Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you've heard Kevin Kiner's distinctly youthful re-interpretation of the franchise in the film itself and appreciated the rocking electric guitars and other traditionally "non-Star Wars" sounds in context. Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything remotely respectful to John Williams' famous music for the franchise, for the adaptation of his themes and styles is extremely minimal. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: (Kevin Kiner) As if writer, director, and producer George Lucas' life wasn't already clearly defined by his infamous universe of Star Wars, he has followed through with hints that he would someday produce an animated television series based on the concept. The six live-action feature films in the saga have formed a neatly wrapped series with a massive cult following, and hopes have long involved the possibility that Lucas would create the final three films of his original nine-part saga. Instead, in 2008, he put the finishing touches on the animated series to run on TNT and the Cartoon Network, a concept that thrilled Lucas to such a degree that he insisted that its pilot be made into a feature film for theatrical distribution. The plot of the series covers the three years of events in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, when the Jedi and the clone armies of the Galactic Republic are waging war against Count Dooku's own clone army and, by proxy, Senator Palpatine and his increasing influence. While the major voices from the films do not carry over, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Anthony Daniels do, allowing for at least some continuity. Yoda, R2D2, and Jabba the Hutt are additional familiar faces, joined by a couple of notable new characters, including an apprentice for Anakin Skywalker who will extend through the life of the show. It was Lucas' intent to return to the humorous atmosphere that defined parts of A New Hope, offering numerous funny plot twists and circumstances that are a distant cry from the desperate tone of Revenge of the Sith. The style of the animation, mirroring the scope of Japanese anime, is of an angular kind that does not attempt to recreate the exact likenesses of the films' people and ships. These two major differences (the humor and the adaptation of the imagery into the animated realm) caused a different environment in which the style of John Williams' famous scores for the franchise would not be a direct fit. Lucas turned to veteran television composer Kevin Kiner to adapt parts of Williams' themes into the music for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Kiner is not only quite talented in his career of writing episodic scores, but he has also had the opportunity in times past to adapt other major composers' themes into a surrounding underscore, most notably for film music collectors on 1999's The Wing Commander. In that film, he adopted many of the mannerisms of David Arnold's pomp and bombast of the era for an adequate score, and here, he's tasked with the far more difficult emulation of Williams. It has been done before, with Joel McNeely's take on the Star Wars universe for the 1996 multimedia products of Shadows of the Empire remaining perhaps the most superior work of that composer's career. There is a significant difference between McNeely's faithful adaptation of Williams' sound and what Kiner has done for The Clone Wars, though. In fact, for quite literally 97% of the music contained on the 67-minute album release for The Clone Wars, you have absolutely no indication whatsoever that this is a Star Wars score. Kiner is so completely disloyal to John Williams' themes for the franchise's first five films that it's a wonder the maestro's name exists on the packaging at all (insert comments about product marketing here). Given how far off Williams' established path of the saga's music that Kiner has traversed, you have to wonder if Lucas specifically asked the composer not to even try to continue Williams' style for the series. Fans who have grown up loving the consistent structure, themes, and style of Williams' music for the franchise will be extremely disappointed by The Clone Wars; so much of their love of the concept rides on Williams' musical identity for it, and with extensive use of "Duel of the Fates" from The Phantom Menace heard in this animated film's trailers, most such fans will look at the "Original Star Wars Themes and Score by John Williams" line on the album's packaging and make the incorrect assumption that Kiner has succeeded at any level in matching Williams' sound for the franchise. As a standalone score, The Clone Wars is quite decent in parts. In fact, it features several excellent new melodic themes and action motifs that return throughout the work. But it's not a Star Wars score, and that's a point that simply can't be overlooked. Kiner intentionally takes the score in a more hip direction, translating the title fanfare into a more daring, youthful variant with heavy drum pad-style percussion and an altered tempo to some of the progressions in the theme. This reworking will undoubtedly please a crowd of enthusiasts for a new day in the saga, but purists that swear by Williams' original six scores will be driven nuts by Kiner's changes. Only in the first 20 seconds of the film and the 50-second "End Credits" is the famed theme heard at all, and with its ranks mutilated to such an extent, perhaps we should be thankful. This version of the theme is, just like old midi synth versions of the theme from the late 1980's, nothing more than lame. Indeed, lame. And slightly embarassing, too. The only other cue on the album release that actually directly quotes any Williams theme is the penultimate "Fight to the End," which offers a staggered fragment of "The Imperial March" and one complete statement of "The Force Theme" at its climax. The