We have a wonderful new UK trailer for director Bill Condon's Mr. Holmes, which stars Sir Ian McKellen (The Hobbit, X-Men, The Lord of the Rings) as an aging Sherlock Holmes opposite Laura Linney (Kinsey, You Can Count on Me). This looks like it's going to be a great film, and it's based on the novel called A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin.

The story is set in 1947 "when an aging Holmes returns from Japan, where, in search of a plant with powerful restorative qualities, he has witnessed the devastation of nuclear warfare. Now in his remote seaside farmhouse Holmes faces the end of his days tending to his bees with only the company of his housekeeper (Linney) and her young son, Roger. Grappling with the diminishing powers of his mind, Holmes comes to rely upon the boy as he revisits an unsolved case which forced him into retirement, and searches for answers to the mysteries of life and love – before it’s too late."

Mr. Holmes will be released in theaters on July 17th!

One of the coolest things that I saw at Star Wars Celebration 2015 was when the new BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens was introduced to a crowd of excited fans. I knew that the droid was a practical effect, but seeing it in person actually working was pretty mind-blowing. 

Now thanks to industrial designer Christian Poulsen, you can learn how to build your own mini version of the adorable droid! Apparently the main ingredients include a sphero and magnets. You can watch a video below of his creation in action below, and if you want to make your own all you need to do is click here.

Universal Pictures has released their latest full trailer for Jurassic World. Dinosaur genetic modifications may up the wow factor, but it also ups the running, screaming, and death factor as well. What did these investors and scientists think would happen if they tried screwing around with this kind of stuff? At least it looks like it's going to make for an awesome movie! They created a dinosaur called Indominus Rex, which is bigger than a T-Rex, and this trailer offers up even more details and footage of what they cooked up in their labs.

Jurassic World stars Chris Pratt as the dinosaur trainer Owen Grady, Bryce Dallas Howard as park operations manager Claire Dearing, and Irrfan Khan as park owner Simon Masrani, with Vincent D’Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Judy Greer, Omar Sy, Nick Robinson, and Ty Simpkins. BD Wong returns from the original as geneticist Henry Wu, who you’d think would know better by now.

The park is open on June 12th.

I'm sure that after years of watching Disney animated movies you have noticed that the studio seems to find joy in letting their villains fall to their demise. Sometimes they died, sometimes they didn't, it's just the family friendly way of taking out the villains. 

YouTube user ChiefBrodyRules created a supercut that features several of these villains falling, and here's an explanation of the video from the creator:

This is a compilation of all the falls from Walt Disney's Animation Studios. I didn't include clips from Pixar or their other companies. Just the main movies. I've always wanted to make this. I hope you enjoy!

I tried to stick with the falls. Not so much being sucked down (Jafar, Horned King). Big Hero 6 doesn't really count because he was instantly caught (believe me, I thought about it. The fall has to have a landing.). Yzma counts because it's a parody of villain falls. This video was made for fun. Enjoy! :)

The qualifications: 

1.) The act of falling. 
2.) They have to land the fall. (not be caught or saved)
3.) The falls used are at the point of the movie where the villain is "defeated" or looses.
4.) This not a video of every literal fall. It's to point out on how most Disney villains fall when they are "defeated". 
5.)The Yzma fall parodies this so I counted it.

After you watch the video, let us know what your favorite Disney fall is.

Via: Laughing Squid

Microsoft has released a new adrenaline-fueled trailer for 343 Industries' Halo 5: Guardians, and in it we see Spartan Locke epically kicking Covenant ass. I love how the action plays out in this trailer, and it definitely got me amped up to play this game!

The trailer also serves as an ad for Halo 5's incoming pre-order bonuses. If you purchase the game early at Gamestop, you will get Locke's armour and helmet to use in the game's multiplayer component.

Halo 5: Guardians continues the story of the Master Chief, and introduces a brand new central character to the Halo universe – Spartan Locke (as seen in the liveaction series “Halo: Nightfall”). Peace is shattered when colony worlds are unexpectedly attacked. And when humanity’s greatest hero goes missing, Spartan Locke is tasked with hunting the Master Chief and solving a mystery that threatens the entire galaxy.

Halo 5: Guardians will be released on Xbox One on October 27th, 2015.

