Music Video Review: Beyonce “Video Phone”

By our guest blogger, Beth Hughes

Beyonce has been cranking out hits all year, and she is ending 2009 with her newest video, “Video Phone,” off her latest release, “I am…Sasha Fierce.”

I’m sure this video was no easy feat to make, seeing as she had a tough act to follow--her previous video for “Single Ladies” was dubbed by Kanye West (in his now infamous outburst at the 2009 VMAs), as “one of the best video of all time.”

The video for "Video Phone" is incredibly colorful--it almost is like she is trying to contradict everything she did in the “Single Ladies” video. The high-tech and vibrant imagery is a far cry from the three ladies in black leotards. However, I don’t know what her reasoning was behind making this video--maybe she wanted to expand her creativity, or maybe she was trying to get out of the simple black-and-white rut she created in the three videos off the same album “Single Ladies,” “Diva” and “Halo.”

The video does start off by paying homage to her black-and-white roots, but in a burst of color, you realize that this video is going to be different. Suddenly, the video throws you into kaleidoscoped Beyonce. Think of it as watching “Single Ladies” while on acid.

But the best part doesn’t come until over half-way through the video. Suddenly, in a meld of the two most powerful and leotard wearing ladies of 2009, Lady GaGa burst into the video. A toned down version of GaGa, but it's her all the same. The combination of the two superstars may have sounded great on paper, but in the video, it just comes off as awkward.

In the bulk of their time together, they don matching white leotards and shoot brightly colored toy guns. In the inevitable chair dance sequence, the choreography looks sloppy and Beyonce looks unproportioned compared to the petite Lady GaGa.

Fashion wise, Beyonce covers everything in this video from an almost conservative business suit to an oversized airbrushed t-shirt to the same outfit in five--yes, five--different colors. The backup dancers--men in suits with camera lens faces--make sense in the video, but the toy gun accessories have no place here. Then there is the background which, throughout the entire video, looks as if someone forgot to add the image to the green screen.

Beyonce is a great artist and up until now--especially with the “I am… Sasha Fierce” album--her videos have been extraordinary. Maybe she should stick to the simple videos instead of trying a modernist art video. She has the ability to create wonderful videos--Taylor Swift certainly knows that, and so do we--but in “Video Phone,” Beyonce seems to be channeling a back up dancer for a hip-hop video in the late '90s. She’s got the attitude but the video just ends up falling flat.

View the video for Beyonce's "Video Phone" below. What are your thoughts?