Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciated the sustained style of tempo and cyclical structure that Brian Tyler utilized in other suspense scores of the era (such as Godsend) and have great patience for his subtler fare. Avoid it... if you require transparent narrative development of motifs and more extroverted personality in the tone of your Tyler scores, because this entry is effectively mundane. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Final Cut: (Brian Tyler) In yet another film which attempts to merge introspective drama with a touch of intriguing science fiction, Omar Naim's The Final Cut deals with the premise that people of the future will have a 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 of his or her life 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 allowed Williams to further explore the darker genres he had seemed to prefer in films since 2002. As a finished product, The Final Cut suffers from the fact that it creates a variety of fascinating storylines, theoretical possibilities, and worthy questions without addressing even a fraction of them. Without the action of the similarly themed The Minority Report from a few years prior, this 2004 Naim film simply failed to convince audiences and critics of its sincerity. The project did, however, capture the interest of composer Brian Tyler, whose predictable fascination with the morbid subject matter thrilled the director and led to an amicable and fluid relationship between the two on this project. Despite his relatively newfound position in the industry, Tyler had already scored a fair share of suspense films and stakes his career on them, 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 melody are similarly explored in Godsend and The Final Cut, and listeners who enjoyed the first will likely find merit in the second. Their accessibility and general tone are largely the same, despite the latter's tendency to remind more often of other composers' music. Less openly tense than some of Tyler's equivalent works, The Final Cut relies upon intrigue rather than thrills. Despite a few crescendos that lead cues to false conclusions (as in "Zoe Revelation"), the mass of the score is orchestrally cyclical and somewhat minimalistic by nature. The sound of the music differs from the composer's other entries, too, likely due to the recording of the score in a Washington chapel and the comparatively dry ambience that surprisingly results. This score relies upon simple constructs and repeats them at varying tempos with different sections of the orchestra depending on the needs of each scene. In these regards, Tyler's concern is definitely on details, and no enthusiast of Philip Glass' churning tendencies could easily claim that this music is boring. 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 finely tunes them throughout the score without ever giving listeners any advanced development or narrative direction to those ideas. The main theme heard at the start never compels the listener more than it does at the outset, its frequent references often stagnant and detached. A secondary theme, heard best in "Rememory" and performed with considerable heart by solo woodwind, piano, and cello, receives short treatment due to its resolution-related purpose. The piano's role in this cue is a bit derivative, emulating the stark elegance of John Williams' A.I. Artificial Intelligence and in other places (like "Inversion") reminding of Craig Armstrong's standard suspense techniques. The mass of underscore has the same characteristics of tempo, however, that keep it as interesting as Godsend. During this period, Tyler seemed to be fond of finding ways to maintain movement in his music, no matter the number of layers or emotional intent. Several instruments often meander through figures in a distant corner of the soundscape at each moment, and in "Eye Tech," Tyler launches this sound into fuller, fluttering, Williams-like movements, especially on woodwinds. 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 the relatively simple, though resounding brass theme. Tyler composed (and wrote the lyrics for) two source songs for the film which appear on the album, one a vintage lounge piece and the other a heavy metal blast, and neither of them is particularly interesting outside of the shock value associate with their disparate nature. Since they have no relation to the tone of the score, one has to wonder why they were used to break up it up in two places on album rather than appear as appendices at the end. More effective as a source-like piece is "Tattoo Parlor," featuring genuinely eerie vocal effects. The dry mix brings the individual lines to the forefront of the soundscape, allowing for better appreciation but likely causing too flat of a sound for Tyler collectors. If you were to choose between the album for this score or that of Godsend, the latter will likely be more engaging, but the two are very similar in underlying style. Either way, you get effective though not particularly memorable suspense music. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 63:12
All artwork and sound clips from The Final Cut are Copyright © 2004, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/23/04, updated 10/17/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2004-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