Game: Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter

Platform: PC/Xbox One/PS4

Genre: Free to Play MMO/Microtransactions

It's not often you see an MMO make its way to consoles, much less so early into a next gen console's lifespan. When I first saw Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter was free to play, I was immediately skeptical. Just how does an MMO make money without a subscription model? I downloaded it, ready to dump the files from my hard drive the moment I felt like "Free to play" wasn't really free to play.

It's lasted a week now, and I couldn't be happier with this game.

First off, this is a game you're going to love if you are familiar at all with the Dungeons and Dragons lore. It's been around 7-8 years since I last sat in on a game night, but even I remembered some of the spells, races, and monsters found in this game. The classes aren't limitless, but they hit some of the favorites found in the tabletop game. Currently I'm running a Drow Control Wizard, and my companion is a Human Man At Arms. The various races and classes can be found upon starting the game, so I won't waste your time with that. Let's just get down to brass tacks...

THIS GAME IS ACTUALLY FREE TO PLAY.

No tricks. No gimmicks. No level cap and then you pay. Straight free game, with the opportunity to purchase more races or additional campaigns. You want a fancy spider you can ride around town? You're going to have to pay for that, but all transactions seem to add on to an already completed game. That's some refreshing honesty that has made this my main game for the last weeks. It's also really fun as well.

As an MMO, there's really nothing that sets it apart from the market standard. You have your quests, your customizable gear, your leveled abilities, daily powers, professions, inventory, etc.... It's your run of the mill WOW clone. That's not taking away from the entertainment value because, once again, it's free and it's on a console. WOW can shove it with that fact right there.

Is it perfect? HELL NO. Frame rates tend to drop in highly populated areas causing some tremendous lag at times. The music can skip at random, and the game really doesn't explain a ton to you starting out. One of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of explanation on how to party up with friends who aren't in your server. It took a couple buddies and myself an hour and blind luck before we realized we have to exit our current location and re-enter the location after joining up to be in the same server.

All of these issues are once again forgiven because it's FREE. Playing through with friends (once you get in the same server) is a blast and the rolling system with item drops is really fair unless you have an asshole in your group who always wants every item regardless of whether or not they can use it (Shout out to Brad). Don't have any friends? It's remarkably easy to join up with others in your server simply by walking up to them.

Another appreciate feature (one that games like Destiny could take note of) is that dungeons that require a raid team to complete have active queues for those without enough players. You can queue up for the dungeons and keep playing other missions until your group is full, or just chill near the entrance and wait. Either way, you'll get in the dungeon with a full party with people at or near your level and have a blast.

As I've mentioned, I've been playing this game non stop on Xbox One and highly recommend it for anyone looking for an MMO experience on the consoles, or just a "good enough" free game. This is a game that I would've thrown a s*** fit over if I had paid money for it, but now, knowing its pitfalls, will likely drop $15-20 for additional content if I'm still playing in a month. Right now that's looking like a definite.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is Marvel's clear standout film of 2015: pretty much everyone knows about it, and not only in the geek community. Joss Whedon's first Avengers film was the third highest-grossing film of all time, so this franchise is big enough that even your parents are probably looking forward to seeing the sequel. That's not the case with Ant-Man, Peyton Reed's upcoming film starring Paul Rudd. While the geek circles are very familiar with the behind-the-scenes drama of Edgar Wright's exit, most people are still clueless about who this character is and what he has to do with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But leave it to Marvel to come up with some attention-grabbing marketing tactics to increase awareness of their new movie. Screencrush has compiled some photos from Redditors in Australia who have noticed a few ant-sized billboards pop up in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Queensland. Apparently they're even equipped with battery powered LED lights so they'll be effective at nighttime, too. Now let's just hope they expand this campaign stateside so we can check these out in person.

Ant-Man arrives in theaters on July 17th. Watch the latest trailer here, and check this out to make sure you caught everything.

One of the highlights of Star Wars Celebration for me was attending Mark Hamill’s Return of the Jedi panel. It’s always a joy watching Hamill talk about his Star Wars experiences and stories. With his triumphant return as Luke Skywalker coming up in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, everyone is even more excited about what he has to say.

During the panel, Hamill talked a little bit about the upcoming movie, and reenacted the moment when George Lucas broke the news to him and Carrie Fisher. He also shares how he learned about the title of the movie, and reveals that he only went in last week to record the voiceover of Luke Skywalker that we heard in the new teaser trailer. 

He explains that director J.J. Abrams combined his new voiceover with the same audio from the original trilogy of the same dialogue. That’s the reason why you hear the echo in the trailer. 

