I've become a huge fan of the beginning voiceover (such as the brilliant one in The Fellowship of the Ring which supplies everything you must know to understand the rest of the movie). Even during a movie, the voiceover can make pure magic happen as the audience is directly told what it needs to know. Of course, this in books is usually frowned upon as pointless narration. However, there are times in the visual medium of movies where it just has to be told, and visuals would take too long. Done well they are dynamite.
More and more, when a movie begins with a voiceover I actually find myself perking up. It's like the storyteller is keen on providing a broader world that what's seen, and I'm just as keen to find out everything I can. Plus, there are certain voices that have such incredible tonality to them that they could read their shopping list and make it sound like Hamlet. But even without having someone of that degree, the voiceovers go over pretty well.
Voiceovers provide a glimpse of something greater, and that's especially hard to pull of within a medium as visual as movies. But, like anything else, overdoing it makes it awful. The best times I've seen voiceovers used are at the beginning, or when a major early development takes place. After the movie is well into its runtime, the voiceover just gets in the way. Modern movies seem to be pulling it off very well, and I'm always eagerly anticipating the next step into something larger and greater than what I see right before me.
- M
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