Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you're desperate to hear any form of continuation of Paul Haslinger's sound from the original Underworld film, even if the result is not as interesting or compelling. Avoid it... if nothing drives you nuts in the film music world more than a missed opportunity, because Haslinger fails to build meaningfully upon his established ideas in a coherent way. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: (Paul Haslinger) The war between vampires and werewolves in the Underworld franchise has produced a loyal following and impressive associated revenue, regardless of its largely meaningless and vacuous plotline. The franchise was originally meant to be a trilogy, and 2009's Underworld: Rise of the Lycans represents the third installment despite being a prequel. It is essentially one giant background story, explaining the division between vampires and the newly developing Lycans and the reasons for their centuries-long war. The primary reason, of course, is a hot babe. In this case, it's the daughter of returning actor Bill Nighy's vampire leader, Viktor, and the target of her affections is Michael Sheen returning as the Lycan Lucian. Their intertwined relationship is one of tortured alliances, and when Viktor discovers the love between his vampire daughter and Lycan slave, he has his daughter killed and the war is on. Unfortunately missing from the majority of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is lead actress Kate Beckinsale from the previous two films, though her appeal (and leather costume, seemingly) is replaced by the necessarily similarly built Rhona Mitra as Viktor's daughter. Once more defying poor critical response, the franchise earned enough in this entry to launch development of a fourth film. One of the selling points for Rise of the Lycans is the return of industrial metal composer Paul Haslinger to the franchise. His score for the original Underworld in 2003 wasn't the kind of thing destined to attract much attention from the dedicated film score collecting community, but it featured a combination of extremely ballsy industrial rhythms and a forcefully gothic sense of romance in its deeply morbid explorations. The love theme of that score, "Eternity and a Day," was embraced so well that it was even used alongside Marco Beltrami's music for Underworld Evolution in 2006. Beltrami, although bringing a more traditionally refined sense of orchestration to the table, ended up producing a score that was less coordinated (and certainly less memorable) than Haslinger's, and fans clamoring to receive the "Eternity and a Day" theme from that film's soundtrack were left with the original movie's score album as the only source (though even that wasn't the film version). Hearing Haslinger return to the franchise was cause for cautious optimism, but despite the extension of his familiar sound back into the concept, his work for Rise of the Lycans is far less inspiring than what he provided before. Listeners actively seeking connections between the music in Rise of the Lycans and that of the original will find nuggets left by Haslinger in a few places. His uses similar progressions, instrumental tones, and processing techniques that will all be familiar. The only outward thematic connections come in the first two tracks of the Rise of the Lycans album, the first reprising the descending chords from "Keep Watch Over the Night" in its opening minute. The latter is "Lucian and Sonja's Love Theme," and this cue utilizes the same idea but in its more recognizable, low piano thuds. Elsewhere, there are brief bursts of rhythm that will recall Underworld, but nothing with the ferocious power of "Deathdealers Deploy" or "Metamorphosis." Outside of these references, Rise of the Lycans is a missed opportunity despite some maturation in the application of faux orchestral tones to Haslinger's style over the previous decade. The highlight of this prequel score is clearly its first minute, a rendition of the first score's closing theme against a compelling processed string motif that churns with a sense of sophistication not really heard before in the franchise. Throughout this score, you encounter interesting insertions of lines of musical action emulating an orchestra or choir, culminating in "Per Aspera Ad Astra," a cue that would have been genuinely interesting to hear performed by a large ensemble. The revolving rhythm in this cue becomes the default identity of Rise of the Lycans and utilizes voices and tolling chime samples to appropriately entail a gothic, period quality (as "period" as Haslinger can be, perhaps). The use of vocal effects is actually quite adept in the score, not simply in the traditionally sung accents, but especially in the wails and cries that emulate howls at the moon in the proper key. Unfortunately, the positives end there, for Haslinger populates the majority of Rise of the Lycans with non-descript atmospheric noise. The keyboarding of the quiet cues, as in "The Most Precious Thing to My Heart," fails to really connect, suffering from manipulation of the mix that renders the performances annoying. The surprisingly few outright action cues lack the cohesive rhythmic form of Haslinger's previous Underworld music, some of them so badly processed and layered with slashing, grinding effects in an atonal way that they become totally insufferable. Such music existed in the previous score, but it didn't define the majority as it does here. In short, Rise of the Lycans is nowhere near as interesting of a score as Underworld, and as nice as it is to hear Haslinger at the musical helm of the franchise once again, the results are sadly disappointing. ** Track Listings:
Total Time: 36:09
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