Some of the most successful computer games in terms of sales are those based around popular films.  Indeed, today every big blockbuster needs a computer game tie-in - it's become almost as common a marketing ploy as the book and the soundtrack.  In the comparatively recent past, things have gone full circle and there have been several films based on computer games - like Resident Evil or of course the Tomb Raider movies.  Final Fantasy was one of the highest-profile, with much attention focusing on the CGI animation, with this being the first real attempt to make a film with animated characters specifically designed to look real.  Exactly why you would want to do that I'm not sure, but some people seem fairly obsessed by the idea: I remember all the headlines at the time the film came out about how it would be the death of the actor and what-not, but ever since the film's release (and well-documented failure at the box office), the idea seems to have died something of a death.

The one aspect of the film that won near-universal acclaim was Elliot Goldenthal's score.  He is often erroneously seen as a composer whose music is somewhat detached and unemotional, but I think the reverse is true.  Because occasionally his music doesn't follow a traditional melodic structure certainly doesn't make it unemotional and indeed he seems better able to draw up musical portraits of characters than most of his contemporaries.  

Goldenthal's score for Final Fantasy does everything you might expect.  And, in this case, that's certainly a good thing.  Rather strangely it seemed to attract a lot of praise from non-Goldenthal fans - I say this is strange because it's probably the prototypical Goldenthal score, containing virtually all of his usual trademarks.  Echoes of Alien 3 and Sphere are particularly strong.  This is big, big music with rasping, growling brass dominating proceedings; and of course there's also the familiar shimmering strings, fluttering winds and pounding percussion.  Goldenthal was keen to stress the human aspects of the film (which were obviously lacking on a visual level) and did this with a gentle piano theme which he points out in his liner notes, but in truth it plays a fairly minimal role ("The Kiss" being the most obvious).  Elsewhere it's generally massive action music all the way, with the mammoth "Toccata and Dreamscapes" being a particular highlight.  A typically moving, tremendously powerful finale - "Adagio and Transfiguration" is very similar to Michael Collins and Titus - and is arguably the best track on the album.

This is one of the most portentous and downright loud film score albums I've come across.  Goldenthal's writing is always so interesting - he uses an orchestra so well - and he comes up with a couple of really killer action themes this time round.  When he adds the choir everything just gets bigger and more impressive still.  There are a couple of songs - "The Dream Within" being a beautiful effort penned by Goldenthal and sung by Lara Fabian - rounding out the album.  Overall I think it loses marks for treading too close to previous efforts on similar films, but disregard that and you have a great, highly-satisfying album.

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