Buy it... if you want to hear an intelligent, rhythmic suspense score for orchestra and solo voice that outshines its film.

Avoid it... if the score's pseudo-religious overtones were one of the reasons you found fault with the film's wishy-washy purpose.

Tyler

Godsend: (Brian Tyler) What's worse: cloning your dead child and eventually discovering that the child is a demon seed... or making a really horrible movie about it? A universal pounding was delivered to Godsend when it was released in theatres, not just from critics, but from an audience seeking intelligent approaches at a viable social and emotional issue. Attempting to merge the ideas of A.I. and The Omen into one not-so-pretty picture, Godsend tells the dubious story of an average Northeastern couple whose eight-year-old is killed in a freak accident and, without thinking much about the consequences, turn their lives over to Robert DeNiro's Godsend Institute so that the child can be cloned and grow up all over again. It's funny that anti-cloning groups have protested the film, because its story predictably teaches us that the clone will be extremely psychologically disturbed and do horrible things (in other words: cloning = bad). The film can't seem to decide where to take its religious implications (especially with the child being named 'Adam'), and if you are unhappy about the ending, then rest assured that director Nick Hamm (whose career does not yet include any significant hits) shot no less than seven alternate endings in which one or two of the parents is killed by the child in multiple ways, and there is even a total blood bath in which everyone dies. Lovely.

Composer Brian Tyler is no stranger to either the horror genre or the realm of substandard films. His mainstream career, in fact, got started with both, and fans who discovered Tyler with his monumental Children of Dune television score should be interested in learning the scores that have led up Godsend for Tyler in the same genre. If Timeline from the previous year is any indication by itself, then Tyler doesn't seem phased by the quality of the films on which he works; even in Godsend, you hear the same attention to detail and complicated construction that makes his material interesting to his listeners. A half a dozen names of composers --if not more-- could be mentioned as usual suspects when it comes to scores for films like Godsend, and most of them would probably produce drab, underdeveloped underscore suitable for the quality of the film. While Tyler is melodically restrained by the genre, he still delivers a harmonic, varied, and interesting score. He accomplishes this through the constantly heightened level activity of movement in nearly every cue. Instead of building tension through disharmony in lengthy whole notes, Tyler builds suspense through the quick procession of alternating notes, chords, and rhythms throughout Godsend that keep it light on its feet while also utilizing enough disharmony to suffice for the picture. By establishing a pseudo-religious, angelic sound for the boy, and mutating that sound throughout the score, Tyler is perhaps somewhat responsible for critics and viewers raising unanswered questions about religion in the film; there are several lush and tender thematic sequences with strings, piano, and young solo voice that add the psychological dimension to the religious questions.

Don't be buying Godsend if, however, you are seeking lengthy passages of pleasantries from strings, piano, and voice, because the score also includes its fair share of standard horror striking and crashing. The blasting seems to be centered in the last several cues on the album (which is not in film order, perhaps for this reason), and, for the most part, this is stock horror material for the brass and percussion. There are only so many ways you can rattle a cymbal up to a crescendo and give it a good slap at the end. But if you are a fan of the emerging Tyler, then the rhythmic portions of Godsend will keep you listening. Established in the opening titles, the pulsating rhythm in minor key, sometimes accented by light electronic choral effects laid over the top in an alternating major key, serves to represent the technological and biological aspects of the story. The application of this rhythm in "To Godsend" is performed with the sound of a beating heart (of sorts --perhaps intentional, perhaps not), and Tyler manages to balance the hope of restoration with the ominous undertones of evil in the multiple elements of this rhythm. Overall, the album for Godsend may be a bit long (at 67 minutes), with roughly 20 minutes of remarkable, suspenseful underscore surrounded by stock horror sounds and repetition. An excellent suite of themes and motifs is coordinated for the end titles. For a film this bad, Tyler's score may be the only godsend to be found, and only the lack of a better album arrangement restrains it from a fourth star. ***

Bias Check:

For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33 (in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.29 (in 8,455 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.