Book Review: The Art of Film Volume 2: Fantasy

We now have the second volume for The Art of Film series after three months. Imaginefx sure knows how to put out these books quickly.

I borrowed this book from Basheer Graphic Books, a bookstore in Singapore, for this review.

Just like the earlier book, this is a large format paperback artbook. This is almost like a magazine because the paper quality is similar to their ImagineFX magazines.

There are 178 pages of wonderful artworks either inspired by or created as concept art for the films. Some of the artists featured are John Howe, Alan Lee, Drew Struzan, Michael Kutsche, Brian Froud, Iain McCaig, Mark Molnar and many more.

There are 24 films featured. The selection seems pretty random. There's Star Wars which is already in the earlier book so I wonder why it's in this book again.

Here's the full list of films

• Star Wars
• Time Bandits
• Conan the Barbarian
• Gremlims
• Dune
• Ghostbusters
• The Neverending Story
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Labyrinth
• Mars Attack
• Godzilla
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• The Lord of the Rings
• Hellboy
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Alice in Wonderland
• Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
• John Carter
• The Hobbit
• Pacific Rim

The artworks are fantastic and the writeup are particularly insightful. The artists talk about their projects in great detail, what it's like drawing for film and are not shy to talk about the negative stuff as well, such as why John Carter tanked at the box office despite the awesome visual effects and concept artworks.

It's a great book. I hope to see these series being compiled into hardcovers in the future.