Hamill seems to have a tremendous love of the fans, and although he didn’t make out with any of them like Fisher did, it’s still an entertaining panel worth watching when you get a chance. I’ve embedded it for you below, thanks to mouseinfo.

"For anyone who thinks I'm insulting their Superman, let me tell you something: He doesn't belong to you."

Director Jon Schnepp has released the final trailer for his upcoming fascinating documentary The Death of Superman Live: What Happened? It features interviews with Tim Burton, producer Jon Peters, screenwriter Dan Gilroy, and more. All of them say that Burton's vision of the iconic superhero would have been awesome. Maybe it would have, regardless of Nic Cage being cast in the lead role, and the crazy weird costumes that we've seen. But we'll never know. This documentary will give us our best and most detailed look yet at what could have been.

Schnepp is still putting the final touches on the movie, but it will get a limited theatrical release on May 1st. Then, on July 9th, it will be available via streaming, DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD.

My personal rankings shift every now and then, but I have a feeling that Guardians of the Galaxy will always be near the top of my favorite Marvel films. James Gunn's movie is full of fun moments, and one of the biggest crowd-pleasers was at the very end when Baby Groot dances to The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." We already know why Groot didn't want to get caught by Drax while he was dancing, and we've seen Gunn himself do the dance (he provided the motion-capture for that sequence); now we get to relive the dance in stop-motion form, thanks to Kyle Roberts and Nathan Poppe.

Roberts took more than 1,000 photos and combined Poppe's hand-drawn background to make a heartfelt tribute to the 2014 film's final scene. Using a Hot Toys 1/4 scale Groot and Marvel Legends 6" Drax, Roberts spent dozens of hours capturing the look and feel of the Marvel film. Oklahoma City-based musician Denver Duncan provided the Jackson 5 cover.

This video is even James Gunn-approved. He left a comment on their YouTube page and tweeted the following this morning:

Wow. Sweet stop motion Drax & Baby Groot by @NathanPoppe & @VideoKyle. https://t.co/nz9ZC9pok6

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 20, 2015

Nice work, guys! Thanks to Kyle for sending this our way.

The reaction that fans had to seeing Howard the Duck at the end of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy was overwhelmingly positive, especially because the original Howard the Duck movie was such an epic disaster. The love for Howard was so strong that Marvel launched a new comic book series shortly after, and fans wondered if Marvel would ever give the character another film of his own.

George Lucas recently did an interview with Stephen Colbert at the Tribeca Film Festival, and during that interview they talked about Howard the Duck, and how the technology just wasn’t good enough to bring the character to life in 1986. Lucas said, “You can’t put a dwarf in a duck suit and make it work,” and it didn’t work!

Lucas believes that Marvel is going to remake the movie because the technology we have now makes it possible:

“I have a feeling that Marvel is gonna redo it because of the technology we have today.”  

Since Howard the Duck now exists in the Marvel cinematic universe, anything is possible. I’m not sure if they’ll ever make another movie, though. I remember Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige being asked if they would do it, and him saying that it wasn’t in their plans. But you never know!

I personally think Howard the Duck might work better as one of their Netflix series, but if they did make a new film, I’m sure Marvel would come up with a fun idea that will make fans happy.

I don't think we've seen the last of Howard the Duck. Even if he doesn’t get his own solo film, I think Marvel will eventually throw him into one of their other films as another cameo or even maybe a side character. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Via: CinemaBlend

One of the many things that I love about Firefly is that the fans refuse to let it die! We may never see an updated TV series or another movie, but the fans will never stop loving it. If you're one of these die hard fans, then you'll be happy to know that a free-online video game is going to be released, and Nathan Fillion is back to reprise the role of Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds.

A video has been released promoting the game, and it features Fillion recording his voice for the game and talking about what it was like to be involved with such a great series. He says it's one of the best jobs he's ever had. Fillion isn't the only actor from the series who will be back either. I've also included a trailer for the game. 

Firefly Online (FFO) is an online strategic roleplaying game set in the universe of Joss Whedon's cult classic TV show - Firefly.

Players take on the role of a ship captain as they hire a crew and lead missions, while trading with and competing against millions of other players like themselves. Much like the crew of Serenity, the Firefly-class transport ship featured in the original show, players must do whatever it takes to survive in the Verse: find a crew, find a job and keep flying.

