Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciated John Ottman's heavy metal and grungy industrial score in the context of the equally abrasive revenge flick, emulating the style of Marco Beltrami in similar situations of stylish schlock. Avoid it... if you expect to hear the complexity of layers and instrumental subtlety that you usually encounter in Ottman's lower budget scores, replaced here by generally straight forward smash-mouth attitude and only occasional contemplative interludes of smooth harmony. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Losers: (John Ottman) The Vertigo comic book series "The Losers" has a group of five heroes, but the kind of gritty, humorous, and rogue special forces heroes without superpowers. On a mission in the Bolivian jungles, they are betrayed by someone on the logistical end of their operation and are thought to have been killed when a friendly helicopter meant for them was destroyed. They team up with a mysterious female agent to seek revenge against their common enemy, who happens to be a creep in Miami that claims to be in near possession of a new weapon of mass destruction that can wipe out entire cities without the nuclear fallout. Their cat and mouse game is the subject of the comic, and Sylvain White's 2010 adaptation The Losers covers the events of the first two volumes of the concept's printed form. Attention was paid to shooting the film in a way that would preserve the illustrated style of the comic's art, and this aspect, as well as competent pacing of action, led to generally fair critical reviews. The film, after bouncing between studios in pre-production and yanked around in its release date several times, barely recouped its $25 million budget in domestic grosses, perhaps limiting hopes of a sequel. Its soundtrack didn't present composer John Ottman with a genre in which he had no experience, though he did tackle the assignment from a fresh perspective. Ottman is no stranger to heroes big and small, providing music for a handful of films of lesser budgets and rougher protagonists as well. The Losers is essentially a grungy revenge flick drenched with contemporary sensibilities, so it's no surprise that Ottman dropped his usual, orchestral compositional style and explored metal and rock avenues perhaps inspired in part by Sin City. It plays like a low budget score (though the film likely required nothing more substantial anyway), depending upon attitude rather than any significant depth. The composer tends to provide low budget, largely synthetic scores that suffice or excel because of their creativity and individual character, and there are brief portions of The Losers that will remind Ottman collectors of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Goodbye Lover, and others. The ensemble here seems almost entirely synthetic, dominated by keyboards, looped percussion, synthetic effects, and normal rock band elements. There are occasional flurries of orchestrated action sounds, though outside of some momentary contributions from brass, these tend to sound closer to Ottman's Point of Origin in their electronic sensibilities. Ottman offers a slick title theme for The Losers that is somewhat marginalized in the score. Introduced on smooth guitars in "Dead Men," the idea receives its necessary statement of defiance in the subsequent "Not Soldiers Anymore," as the group of operatives accepts their new destiny. Piano and acoustic guitar briefly supply warmth to the idea in the easy-going "Interlude." Thereafter, Ottman unfortunately only sparingly applies the theme, most memorably throwing a short, splashy performance at the end of "Good Catch" (hello, 3:10 to Yuma!) and taking it through the score's range of emotions in the suite at the conclusion of the album, "The Losers." When the smash-mouth, perpetual cymbal hitting performance at the outset of that final track is joined by string counterpoint, it takes on a more sophisticated personality absent from the rest of the score. There really aren't any other significant musical identities to be heard in The Losers, with the tone of the score alternating between heavy, industrial metal slamming to contemplative strumming of a harmonic nature. Ottman has never laced a major score with so much abrasive electronic attitude before, and the raw tone and performances do somewhat dilute his knack for subtle creativity in the layers of his music. Everything here is straight forward, taking an instrumental palette more common to Marco Beltrami's career and keeping it more accessible despite its often nasty demeanor. Several individual cues of note exist in the score, and they may save the listening experience for those who appreciate Ottman's previous scores but aren't interesting in ear-shattering metallic blasting. In "Miami Heist," the composer perhaps predictably generates some hip David Holmes-style material, complete with an impressive interlude for snazzy brass in the middle. In "Bad Business," that jazz crosses over to David Arnold territory, complete with some the British composer's Bond-rooted sound effects. The most humorous moment in the score comes at the outset of "Max Factor," when Ottman infuses some stereotypical Middle Eastern flair (presumably for the Aisha al-Fadhil character) with female vocal and a brazenly out of place duduk. Later in the score, you hear some better connections to Ottman's previous works, the end of "Angle of the Dangle" calling upon rhythmic and synthetic string effects from Point of Origin and the sleazy electric bass early in "Psychic Bullets" reminding of Goodbye Lover. Ultimately, the (initially download-only) album for The Losers is no doubt a strong accompaniment for the concept and an interesting diversion for Ottman, though it's more likely to appeal directly to the film's fans than the composer's established base of collectors. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 40:58
All artwork and sound clips from The Losers are Copyright © 2010, Pale Blue. 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 6/9/10, updated 6/9/10. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2010-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
