Buy it... if you enjoy the sustained style of tempo and cyclical structure that Brian Tyler utilized in previous suspense scores such as Godsend.

Avoid it... if you prefer the much flashier and more extroverted styles of Tyler's action and science-fiction efforts.

Tyler

The Final Cut: (Brian Tyler) In yet another film which attempts to merge introspective drama with a touch of science fiction, Omar Naim's The Final Cut deals with the premise that people of the future will have an memory chip implanted in themselves that will observe every waking moment of their life. When a person dies, the chip is extracted and a professional known as a "cutter" will surf through that person's memories and produce a two-hour film containing all of the best moments so that the family of that deceased person can enjoy the memories together. One of the better "cutters" is Robin Williams' character, a detached and somber individual troubled by his own memories, and The Final Cut allows Williams to further explore the darker character genres he has seemed to prefer in films since 2002. As a finished product, The Final Cut suffers from the fact that it creates so many fascinating story lines, theoretical possibilities, and intriguing questions without addressing even a fraction of them. Without the action of the similarly themed The Minority Report from a few years ago, this new Naim film has simply failed to convince audiences and critics of its sincerity. The film did, however, capture the interest of composer Brian Tyler, whose fascination with the morbid subject matter thrilled the director and led to an amicable and fluid relationship between the two. Despite his relatively newfound position in the industry, Tyler has scored a fair share of suspense films, including those in the most recent year. Both Godsend and Paparazzi fall under this genre, though Godsend is far more closely related to The Final Cut than the latter score. In fact, many of the same underlying techniques relating to tempo and application of theme are similar between Godsend and The Final Cut, and listeners who enjoyed the first will likely find merit in the second. Their listenability and interest levels are largely the same.

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Less openly tense, perhaps, is The Final Cut, a score that relies on intrigue more than thrill. Despite a few crescendos that lead cues in The Final Cut to false conclusions, the mass of the score is cyclical and minimalistic by nature. It relies on simple constructs and repeats them at varying tempos with different sections of the orchestra depending on the needs of the film. In these regards, Tyler's score is definitely one of detail and interest; no one could easily claim that this music is boring. But if there is a fault to this Tyler style, it is that he establishes a set of motifs --or two themes, in this case-- and fine tunes them throughout the score without ever giving us any advanced development or direction to those ideas. The title theme heard at the start never compels the listener more than it does at the outset, and a secondary theme in "Rememory" (performed with considerable heart by solo woodwind, piano, and cello) receives short treatment due to its resolution-related purpose. The mass of underscore has the same characteristics of tempo, however, that keep it as interesting as Godsend was. Tyler seems to be fond of always maintaining movement in his music, no matter the number of layers or intent of that music. A single instrument may be alternating between notes in a distant corner of the sound stage at one moment, while in a cue such as "Eye Tech," Tyler launches into fuller, fluttering John Williams-like movements with piano (a la A.I.), string, and especially woodwind. Likewise, the woodwind rhythms present in the performances of the title theme at the start and end of the score compensate for a rather bland rendering of a simple, though resounding brass theme. Tyler composed two source songs for the film which appear on the album --one a lounge piece and the other a heavy metal one-- and neither of these cues is particularly interesting. Nor do they have any relation to the tone or structure of the score, leaving one to wonder why they break up the score in two places rather than appear as appendices at the end. A slightly dry mixing to the music brings the music to the forefront of the soundscape, allowing for better appreciation of individual instruments, but likely causing too flat of a sound for fans of Tyler's Children of Dune. If you were to choose between either this score or Godsend, the latter might be a slightly more interesting choice, but the two are very similar in underlying style. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.21 (in 20 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13 (in 11,117 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.