The first official trailer for Zack Snyder's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped the other day, and fans aren't necessarily thrilled with what they've seen so far. It seems to be a much darker movie than Marvel's recent slate of films and appears to be even darker than Man of Steel, which got pretty grim at times. Since Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is a big inspiration for the movie, the darkness isn't too surprising, and I think WB/DC is making a smart decision not to try to directly copy the tone of Marvel's films since they're already ripping off their whole "shared universe" concept. Will Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice be any good? I think it's still a little too early to tell, but thanks to a new video from Bleacher Report (via Collider), we can at least get a closer look at Ben Affleck's Batsuit and Batmobile from the upcoming movie.

Los Angeles Clippers star DeAndre Jordan recently visited the Batman exhibit on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, and since he's a huge Batman fan, he was able to actually sit in the new Batmobile from Snyder's movie. The tour guide also showed him a close look at the new Batsuit, and their video crew managed to get some cool shots that reveal that Batman is going to be much more of a bruiser this time around than he's ever been before (check out those knuckles for proof). Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice arrives on March 25th, 2016.

Screen Junkies has released a hilarious Honest Trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. They basically used the trailer for the film that was released over the weekend, and then gave it some new voiceover work that pokes fun at the fanboy and fangirl reaction to the upcoming superhero film. It's always fun listening to and reading the arguments of fans over movies like this. and this trailer does a great job at capturing it.

Here's the first trailer for The Overnight, which stars Adam Scott and Orange is the New Black actress Taylor Schilling as a couple who moves to Los Angeles, meets some new friends, and attends their dinner party — and that's when things get really, really weird. Elijah reviewed the movie after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, saying "the film has a stellar ensemble cast and brilliantly crafts one awkward situation after the other, never failing to delightfully play with the audience's expectations."

This trailer does a great job of hinting at the insanity that the couple experiences while saving a lot of the actual craziness for the movie itself, which is a tactic that I wish more trailers would employ across the board.

The Overnight hits theaters on June 19th.

Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, have recently moved to Los Angeles’ Eastside from Seattle. Feeling lost in a new city, they are desperate to find their first new friends. After a chance meeting with Kurt at the neighborhood park, they gladly agree to join family pizza night at the home. But as it gets later and the kids go to bed, the family “playdate” becomes increasingly more revealing and bizarre as the couples begin to open up. 

Writer/director Patrick Brice’s second feature is a painfully funny take on thirty-something sexual frustration and parenthood. Featuring memorable lead performances by Taylor Schilling, Adam Scott, Jason Schwartzman, and Judith Godrèche, each actor nimbly balances the script’s sudden emotional turns from surprising honesty to complete embarrassment. Produced by Gettin' Rad and the Duplass Brothers, THE OVERNIGHT tells a complex story of universal inadequacies.

When you think about Jonah Hill and James Franco starring in a movie together, there are certain expectations that come to mind: insult humor, dick jokes, maybe a bromance or two. True Story throws all of that out the window and casts the two Apatow alums in dramatic roles without a joke to be heard in the entire film. While each man has previously dipped his toe in dramatic waters independently from one another (Moneyball, The Wolf of Wall Street, 127 Hours, As I Lay Dying), this is the first time they've been cast as leads in a serious project opposite each other, and they both dive in with conviction.

In the early 2000s, New York Times reporter Mike Finkel (Jonah Hill) is fired for misrepresenting the truth in one of his articles. Meanwhile, a man named Christian Longo is arrested for the murder of his wife and three children, and when he is apprehended, he tells police that he is Mike Finkel. It's an intriguing mystery, and Finkel - who's essentially been shunned by the writing community - sees this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redeem himself and find out the truth: did Longo really murder his family, or is he protecting someone else? Is there a greater mystery at play here? Why did he use Finkel's name?

To answer those questions in this review would rob the film of much of its drama, so I'll simply say that while the film tells a compelling story, it's definitely more of a character study than a full-on "whodunit" thriller, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

Franco (who was great in 127 Hours and downright legendary in Spring Breakers) slips into Longo's skin with ease, alternating between vulnerable and manipulative as an almost palpable menace bubbles just beneath the surface. He gives the best performance of the movie, playing a guy whose motivations are never fully known but always seem just out of reach, a sort of infuriating quality that pulls both the audience and Finkel in closer as we yearn for the truth. Hill has some strong moments, but his character is kind of a jerk who treats his wife (Felicity Jones, completely wasted here) like crap and seems willfully uninterested in anything but himself, and the actor seems reluctant to fully commit to being unlikable.

