Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if your passion for superhero fantasy music is so forgiving that you can get in the mood to kick godless alien ass to the sounds of a disappointing reprise of ambient design and occasional, derivative orchestral flourishes. Avoid it... if you seek something (or really anything) new in the realm of superhero music, because James Newton Howard sleepwalks through this score without making much effort to instill a unique sound upon this concept's history. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Green Lantern: (James Newton Howard) Considered at one point to be the most anticipated comic book adaptation film of 2011, Green Lantern landed on Earth with a tremendous thud. Warner Brothers reportedly spent upward of $300 million making and promoting the DC Comics characters' debut on the big screen, only to see it struggle to recoup half of that amount at the worldwide box office. The concept had been batted around by several studios for decades before Martin Campbell stepped in to helm Green Lantern through production hazards that included significant script re-writes and late special effects work that required Warner to pump more money into the film just to meet its target debut date. A solid pummeling by critics defined the movie as little more than a sound and light show, and fans dumped it almost immediately after its initial theatrical flourish. The plot of Green Lantern serves as an origins story for the concept and its main character, and for those of you not familiar with the DC storyline, it suffices to say that a group of wacky-looking aliens called the "Green Lantern Corps" protects the universe by assigning a "Green Lantern" (a representative from a myriad of species that have special powers bestowed upon them) to each sector of space. When a nasty fear-mongering being called Parallax runs loose, kills one of these protectors, and eventually ends up on Earth (plenty of hot babes and tax loopholes on this planet), an average American male is absurdly chosen to be the Green Lantern for this sector and trained by an understandably hesitant mentor. Proving that humans aren't so damn dumb and hopeless as a trip to Wal-Mart would otherwise indicate, the new superhero of our region does his thing in a grand show of bravery and says the oath of his group to pave the way for the sequels the studio was hoping to green-light before abysmal returns muted such banter. Apparently asleep during half of that show was composer James Newton Howard, a veteran of superhero movies who is typically considered to be a counterweight to the flow of generic blockbuster noise emanating from his friend Hans Zimmer's clone factory. As with the film, the score for Green Lantern was widely anticipated to be a bright point of the summer season, but likewise, score fans were quickly slapped in the face by a degenerate mash of rhythmic sound design with a derivative theme, tired orchestral techniques and looped banging from other films (and likely a temp track), and only a few occasional moments of symphonic and choral glory to connect this score whatsoever with Howard's superior, recognizable style from assignments that must have inspired him more than this one. As unimpressive as some fans may have found Henry Jackman's concurrent X-Men: First Class to be, Howard's contribution to Green Lantern is surprisingly worse by a fair margin. There isn't even much movement on the guilty pleasure meter with this one. The ensemble consists of a large orchestra and choir, but these elements are restricted to bursts for moments of action or awe. An electric guitar and its typical band associates are on hand to pound away with coolness when necessary, including the obligatory, full hard rock crescendo of awesomeness at the end that is believed, apparently, to make audience members' testicles swell up with pride. But the mass of Green Lantern is constructed by the programmers and their library of sound design ingredients meant to convey a somewhat scary, somewhat alien atmosphere in a very budget-friendly manner. If you try hard enough, perhaps you could find artistic merit in Howard's choices here; in most cases, the vague dissonance is punctuated by electric zapping tones worthy of a superhero with glowing balls of energy in his hands. One would think that there was a broken click track mechanism involved as well, because cues throughout the score are sometimes rhythmically maintained by slight, meaningless clicking sounds. When Howard attempts to reach out and make a pronounced impact on the film, he usually applies derivative ideas that don't express anything fresh or intelligent. The title theme on bold brass is a Jerry Goldsmith throwback, reminding of First Knight's fanfare and, while easily inserted into several cues as a quick representation of ass-kicking goodness, frightfully generic in its progressions. Aside from the thematic usage, there isn't much cohesiveness to the narrative flow of Green Lantern. Bursts of symphonic activity often reference the Don Davis scores for The Matrix trilogy, shamelessly so in a few places. Slapping percussive sequences from Salt are once again pulled from the John Powell playbook. These derivative passages are welcome, though, after the lengthy periods of sound design at the forefront. A small bit of salvation comes in a pair of cues in the middle of the score, thankfully, though they amount to only a couple of minutes and won't be worth the trouble of purchasing the entire album. In the middle of "Welcome to Oa" (expanding upon a glimpse at the end of "Genesis of Good and Evil"), Howard transitions to traditional fantasy mode for an easily harmonic series of progressions with electric guitar, strings, and choir that actually reminds of some of the most attractive parts of Toto's Dune. Then, in "We're Going to Fly Now," a passage of Altantis-style awe (complete with flutes!) leads to a similarly tonal expression over the Salt-like percussion. The incorporation of the electric guitars and sound design in this cue is so vastly superior to the remainder of Green Lantern that you have to wonder why it became orphaned. It almost stands out as clearly as Patrick Doyle's brothers theme statements did in the first third of Thor earlier in the year. Overall, these moments are too few and far between in Green Lantern to recommend the album. The product ends with a reading of the "Green Lantern Oath" by actor Ryan Reynolds, but the mix of the voice and a piece of Howard's score is so poorly managed that it's intolerable, especially when the music cuts off abruptly at the track's end. The 53-minute album is primarily a download item, though Amazon.com's "CDr on demand" service has burned physical copies as an alternative. If you're going to investigate that option for a Howard score, go with the more dynamic Salt or, if you want something higher on the guilty pleasure meter, try X-Men: First Class or, better yet, Thor. Howard rarely sleepwalks through these major scores, but a sampling of his snoring could have been used to augment the sound design in Green Lantern and nobody would have noticed the difference. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 52:46
All artwork and sound clips from Green Lantern are Copyright © 2011, WaterTower Music. 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 7/15/11, updated 7/15/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2011-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
