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Resident Evil: Apocalypse: (Jeff Danna) If you stop for
a moment to give this film any glimpse of logical thought, then you're
wasting your time and missing the point. The only reason for a sequel film
such as
Resident Evil: Apocalypse to be made is to siphon money from
teenagers (and those who would still like to be a teenager and/or sleep with
one), most of whom have probably killed the zombie villains in the story at
some point in the original video game series which inspired the films. Throw
in the opportunity to place the bodies of Milla Jovovich and Sienna Guillory
on display and you have flick aimed at one specific audience (and critics
and reviewers are
not that intended audience). You have to wonder
what residents of Toronto think of seeing their city interpreted as Raccoon
City, its inhabitants turned into zombies by another escaped virus, and the
likes of which will be annihilated by a nuclear weapon to save the rest of
the world from its residents. It would be nice if Jovovich and Guillory
could escape the city along with their other tag-alongs, but who really
cares? Director and writer Alexander Witt and Paul W.S. Anderson
(respectively) have obviously taken inspiration from John Carpenter, but
that doesn't mean that they did any respectable job of capturing the spirit
of Carpenter's stylistic uniqueness. One of many areas where they tried to
emulate a Carpenter film was in the soundtrack department. Aside from the
song situation (which led to an album all to itself long before the score
album was pressed), the score imagined by the filmmakers would have the
characteristic combination of orchestral force with electronic modernism and
coolness, and the talented and quickly rising Jeff Danna was their choice
for composer. Listeners could hold at least some minimal hope that Danna
would produce a superior effort to the awkward combination of Marco Beltrami
and Marilyn Manson for the original
Resident Evil two years prior.
Danna comes off of a highly acclaimed score for
The Gospel of John,
shedding the gorgeous operatic heights of that score in favor of ghoulish
and relentless pounding of orchestral and synthetic disharmony in
Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
For film music enthusiasts who have heard Danna's earlier
efforts, including
"O" and
The Kid Stays in the Picture,
Danna's diversity of talent should already be recognized. Even so,
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is about a far of a stretch from those
scores (and his collaborative
Green Dragon effort with his brother
Mychael) in attitude as one could get. A well-balanced score between the
synthetic and orchestra, Danna has found a very good level of combination of
these elements with which to satisfy both modes of musical thought. With the
electronics often utilized as rhythm-setters and sound effects, the string
and (particularly) brass sections offer repetitious, simplistic motifs to
accompany the nearly constant chase and fight sequences. By the second cue
on album, "Alice Battles the Nemesis," you already get the impression that
you're in a video game atmosphere; the repetition of fast movements
restrains the development of any single motif. This somewhat interesting,
but eventually tiring continuation of shooting and kicking music leaves you
wishing for some direction --any direction-- for Danna to extend the music
to the next level. But unlike other similarly fashioned horror and fantasy
scores (Beltrami's
Hellboy comes to mind), Danna either didn't have a
chance to offer any sophistication or he didn't attempt to do so. The lack
of cohesive statements of theme is unfortunate, since several cues offer
potentially enjoyable ideas that Danna never seems to return to, including
"The Nemesis vs. S.T.A.R.S" and "Umbrella is Watching." By "The Crash Site"
(the 11th cue on album), the score finally explores some sentimentality, and
the "Searching for Alice" cue a few tracks later gives us some more
interesting variation on the electronic aspects. But in the end, the score
whips us around like a game player or a puppet, teasing us with crescendos
serving as false conclusions in "I Remember Everything." There is impressive
action material in
Resident Evil: Apocalypse, especially performed by
jumpy strings and harsh brass tones, but it is unfortunately squashed by the
mass of electronic noise and the frightfully fast pace of movement. Danna's
score is one that likely outshines the film's own qualities, which might
explain the glowing comments from the filmmakers about Danna's work for the
project.
***
The insert includes a short note about the score by the writer of the film.