And while the movie undoubtedly tells a fascinating story (one that's much better if you don't know the details going in), there are some pretty jarring decisions that took me out of the spell first-time director Rupert Goold was trying to cast. When we first see Finkel at work at the New York Times, he's writing an article, playing a game of poker with some co-workers, and having a conversation with a girl at the desk across from his...all at the same time. The camera swoops through the action as Finkel juggles all of this, desperately attempting to make him look like the coolest writer known to man. Don't you think that if you were writing an important piece for the New York Times, you'd, oh, I don't know, actually put real thought into it instead of doing a half-assed multitasking job? Later, as Finkel types away at the book he's writing about Longo, the film intercuts his fingers on a keyboard with his wife's fingers playing the piano because...it looks artsy? She's such an afterthought in this movie, and this is one of those moments that looks flashy because it has no thematic relevance to what's happening. It's an empty stylistic choice. There are a few more instances of distracting stuff like that, and the movie suffers as a result.

If a Citizenfour-style documentary was made about this, with real footage of the conversations that Longo and Finkel had during their prison visits, that's something I'd be interested in seeing. But True Story in its current form feels unsatisfying, and despite a solid performance from Franco, it's not something I'd ever even think about watching again.

Wes Craven is set to develop a TV series based on his 1991 horror film The People Under the Stairs. This was such a twisted movie, but my brothers and I really had fun watching it when we were kids. I would have never thought that it would be resurrected as a TV series! I hope the series turns out just as jacked-up as the movie. 

The news comes from THR, who says the story will follow a young woman who goes missing at the grand Robeson Family Manor, and a search for her that "unveils the centuries-old horrors that lie deep within the estate." It is also being described as a "contemporary Downton Abbey meets Amityville Horror" type of project. Craven will executive produce the series.

The director is also developing a series called We Are All Completely Fine, which is based on a book by Daryl Gregory. It tells the story of "an enigmatic psychologist, Dr. Jan Sayer, who gathers survivors of five horror movie scenarios in a support group — and unwittingly unlocks the evils of her patients’ pasts. As their traumas are brought back to the surface, they uncover which monsters they face are within... and which are lurking in plain sight."

We Are All Completely Fine sounds like a great horror concept! Craven will write the script and direct the pilot. Both series will air on the SyFy Channel, they have solid potential, and maybe they could turn out great. 

Writer: Dennis Hopeless

Artist and Colorist: Javier Rodriguez

Inker: Alvaro Lopez

Last we left off with Ms. Drew, she and Ben Urich found themselves knee deep in some kind of Super Villain kidnapping ring, and as luck would have it happened upon one of the victims mid-bank heist: the poor soul that is The Porcupine.

Yeah, this guy. Kind of sad, right?

Now that you’re all caught up, its time to gush. This has quickly become one of the highlights of Marvel’s monthly output for me, mostly due to its sarcastic wit and likable heroine. Dennis Hopeless writes great dialog that doesn't come off as just necessary exposition, but rather down to earth conversation, with some Whedon-esque wit thrown in. Truthfully I’m hoping that once this arc is over, characters like The Porcupine and Big Wheel stick around in some way. They are just too rife with comedic possibilities to get rid of.

Exchanges like the opening segment between Porcupine and Spider-Woman, where he critiques her open mouth chewing and lack of bowls, aren't just throwaway one liners. They are referenced throughout the rest of the book, noticeably on page 4, since it's still bothering her, and page 13, where it's not directly addressed, but you can see an open box of newly purchased bowls in the corner. Things like these endear you to the cast and the world that they are living in. Page 7’s exchange with Big Wheel made me laugh out loud, and seeing how Drew reacts to these admittedly C List villains is priceless.

Seriously though, who knows an Alpaca guy?

Javier Rodriguez once again impresses on the art front. In this issue, it's mostly due to his delightful facial expressions, as there aren't a ton of action sequences here. Not that it needs it, mind you, but the few times they do pop u,p they leave an impression.

One thing I did notice, and it might not lead to anything, but Ben Urich is typically a very trustworthy individual, but in this book Rodriguez’s pencils sometimes paint a different picture. A few closeup shots of Mr. Urich reveal that everything might not be on the up and up, such as the lower right panel on page 12. Just something I noticed.

