SNSD (Girls Generation)'s The Boys MV Review

Initial Reaction:
I did not like it at all, when it came to the song.  I first watched it in Korea without subtitles.  I didn't find it catchy and I do not appreciate artists who say how great they (as a group) are in the lyrics; so i was turned off early on.  I did like the music video itself.  It was nice to see them be confident and therefore sexy, not aegyo.  However, I felt like the intro built up the rest of the video to be something completely different.  First of all, the whole setting at the start was odd (a giant crystal in a cold wasteland) then she sees something within a jem. . . okkkaaaaay.  Then we get Super Junior bass with all the girls in formal dresses in a super dramatic scene.  I was expected a power hitting song and video like BEG's Sixth Sense which had a dramatic intro, but nope.  Girls Gen blue balled me, anticlimactic isn't something you want to describe your video.  What happened to that dove?

The Costume and Set Designs:
There were three different dance shot sets and two close up sets.  The close up shots were gorgeous.  The background for the dance shots were standard quality, some kind of cool set but nothing too colorful.  The costume designers had some work to do.  Each girl and dance shot had a different outfit, but both the close ups had the same dress.  Unlike K-Pop boy bands (with the exception of Super Junior), all of their clothing choices were beautiful.

Now when it came to a particular issue, that I touched on earlier, I was unsure where to address it.  Like the instrumental intro compared to the rest of the song, one of the close-up shots didn't fit.  The black back-drop with the rose petals is absolutely lovely and I would love to see this used again, but where did it come from.  Yeah and while we are at it, what about the dove?  How does this have anything related to the crystals used everywhere else, and nothing seem to match the lyrics.  I mean they have a floating crystal, but that is just lazy.  My theory is they are dancing inside the crystal cave and then they dance in front of it and the rose room is just. . . there I guess.

Cinematography (Angles and Lighting) and Choreography:
Again the cinematography is pretty standard; no cool camera techniques like Super Junior's A-Cha.  They do some variety, so it isn't too dull like Hello Project's dance shots.  They do play around with the lightning, again nothing spectacular (for example BEG's Abracadabra).  Everything looks great, but I wasn't in love when I saw it.  I expect that from Girls Gen.  They do the standard that most female units do but better (close up and dance shots in a studio).  The choreography didn't grab me, they tend to do a good job.  There wasn't any dance formations or moves that stood out.  I did like something here or there, but nothing dance wise worth mentioning.

The Lyrics, Vocals, and Instrumental:
I don't love the instrumental or the vocals.  The lyrics were alright.  I like variety, I like different, so Girls Gen is kind of boring because there are like 50 other girl groups in Korea doing the same thing, maybe with a smaller budget.  I do not approve of the English version at all.  Kudos for trying it, but the lyrics are not as good as the original Korean and it is lame.  The rhyming and meaning is generic.  I don't believe it is worth it.  Oh, and couldn't understand what they were saying at times.  I much prefer the hilariously bad uses of English in foreign songs to generically poor English version.  At least AKB's had the same meaning, but didn't sound as natural.

[I originally posted the English version of their song, 

but apparently they don't have it available in AMERICA!  WTF!] 

Overall Opinion:

The video was kind of a less impressive female version of Super Junior.  I like that played around with the chorus by doing a rap-like thing, but the lyrics were not up to snuff.  They did a good job, but not something I would want to show people.