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I, Robot: (Marco Beltrami) When Isaac Asimov conjured
the three laws governing robots in 1940 and eventually wrote them into the
I, Robot screenpay in the 1970's, the heralded doctor claimed that
this story could be made into one of the greatest science-fiction films of
all time. What he could not predict, however, was the haphazard direction
that Hollywood, governed now by its ability to create wizardry in the
special effects department, would take as an industry. In the era of
thousands of CGI spiders, spaceships, and robots per frame, no story is
safe. By the time
I, Robot could be made into a feature film, the
industry stood eagerly awaiting the opportunity to pour every cliche and
digital effect into a recipe in which Asimov had demanded more logic and
contemplation as a primary ingredient. Having Will Smith as the bad cop at
center stage is perhaps all the indication you need that
I, Robot is
one massively disappointing screw-up waiting to happen. Compelling theories
of robotics and humanity are summarily replaced by a reckless
Men in
Black wannabe who talks smack and blows away countless evil droids. What
doesn't make sense about
I, Robot is how its director, Alex Proyas,
could produce such a boring, cliche-driven film such as this, especially
after he proved to the world with
Dark City that he could provide
stylish and sophisticated science fiction for another generation of
futuristic thinkers. One of the assets of
Dark City was highly
underrated veteran composer Trevor Jones, and he was once again slated to
work with Proyas on
I, Robot. Despite a relatively slow period of
activity for the professor, however, Jones mysteriously dropped out of the
project (willingly or not... the truth is not yet known), leaving his loyal
following of really hardcore film score collectors very disappointed.
Perpetuating the trend in Hollywood of having a replacement
composer write a large, orchestrally budgeted score in just a few weeks,
Proyas saw the job go to 36-year-old Marco Beltrami with only 17 days to
render the fully-finished work. Beltrami was introduced to the
summer-blockbuster scene in earnest last year, with his adequate, but
unispired score for
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines announcing his
mainstream arrival. On the upswing, though, Beltrami's intriguing score for
Hellboy earlier in 2004 showed signs that the young composer was
truly ready for full-fledged fantasy and science-fiction audiences. Beltrami
made the best of his 17 days and wrote a substantial score for 95 orchestral
musicians and 25 choral performers. And yet, he seems to have reverted back
to the stylistic weaknesses of
Terminator 3, composing a score with
all the makings of a winner, but lacking the passion to pull it all
together. Beltrami is very loyal to the orchestra in this effort, putting
the electronics in subsidiary role from start to end. This choice could be
questioned, for if Beltrami really wanted to create a strong ambience for
the robots, then perhaps a constant electronic counterpoint might have been
advisable. Thematically, his title theme is consistent, though overshadowed
by swirls of activity in much of the effort. A seemingly electronically
altered solo string performance of the theme over the end credits is both
engaging and interesting, however the structural problems of Beltrami's
rhythms and conscious choice to keep his music off-balanced causes the theme
to lose its effectiveness. Throughout the entirety of his effort, he
emphasizes sharp brass ostinatos that rotate octaves in jagged formations,
often with wildly active strings accenting scales in between those octaves.
Perhaps this technique is best described as Beltrami's sincere effort to
emulate the styles of Elliot Goldenthal and Jerry Goldsmith and roll them
into one unique package.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really work, with several cues
failing to maintain any sense of purpose or personality, although individual
cues do have their highlights. The "Chicago 2035" cue is saturated with the
influences of Goldenthal's epic writing, for instance, and the final two
cues on the album, "Spiderbots" (which ironically has a slow and broad
thematic statement right out of the pages of Jones'
Dark City...
emulating a temp track, perhaps?) and "Round Up" begin to offer some
cohesion of rhythm and lofty accompaniment of the choir in
Matrix-like fashion. Even in these highlights of the score, the
direction of the music shifts erratically, possibly in an attempt to keep up
with the CGI effects on screen. Moments of resolve and beauty are lucky to
last ten seconds, and the same could be said for the statements of thrilling
action. Speaking of the
Matrix scores (which certainly matured over
their course of three entries), Beltrami seems to be endeavoring to follow
the same compositional identity exploration as Don Davis, but Davis has
better found his way. The only way to really illustrate this point is to
recognize Beltrami as a composer with great talent, but questionable focus,
and this problem manifests itself in the lack of passion in a score such as
I, Robot. Until you hear those final two cues on album, the score
meanders, dabbles, blasts, and rips --and surely it is effective in its
basic task-- but its problems are clearly identified by its own disjointed
thematic performance over the end credits. Perhaps
I, Robot suffers
from mixing problems, and many could argue as well that the time frame for
the project may have allowed errors in the writing, performing, recording,
or mixing of the work. But overall,
I, Robot is yet another Beltrami
score that has great promise, but lacks the passion, cohesion, or distinct
personality to achieve its top form. Like the film, the score is all action
and no intelligent science-fiction.
***
| Bias Check: | For Marco Beltrami reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 2.58 (in 12 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.95
(in 12,126 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a note from the director and a list of performers in both the orchestra and chorale.
