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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy adventure themes with significant bravado, for Twister has one of the more rousing entries in the disaster flick genre. Avoid it... if you require a more consistent and dynamic underscore outside of an entertaining title theme. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
As is the problem with many of Mancina's scores, however, Twister suffers from a hokey feeling of simplicity resulting from neither excelling to greatness at either the orchestral or the electronic. Mancina, like many who have spun off from the Hans Zimmer origin of scoring, has the ability to flash cues of greatness, with stunning effect both in the film and later on album. At the same time, he is also capable, as heard in Twister, of spinning some nearly disasterous counterthemes with his electronics. In this case, the base ochestral score is very strong, with a more than adequate Western theme for its main sequences, and a handful of substantially developed subthemes to represent the characters. The only weaknesses of these themes is their unrelenting, repetitive use, squeezed in between songs in the films as though Mancina was attempting to battle those songs by making every moment of the score identifiable as a non-song element. The first and sixteenth tracks (for the opening and finale) offer some rousing performances of the themes, with the opening presenting the title theme with almost Bruce Broughton-like Western bravado. Unfortunately, the theme is recycled to its own death throughout every chase cue, leaving Mancina's best work for the film in the form of the choral subtheme representing the tornadoes. While most people remember the score for Twister by the snazzy electric guitars in the middle chase scenes, the guitars are best utilized in synchrony with the L.A. Master Choral in performing the low rumbles and sinking motif presented by the bass strings and low woodwinds for the tornadoes. These ominous sounds often resemble snarling creatures when combined with the sound effects within the film, and are arguably the best use off music for the advancement of the story. It ends the film with a faint, dying performance that well reminds us that there will indeed be another tornado season next year. A certain amount of choral awe, additionally by itself, elevates the score's ability to identify the film as a summer blockbuster. While the score is forced to navigate several jarring song uses in the film itself, the score album for Twister avoids this nonsense until its final two tracks. If not for the hideous nature of these final two tracks, Mancina's effort on album would undoubtedly be a four-star one, even with the tiresome repetitiveness of the themes. The seventeenth track is an unacceptably stupid and barely tolerable minute of mutation between the William Tell Overture and the title song to the musical Oklahoma. Why it was necessary to include this terrible vocal performance on an otherwise decent orchestral CD is beyond reason. Likewise, the Van Halen written and performed track at the end of the album, while beginning with a promising transition from orchestral and choral to hard guitars, is simply too long. It languishes in false dramatics for a whole eight minutes of guitars that don't match any of those used in tandem with the other players throughout the score. Nevertheless, Twister remains one of Mark Mancina's defining scores. It's raw enthusiasm during its first and fourth cues were a refreshing introduction to the composer for most fans in 1996, and remain fan favorites. The sound recording of the album is strong, with the chorus and guitars mixed well with the orchestra. Overall, it's a simple score in construction, but a surprisingly enjoyable one given its sometimes secondary role behind the songs in the film. The final two tracks on the album remain a major detraction. ***
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