Buy it... if you don't care about how derivative a film score can as long as the new rendering is both enthusiastically dynamic and attractively diverse.

Avoid it... if you'd prefer not to make a long list of mental notes connecting a film score to the previous works of Jerry Goldsmith and others while you're trying to appreciate it on its own merits.

Badelt

The Time Machine: (Klaus Badelt) An extremely unfaithful adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic tale, The Time Machine was a lavish production of such immense size that both DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Brothers Pictures combined to pay the bill. While receiving mixed critical comments, the film took advantage of a rather slack early spring season in 2002 to earn the studios decent box office returns. Still, the quality of the picture was suspect, with a largely nameless cast and extremely poorly developed script wasting what assets the film conveyed in its visual effects. One of its better attributes existed in its music by the rising Klaus Badelt. Over the previous four years, Badelt's name had been most commonly associated with the phrase, "additional music by." A close working partner of the internationally heralded composer Hans Zimmer, Badelt contributed music and electronic mixes to such well known Zimmer titles as Gladiator, Hannibal, and Pearl Harbor. When Zimmer could not contractually take credit for his work for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, Badelt would take primary credit instead, though even this recognition didn't catapult him to consistent mainstream work. For the first time, The Time Machine offered Badelt an opportunity to score a major feature film in his own spotlight. The large production values of the film made the choice of Badelt a curious one, since the mainstream had been familiar with his work in only a supporting role. Additionally, much of Zimmer and Badelt's work together had been heavily synthesized, whereas a symphonic approach would be required for The Time Machine. To say that Badelt succeeded in creating an overachieving symphonic score for film of this level of disappointment is an understatement. The work is adventurous, melodic, and highly varied, with all the makings of an exciting action hit. The size and scope of the score, when considering the balanced employment of the symphony, his trademark electronics, and a futuristically ethnic chorus, is impressive, to say the least.

Whether this score will reside as an affable, guilty pleasure in your collection or, alternately, an irritating exercise in futility depends completely on your opinion about composers clearly stating all of the obvious influences in their careers (or temp tracks). It's not all that uncommon for a newcomer, when greeted with a mammoth, breakthrough project, to pay tribute to those influences in an open fashion. Some listeners consider this practice a detraction, claiming to expose a composer's lack of individual talent. These issues are central to The Time Machine, because the entirety of the score's best moments are so blatantly informed by the works of Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Hans Zimmer that you can't help but make a mental note of each instance. Every thematic representation, from the brassy title theme to the romance theme on strings and an ethnic choral idea representing a future race, is informed greatly by the efforts put forth in the 1990's by those composers. The middle sequences in The Time Machine, from "The Time Machine" to "Stone Language," are seemingly pieced together from Goldsmith's The Edge, Zimmer's The Lion King, and several free-floating tendencies heard in countless Horner scores. The resemblance to Goldsmith's work is particularly striking, even emulating the older composer's light rhythmic accompaniment to bold horn statements. Following this title theme, heard most valiantly in "The Time Machine," the romance idea from Horner's books occupies "Bleeker Street" with its heavy bass string accompaniment of a leading violin and a sweeping, broad scope which John Barry employed in the 1980's. The first minute of "I Don't Belong Here" offers early 1980's Horner material at its best. The introduction of the futuristic ethnic material in "Eloi" and "Good Night," extending to the final moments of the score, are cross between Goldsmith's The Ghost and the Darkness and Zimmer's The Lion King. While all of these references will positively tickle some film music collectors, others may consider these similarities disturbing despite their masterful symphonic rendering. In the late cues, concentrating on the more strident battle music, Badelt does offer a handful of unique ideas to give the score some distinction.

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While the first half of the album features a more traditional line of dramatic and smooth orchestral exposition, often with choral accompaniment, the second half of the score addresses the exotic and sinister aspects of the story. As Wells' primary character, now with the name of Alexander Hartdegen, travels 800,000 years into the future, he discovers a world of darkly exotic tribalism. Badelt chose to score this reality with a harmonic combination of attractive flutes, voices, and drums, producing (with the help of some seemingly electronic devices to add a heavy bass region) the similarities to The Lion King. Despite the less traditional sounds heard during these cues, Badelt maintains a critical melodic atmosphere throughout most of their performances. The action cues that follow, especially during the Morlock attacks, resort to some less interesting, harsh pounding with a sharp synthetic edge (possibly due to the editing of the ensemble). In some moments, the score sounds like Gladiator set in the distant future, but even during the dark confrontation at the film's climax, Badelt's sense of harmony never waivers. It is that last point that causes The Time Machine, as a score and album, to present itself in a cohesively enjoyable whole. While some of the more grating action cues in the latter half of the film are less impressive than the fluid expressions of drama at the beginning, even the least interesting aspects of this score are comparable to the average tone of Zimmer's efforts of the era. The African-influenced elements are not completely integrated with the Goldsmith-like brass theme until the final track of the album, but by themselves, both offer some spectacular moments. Originality issues will always plague this work, though it's safe to say that if you're a Zimmer collector, the latter half of The Time Machine will appeal to you just as much as Goldsmith and Horner enthusiasts will appreciate the opening half. There are singular cues in The Time Machine that represent some the most impressive work by any composer in 2002, confirming that Badelt did indeed have potentially brighter days ahead. While this score may not shine as brightly as his music for The Promise a few years later, the two represent the composer's best achievements of the decade. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Klaus Badelt reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3 (in 11 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.19 (in 99,833 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.