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Wing Commander: (Kevin Kiner/David Arnold) Have you
ever gone to a movie in the theatres with the intent of viewing a great
trailer and then leaving before the actual feature started? That's what
happened for many people when
Wing Commander debuted in March of
1999. Few could make an argument that
Wing Commander even
scratches close to the realm of decent entertainment, but when Twentieth
Century Fox attached the highly anticipated trailer to
Star Wars: The
Phantom Menace to its start, science fiction fans went wild.
Unfortunately, there was no purpose for any of them to stay and be
forced to witness to trash that is
Wing Commander. With a script
so incredibly dumb that it borders on parody, the film was helmed by the
inexperienced Chris Roberts, who had directed some parts of the popular
video game of the same name. The premise of the story is predictable to
the point of utter boredom, lifting most elements from
Battlestar
Gallactica. There are humans, some with civil rights problems, who
fight disgusting alien creates that want to destroy the entire universe
(which seems to defeat the purpose of existence, but hey... this is a
dumb film), and in the end, three young hot shot fighter pilots have all
the responsibility of saving the day. The only plot twist that could
have saved
Wing Commander would be the capture, torture, rape,
and execution of all those heroes, but, alas, that never happens. In
terms of its music,
Wing Commander is one of those rare occasions
in which a director asks for a certain type of music, doesn't get
anything like what he wanted, but raves about it because he doesn't seem
to know the difference. Roberts approached the team of David Arnold and
Kevin Kiner with the request of classic orchestral music from the World
War II genre, with which
Wing Commander (in his mind) shared some
common characteristics. Kiner and Arnold had worked together before, and
television scoring veteran Kiner is accustomed to working with Arnold's
original themes.
The two composers collaborated on the television series
"The Visitor" and "Stargate SG-1," both of which offering underscores by
Kiner with heavy influences from Arnold's title themes for those
concepts. Regardless of what Roberts wanted, Arnold and Kiner completely
ignored the WWII genre and instead sought influence from the classic
B-rate science fiction bonanzas of the early 1980's. The score they
delivered has all the campy fun of
Battle Beyond the Stars and
The Last Starfighter, with a touch of Arnold's flair for the
patriotic from the mid-1990's. In fact, the largely orchestral music for
Wing Commander is really not much more than an extension of
Arnold's
Independence Day, with almost identical characteristics
in each of its various parts. At the time that Arnold wrote the nearly
4-minute theme for
Wing Commander, it seemed like a throwaway
project... a side note of little consequence. It turned out to be,
however, Arnold's swan song in that straight action and science fiction
sound, with the composer heading into more experimental and minimalistic
efforts for most of his projects over the following years. Luckily, his
theme for
Wing Commander is a visit to an old friend, for
everything attractive about
Independence Day and, to a lesser
extent,
Stargate, is on bombastic display in the "Overture" here.
The theme is brought to life by the ballsy kind of trombone performances
that would have made Jerry Goldsmith proud, using the force of them and
the French horns with undeniable unison and clarity. The progression of
the theme breaks no ground, being highly reminiscent of early 80's
styles. A gorgeous string interlude recalls the attractive progressions
of
Stargate while also using several techniques that James Horner
established in the genre at the start of his career. In fact, there
seems to be significant influence from Horner's earliest works
throughout the entire score for
Wing Commander, which alone
proves that WWII was not the inspiration here.
The "Overture" by itself is likely enough to merit the
entire album for Arnold fans, because that ripping snare and
crystal-clear brass is hard to turn away from. Arnold's contribution
ends there, but not that you'd really notice. Kiner has proven himself
extremely adept at adapting Arnold's styles into the sound of his work.
This could be better attributed to the involvement of Arnold's usual
orchestrator and conductor, Nicholas Dodd, as is often the suspicion on
any project for which Dodd is employed. While Kiner has proven his solo
talents on various other projects for television, his own voice is
absent from
Wing Commander. All you really hear is a rearranged
series of temp track adaptations from Arnold's famous works, and the
connections are so obvious in places ("Into the Quasar" is particularly
obnoxious in this respect) that the score doesn't really ask to given
much merit. Kiner seems to have more success working with Arnold's
secondary theme (the interlude from the "Overture") and translates it
into tender string and woodwind performances in "Pod Scene," "Pilgrims,"
"Angel's Story," and "The Gift" that not only pull a bit from Horner,
but John Barry's romantic sensibilities as well. The only cues for which
Kiner diverts from the expected dose of straight Arnold material is the
duo of "Briefing/Tricked" and "Hot Dogs," both of which feature
irritating, electronic effects. The latter suffers from electric guitar
coolness that doesn't mesh with the rest of the score. The sound quality
of the recording is decent enough, but for some reason the quality of
the "Overture" alone seems to be more robust than the remainder of
adapted work. Kiner integrates a synthetic, deep male choir at times to
further extend the Arnold sound, though it doesn't really make an impact
due to its diminished mixing gains. Ultimately, with all the bells,
whistles, and synth chorales, this score will keep you on your toes. It
is by no means original, but it ranks high on the fun meter for anyone
who appreciates exhilarating space adventure music.
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The insert contains a brief note by director Chris Roberts, but surprisingly
little photography from the film.
