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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The fact that any score was produced for Tomb Raider, with its June screen date approaching in just weeks, is impressive. The poor man hired for the last minute job was Graeme Revell. Why he took the job is beyond understanding, other than the fact that the movie promised to be somewhat "cool" before people discovered otherwise... Revell certainly has many other interesting projects upcoming, including one with Red Planet partner Emma Shapplin this year. Revell was given only ten days to score and record Tomb Raider (though some reports place that number at 12, but in either case, it was an insanely short amount of time for any project with an orchestra). Instead of the 90+ piece orchestra best suited for a film of this magnitude (...Revell will argue otherwise... maybe he's just being modest when he argues that orchestral bombast would have been inappropriate for Tomb Raider), Revell was given a London performing group of 65, immediately causing a larger portion of the score to be electronic. Not to worry, however, because he was allowed a 50 member choir and was comfortable taking a more electronic approach to the film from the start. So fast paced was the composition and recording of this score that Revell never stepped within a thousand miles of the performing group, composing from the U.S. and sending the music to London, where his team of associates (one of which being his brother) would record it and send it back over the internet for him to approve. Such methods in scoring occur more often than not these days, and unfortunately, the composers often end up unhappy with the final product. In a rare event, Revell has actually issued a public apology to his fans for the diminished quality of his score for Tomb Raider (presumably in comparison to his other scores, which have always proven interesting, if nothing else). He has stated on his own web site that the album is seriously flawed, with tracks mislabeled and the quality of music to be generally subpar. He recognizes that the time factor was too "prohibitive," and apologizes for the album. Revell should be commended for getting any score done at all, earning good money, and the good fortune that the movie wasn't terribly good anyways. Revell shouldn't be apologizing as much because the music is intolerably bad, but rather because it is simply as non-descript as ten days of composing would entail. Unlike Red Planet, which remains one of the most provocative scores of the past year, Tomb Raider is one of the least interesting scores over the same period of time. Outside of about five minutes of inspired electronic and choral combination cues, the score is awash with simplistic rhythms, extended underscore, and no thematic development worth speaking of. On the whole, the electronics worked well enough, however, there are two or three entire tracks on the album that are so harsh with electronic disharmony and pounding rhythms that they cannot be listened to. The opening main title cue is by far the lone highlight (perhaps composed first by Revell, while he still had some decent sleep!), however this enjoyable choral-accented piece is only two minutes long, and bleeds into less engaging material at its end. Because the music was recorded in London, a score album was made financially possible, even though it was meant not to conflict with the song album, which hit the stores weeks earlier. The 50-minute album was a disasterous affair for Revell, who attempted to have the CD stopped just before pressing in order to correct the Elektra label's erroneous titles of the tracks. But the pressing had already begun, and the mislabeled products are what we will find on the shelves. As Revell himself suggests, the Tomb Raider album is definitely not the best representation of his talents, and it is doubtful that he would ever use it to promote his career. The production quality of the album is sparse, matching the content of the music well. Best left in the category of "oh well, let's move on," there are still a select few cues in this score which would be very interesting to hear fleshed out at some point in the future. Revell has been known to take underdeveloped ideas from previous scores which did not receive the best of treatment, and incorporate them into his larger and better scores at a later date. The title sequence of Tomb Raider shows a glimpse of something that could have been very good, had Revell been able to record it with a full orchestra, chorus, and a decent amount of time. As it stands, you have to give credit to Revell for getting anything done in this situation, but the album cannot escape those circumstances which confine the score to 45 minutes of bland and uninspiring material. It is a film and a score best forgotten. **
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