latter performance is less compelling than the similar one during "Anakin is Free" in The Phantom Menace. There are pieces of underscore in parts that attempt to mimic Williams' established ideas, including the "Throne Room" theme from A New Hope in "Admiral Yularen" and, interestingly, the "Cloud City" motif from The Empire Strikes Back in "Obi-Wan's Negotiation." Outside of this usage, Kiner does attempt here and there to emulate Williams' distinct sounds, but more often than not he fails. Instead, the score sounds like an odd combination of Brian Tyler's Children of Dune, Jerry Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior (keep your ears open for a direct pull from that score early in the first "General Loathsom" track), and Kiner's own highly varied work for the History Channel's multi-part "The History of Sex" series from several years back. Pieces of the David Arnold/Christopher Dodd sound from Wing Commander also echo in The Clone Wars, which, when combined with the faint Williams influences, produces a sound somewhat like Jane Antonia Cornish's 2007 score for Island of Lost Souls. The large-scale action sequences, usually fully orchestral and choral, have a tendency to give you a perpetually nagging feeling that they're out of place. Along with the mandatory orchestral and choral aspects, Kiner uses a wide variety of specialty instruments that go far beyond Williams' emphasis on traditional orchestral elements. For instance, during "Obi-Wan to the Rescue" and a few subsequent battle cues, Kiner lets loose with rocking electric guitars in heavy metal form, completely abandoning the Williams sound. Cliches such as the use of exotic female vocals for location accents are joined by the use of an erhu, a few non-traditional woodwinds, and the medium range of drums to provide that distinct Children of Dune style that appealed so popularly to a younger generation of science fiction viewers. An electric bass and other synthetic pulsating effects pop up now and again, replacing Williams' vigorous bass strings with a sound all-too-familiar, as in "Escape from the Monastery," to Hans Zimmer's realm. In "Courtyard Fight," you start wondering (amongst the synthesizers and electric guitars) if this is a Remote Control venture. The source cues in The Clone Wars make no attempt at a truly other-worldly sound, and by the time you hear the tandem of "Ziro's Nightclub Band" (standard sleazy jazz with saxophone and small band) and "Seedy City Swing" (which is just a step removed from a 1930's Busby Berkeley musical), you'll have written the score off as a failure. One of the impressively unique and inspiring aspects of Williams' scores was their ability to address the environments of other planets with completely alien sounds, even if they made use of an orchestra or something like an electric guitar. Kiner's work is instead heavily rooted on Earth. Heck, the muted trumpets in "Infiltrating Ziro's Lair" are even a nod to the good old days of film noir treachery (or perhaps Bernard Herrmann, which wouldn't be a surprise). The links between this work and Children of Dune are perhaps the brightest points of comparison, for the Middle-Eastern treatment provided to both Arrakis and Tatooine in the respective productions offers some of the more relaxing material in both scores. That instrumentation carries over to the several cues featuring Jabba the Hutt, though don't expect to hear any of the giant slug's famous tuba theme here, not even creatively adapted as it was by Williams in The Phantom Menace. One of the better aspects of Kiner's work is that he does offer and consistently develop several themes for the characters of The Clone Wars. Anakin receives his own strong action theme, as does his apprentice, "Ahsoka," and the general heroic appeal of the Jedi. The theme for this last group is a head-scratcher because, as it's best heard in "The Jedi Council," Kiner generally follows the same progressions of Williams' theme for "The Force" without actually stating it. The theme's performance at the outset of the second "General Loathsom" cue is very attractive, however. Kiner's outright action music holds its own, heard best in "Battle of Christophsis" and "Sneaking Under the Shield." In both cues, Kiner uses a pulsating choral accompaniment to a propulsive march structure that successfully conveys the gravity of the ensuing battles. Still, this material never achieves the same authentic bravado as McNeely's very impressive action cues in Shadows of the Empire. The score has continuity problems compared to Williams' works, with none of the themes clearly delineated in the title sequences or suites of their own. As such, most casual listeners who won't take the time to try to identify Kiner's original themes will simply be left cold by the absence of Williams' themes. The recording had promise, with The City of Prague Philharmonic and orchestrator/conductor Nic Raine familiar to any film music collector due to their lengthy list of enjoyable compilations of film score re-recordings. Their performances here are adequate, but not noteworthy; their recording and mixing lacks the flair and reverb that they feature on their Silva Screen releases. Overall, if the The Clone Wars score was for any other sci-fi universe, it would be a solid three-star effort, if not better. But as a member of the Star Wars universe, it miserably disappoints. With so many compelling themes by Williams not utilized, including "Anakin's Theme" and "Across the Stars" (both applicable in these circumstances), this score is frustratingly irritating. Sure, the saga has obviously taken on a new, youthful and vigorous form... but Williams' musical identity for the saga is just too powerful and engrained to forget. By fighting it, failure was Kiner's destiny. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 67:23
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