Well, that’s my piece. You can check back next month for the review on issue 7, and if you fancy more on Spider-Woman, you can catch our review for issue 5 right here. Until next time, folks.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a rant about how Paramount was reportedly planning on creating a shared cinematic universe for the Transformers films under the creative control of Batman & Robin screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. It was still just rumored at that point, but according to a shareholder call from Hasbro that took place earlier today, it's now been confirmed as their strategy moving forward.

ComingSoon has the relevant quotes:

“Our plan right now with the studio and filmmakers, you may have read something about some writers being hired,” Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro, says. “We have in fact brought in [Akiva Goldsman] to lead a group of writers to really create a strategic plan around Transformers – we think there’s any number of stories to be told. It’s a brand that’s been around for 30 years with amazing canon and mythology. We would expect the sequel to the Transformers movie to happen in 2017."

It's unclear whether Goldner means that production will begin in 2017 or that the film will be released in 2017, but either way, this is confirmation of Goldsman's writer's room concept and confirmation that Paramount is indeed putting infrastructure in place for this franchise to continue to expand over the new few years. Like I said in my initial rant, it's hard to fault them from a business perspective since these movies make serious money, but creatively, you'd be hard-pressed to find a worse movie than Transformers: Age of Extinction when looking at high-budget films of that ilk. We can only hope that the new brain trust has enough time to come up with a decent script before moving into production on this new movie. Mark Wahlberg has signed on for multiple sequels to Age of Extinction, and Michael Bay is expected to return behind the camera.

Howard Shore's masterful score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy was recently performed for the first time in America, and I was there to experience it.

From April 7th-12th, the music from the entire trilogy was performed twice by the musicians of Switzerland's 21st Century Symphony Orchestra while Peter Jackson's films played on a giant screen behind them. I was on vacation in New York City last week, and while I was there, I had the opportunity to attend a performance of The Fellowship of the Ring live in concert at the Lincoln Center. It was an amazing event that increased my appreciation and admiration for both the film and the score even more than I thought possible.

The music was literally put front and center in this performance, with the 90-piece orchestra and chorus (as well as vocal soloist Kaitlyn Lusk — tasked with emulating Enya — and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus) taking the stage as a scoreless version of the film was projected on a screen behind them. Fellowship has always been my favorite film of the trilogy, but seeing it like this really heightened the power of Shore's astounding compositions. As someone who doesn't often attend orchestral works, watching conductor Ludwig Wicki bring this music to life struck me as an impressive feat of stamina; though there was a brief intermission, the film's long runtime meant that Wicki's arms were in near constant motion, and it was clear from the opening moments that he had an absolute mastery of this material.

I knew that the orchestra would be involved but I wasn't expecting a chorus to be a part of the event, and that added a whole different sonic dimension to the performance. They sang in six languages — the Tolkien-created Quenya, Sindarin, Adunaic, Khuzdul, and Black Speech, as well as Old English — and provided an epic scope to scenes like the battle between Gandalf and Saruman. I couldn't actually understand a word of what they were saying, but it didn't matter: the power of their united voices enhanced the experience Jackson intended for his audience.

The event had an unexpected affect on me, too — it put me in the mindset of Jackson and Shore back when they were working on the movie before it was released for the first time. For me, music often fades into the background when I'm watching a movie as I get caught up in the story or characters, but with the musicians taking precendent over the images this time, I was able to watch the film in a way I never had before. I took much more notice of not only the individual notes and songs, but also the use of silences; when the orchestra relaxed between songs, my eyes turned toward the screen and I became acutely aware of the images that Jackson wanted to stand on their own without the power of the score behind them. (I know it'll be difficult, but I'd recommend that the next time you watch the movie, try to pay attention to the silences.)

It's a testament to the power of the film that even though there was a world-class orchestra performing directly in front of me, I still occasionally caught myself getting sucked into the movie itself. The visuals are so captivating, the production design so compelling, and the acting so wonderful that it's hard not to get pulled in every time I watch it. It felt like attending a live sporting event and watching it unfold on the Jumbotron instead of looking at the players on the field.

When recording scores for films, orchestras can operate much like a film production: if someone screws up, they can stop and re-record that section, and then piece everything seamlessly together afterwards and we'd never know about it. But in front of a live audience, the stakes are much higher. There are no re-takes, and even though the pressure was on and some of the performers were using bizarre, unfamiliar instruments (like chains beaten on piano wires during the Orc themes), they nailed every note and delivered an unforgettable experience unlike anything I've ever seen. Keep an eye out for future tour dates in a city near you: it's absolutely worth checking out, and you'll never watch The Lord of the Rings the same way again.