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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Kiner and Arnold have worked together before, and Kiner is accustomed to working with Arnold's original themes. The two have collaborated with the television series "The Visitor" and "Stargate SG-1," both of which scored by Kiner, with heavy influences from Arnold's themes for those shows. Wing Commander is no different. It sets a thematic standard almost identical to that of Independence Day (and the similarities are occasionally blinding). The score by Kiner is actually more enjoyable than Arnold's theme alone, for the theme is exactly what one could expect from Arnold --and no more. Bursting at the seams with patriotic jubilance, I'm sure the brass players had some sore lips after those few minutes of ruckus. But Kiner takes Arnold's motif a step beyond. Undoubtedly, the producers of the film requested that Kiner produce music that is, essentially, Arnold in sound, size, theme, and instrumentation. And Kiner succeeds remarkably. His music expands on the main theme, offering two or three more grand statements of it, but he also provides some great moments of rest from the action. Tracks four and eight feature soft character melodies that are actually more original than the massive theme, and add a much needed break from the constant battle cues. The brass elements throughout the score are trademark Arnold --with heritage mostly from Stargate-- and Kiner uses powerfully wavering brass and trumpet triplets that Arnold fans will be proud of. Kiner also utilizes a few moments of synthesized choral effects, all of which are enjoyable (these occur in tracks four, nine, and, of course, seventeen, the big finale). The only setback to the score --keeping this from being a four-star release-- are the two tracks of electronically accompanied cues. Tracks ten and eleven both suffer from this; track eleven has a techno guitar rhythm with a few bars directly from the latter half of the Tomorrow Never Dies album. On the whole, the score for Wing Commander surprised me. I am usually very skeptical about scores that result from films with roots in video games (take Mortal Kombat, for instance). But Kiner and Arnold seem to work together as a very effective team, and I look forward to their future collaborations. Wing Commander isn't a score that will be remembered in the history of film music as anything significant, but it makes for some great fun when you're in the right mood for exhilarating space adventure music. ***
The insert contains a brief note by director Chris Roberts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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