we need to see much more of in fantasy or science fiction filmmaking, live-action or animated. (And yes, Julie Taymor give it a whirl in the wildly uneven Across the Universe, an earnestly corny hit-and-miss Beatles musical that does grow on me as time goes by.)

Check it out at the game site here, or the embedded video below:

Yeah? Howsabout that gigantic Ganesh-y Hindu Rhino-phant, huh? Be gone, Wolverine and Transformers and Harry Potter! Gigantic Ganesh-y Hindu Rhino-phant is my new summer hero! I love his regal, majestic stride! I love his flag! And his tuba! I want to see an entire animated feature revolving around him. That last minute of the piece is like The Lion King's "Circle of Life" gathering on acid. By way of Salvador Dali. While floating down the Ganges.

Yeah, it's promotional material, a commercial. Yeah, it's for a video game. But right now, this month, this is the most exciting, inspiring bit of cinema vision around. Now get out there and top it, Hollywood.

Comments

[Dreyesbo]

You say "it's from a videogame" like it's a bad thing :/
At least that's what I get from the post.

Another trailer for a game (this time one based on Star Wars) was released last week; it was hailed as being better than the three prequels, and I sort of agree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6IAoPAjzpw

[Locke Peterseim]

No, I didn't mean it that way, Dreysbo -- it's just that this is a MOVIE blog, so I was merely pointing out that the subject of the post really has nothing directly to do with MOVIES.

And yes, that Star Wars Old Republic cinematic is hawt. Of course, more and more we learn that the best way to do really great stuff in the Star Wars creative melliu is to keep George Lucas as far away from it as possible. (See: The Clone Wars)

[Dreyesbo]

Oh, okay :)

[Jason]

The way I took it was that you'd think the best cinema around would actually be in the cinema industry. That someone in the video game industry beat out the supposed "pros" in Hollywood is a little shocking, but very interesting. Wired.com did an interesting interview with Guillermo del Toro that briefly touches this topic. Check it out, and then come back to Redblog for more awesomeness!