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The Chronicles of Riddick: (Graeme Revell) When the
character of Riddick first appeared on screen in the 2000 film
Pitch
Black, audiences and critics did not indicate that it was the kind of
sci-fi horror film that could spawn a sequel. But a cultish following on DVD
has led the primary character (among a few others) to reappear in 2004's
The Chronicles of Riddick. Whereas the first film was more of a
straight horror flick, challenging the viewer to choose loyalties very
carefully, the sequel sends the character into politics and battle of
planetary and, indeed, galactic proportions. Without much dissent, critics
have hurled considerable insult at
The Chronicles of Riddick (the
tagline "riddick-ulous" seems to pop up in several places), mostly because
of the lack of any true plotline worth caring about and, of course, the
ourpouring of CGI-rendered vistas, characters, and battles that causes many
viewers to either cringe or laugh. Director David Twohy returns from
Pitch Black to direct
The Chronicles of Riddick, flooding the
screen with flashing close-up shots of battle, and the director turns once
again to composer Graeme Revell for the minor-key dominated music. With the
score for the original film spreading amongst his fans in bootleg format,
Revell's sequel score receives full album treatment by label Varèse
Sarabande, which has been releasing the majority of Revell's efforts over
the past two years. Whether he's been typecast into the role or not, Revell
seems to take a significant number of scoring assignments for films that are
predominantly gray and black in coloration. Most of these flicks dwell in
the B-flick range, or perhaps just outside the A-flick range if only because
of the high promise, but poor execution of the films he scores. Leaving
horror behind and embracing straight action,
The Chronicles of
Riddick seems to follow the musical path set by
Daredevil last
year, but at a greater volume.
When you put Revell into these almost comic book sci-fi
situations, he has proven highly unpredictable, though. On one hand, you
have a rather uninteresting action score like
Titan A.E., but then
you get an innovative operatic space score for
Red Planet on the
other. His comparable space-faring scores seem to fall closer to the average
kind of non-descript orchestral meanderings heard in his television score
for
Dune in 2000. To his credit, Revell gives us the feeling that he
wanted
The Chronicles of Riddick to be bigger and badder than that
usual norm, flexing muscles like Vin Diesel's with a group of Los Angeles
musicians and some choral extras. The result is a loud and ambitious score
in parts, complete with thematic development and decent fight cues ("One
Speed" is a highlight) that will rock your walls with brass and percussive
power. Unfortunately, the same ambition leads to a tangle of noise for much
of the score, with the title theme weak in memorability, the choir mixed
poorly, and the score's action sequences painting a canvas just as jumbled
and unauthentic as the CGI on screen. The title theme (arguably a
Necromonger theme) begins promisingly in the opening cue, complete with
nifty electronically enhanced rhythms, but its performances throughout the
score (such as in "Necromongers") are unconvincing in separating itself from
the rest of the wall of action sounds. The choral sequences are difficult to
enjoy as well, perhaps because they sound electronically generated (or at
least electronically altered) and perhaps because they are not meant to add
harmony of chords to the overall equation. A single uncredited female voice
flies solo in parts, including nearly graceful performances in "The Animal
Side" and "Aereon Fortells" (speaking of Aereon, what the hell is Judi Dench
doing in this film? Conversely, wouldn't be fun to see Vin Diesel do
Shakespeare?). But the difficult choral passages are summed up by "Furyan
Energy," which is nearly painful in its awkward mixing and disharmony. Even
at the very end of the score, when the action music in the credits
suddenly... stops... abruptly... you're left with a nagging feeling that
there's a whole lot of cohesion missing from this score. On the whole,
The Chronicles of Riddick has great intentions in individual cues,
and occasionally provides stirring action rhythms. But it stumbles over its
own feet for much of its running time, and offers few new ideas for veteran
film music ears to enjoy.
***
| Bias Check: | For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 2.67 (in 18 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.78
(in 13,793 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information about the score or film.
