Introduction to the blog and Savin' Me by Nickelback

Hello, rest of the world.  I realized that I quite liked doing a review-a-day for my other blog, book du jour, which can be found here: www.bookdujour.blogspot.com

Unlike books, I have only a little bit of experience with music videos.  This is because the songs I listen to generally don't have music videos: I pretty much only listen to the sixties and seventies, and music videos start off pretty much in the eighties.  However, whenever I'm on a website and a music video is mentioned, I will always watch it, and I have written a couple of songs and have a clear idea of what I want the music videos to look like.  From the few I've watched, I've developed a standard for music videos, which I will give points based on.  Because, as I said earlier, I do not listen to music from 1980 to the present year (currently 2011, but who knows, music might actually become good next year, so I won't say just 1980 and afterwards.), and, in fact, I do not like said music, the videos I review will be reviewed purely on the video and not on the song.  Unlike my other blog, I will allow music videos I have watched in the past and, hopefully, keep a large backlog.

1 point if the music video in question has very good dancing or no dancing.
1 point if the music video has no dancing.
1 point if the music video has something from the beginning come into play at the end.
1 point if the music video has a series of related images, a theme, or a plotline.
1 point if the music video has a theme or a plotline.
1 point if the music video has a plotline.
1 point if the music video is either depicts extreme coolness or extreme realism.
1 point if the music video, if it has a plotline or theme, has no diversions from it.
1 point if the music video does something creative.
1 point to spare in case I really like it.

Those are my criteria.

Now that that's over with, let's kick this blog off with a music video I very much enjoyed, Savin' Me by Nickelback (do you put the name of a music video in italics?)

To start off, I loved the plot.  It was new and fresh, with everything thought of and lots of wonderful images: the pregnant woman and the old lady, for example.  The plot went as follows: a man is walking down the sidewalk and is about to cross when somebody stops him and pulls him back just as a large vehicle blasts past.  The man looks around at everything and starts pulling people aside to swat at the area on top of their heads.  It is soon revealed that he sees glowing numbers above each person's head showing how long they have to live.  A pregnant woman has a number over her womb area as well, and an old lady being rushed to the hospital has her time run out right before his eyes.  He looks at his reflection in a store window but cannot see his own number.  He sees a woman whose number is going down about to enter her car sharply and pulls her aside just as something big and heavy (what was that thing?) falls on her car.  He walks among the crowd normally and the woman can now see numbers above people's heads.  The entire thing is, unfortunately, interspersed with shots of a group of people, presumably the band, standing around in a room with no particular purpose.

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQiEs32SqQ&ob=av2n


1 point if the music video in question has very good dancing or no dancing.
No dancing here!  Thank goodness.  It really takes away from a good music video.
1 point if the music video has no dancing.
Check.
1 point if the music video has something from the beginning come into play at the end.
Absolutely.  In the beginning, somebody saves the protagonist's life and he can see the numbers.  When he saves the woman's life at the end, she can see the numbers.  It isn't quite as poignant as it could be, but it still gets the point.
1 point if the music video has a series of related images, a theme, or a plotline.
Yay!  A plotline!  And a very good one, at that.  The plot here blows the socks off of some other plotlines I've seen.
1 point if the music video has a theme or a plotline.
There is a big difference between a theme in a plotline, but it's a bit hard to explain.  The best way to put it is that most plotlines have multiple characters, whereas most themes have zero characters.  A theme would be "Wild West Themed."  A plotline would be "A cowboy has a showdown at the bar with his nemesis over his true love."  Anyways, as said earlier, this song has a plotline.
1 point if the music video has a plotline.
Check.
1 point if the music video is either depicts extreme coolness or extreme realism.
Extreme realism here.  The way he looks at people strangely and gets his bearings for a few seconds is one example.  Another is that the powers seem to be internally consistent.

1 point if the music video, if it has a plotline or theme, has no diversions from it.
Sorry, but this point is lost.  It cuts to random scenes of what is possibly the band, singing in a room.  It detracts from the story.
1 point if the music video does something that makes you think. 
The whole premise is creative.  Similar things have been done, but not in a music video, as far as I know, and not like this.

1 point to spare in case I really like it.
Definitely.  I love this video.

This video gets a 9/10.  

I am HIGHLY up for suggestions for music videos to review.