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X2: X-Men United: (John Ottman) The first
X-Men film
was a blockbuster of immense proportions, drawing in over $300 million for Fox
worldwide and opening the doors to a series of other comic-to-screen adaptations to
follow in the decade. For the sequel, Twentieth Century Fox decided to set a record
by globally releasing the film on the same date in 93 nations, saturating the
market with nearly 9,000 prints of the film. The project once again featured the
same principal cast from the 2000 original, this time depicting mutant friends and
foes fighting for their existence side by side. Continued character development
leads to new alliances and new enemies, with the story exploring a typical comic
book line of reasoning. While considered a disappointment by some, Fox extended the
franchise onto a third film a few years later. Director Bryan Singer forged ahead
to build upon his commitment to the franchise, and his choice of composer was once
again his good friend John Ottman. An artist of abundant talent rising through the
Hollywood ranks since his work on
The Usual Suspects, Ottman is rare breed
of director, editor, and composer, with strong talents in all three fields. He was
unavailable to write the music for Singer's original
X-Men due to his work
on his own directorial debut for
Urban Legends: Final Cut. Singer instead
hired action veteran Michael Kamen for the 2000 film, resulting in a serviceable,
though thematically uninspiring score. Nevertheless, Kamen's
X-Men
translated into a popular album purchase for die-hards of the comic cult who, as
you may imagine, snatched up anything related to the futuristic story. For the
sequel, with Ottman free of other commitments, he was hired by Singer to not only
score
X2: X-Men United, but edit it as well. Ottman had been known for his
creativity in orchestral instrumentation and thematic inclinations, turning
otherwise average horror and intrigue films into noteworthy events. For the
X-Men franchise, unlike other well known film series, he technically had
little to expand upon from Kamen's original.
While Kamen's music for
X-Men sufficed, it did not offer
any truly defining sound for the concept, choosing instead to bypass a dominant
theme and accompany the visuals with a consistently strong action mosaic of
anonymous structure. Ottman, leaving no stone unturned, did take Kamen's style to
heart, utilizing the same general avenue of melodramatic and challenging orchestral
action for
X2: X-Men United. As usual, though, Ottman takes the music a step
further, introducing a decent, though not particularly overwhelming theme for our
favorite mutant group. It's not the kind of in-your-face, top flight superhero
theme that you hear from Danny Elfman in
Batman or
Spider-Man films,
but a reasonably charged major key climb for moments of victory in the film. The
suite at the beginning of the album for
X2 features a lengthy performance of
this theme, and Ottman inserts it appropriately throughout the score for
consistency. Some listeners have argued that Ottman's ability to provide
convincingly robust superhero themes of his own is among his greatest weaknesses,
with the identity for this score and his two
Fantastic Four ventures lacking
in depth (and his best entry in the genre,
Superman Returns, employed
existing themes for its main appeal). To an extent, such criticism is merited,
because Ottman's superhero themes do have a tendency to sound frivolous and
awkwardly cute (if such a word could be applied in this context). Generally, the
most interesting difference between Kamen and Ottman's work for the concept is that
the latter extends the action music to include a sense of awe and fantasy. He does
this primarily through the heavy use of an upper range adult choir. There are no
deep, bass chants, but the adult voices still add an effective element of mystery
that the mutant tale requires. After all, there is indeed strange science at work
here. Don't expect vast sequences of harmonious choral use, though the finale of
the "Goodbye" cue begins to achieve that atmosphere. In a handful of early cues,
there are moments when Ottman's choral use mirrors that of Elfman's initial horror
style (and his opening to
Nightbreed in particular).
A refreshing aspect of Ottman's work is his choice to stay true to
orchestral instrumentation in his creativity rather than giving in to the urge to
score this film as many probably would have done: with electric guitars. As it
stands, it is a pure entry in the science fiction genre with an elegant touch of
majesty at certain points. Ottman uses many shifts from the minor to major keys for
softer character development cues (such as "Finding Faith" and "We're Here to
Stay"), a predictable but still functional tactic to address duality. In many
regards, you can't help but notice how much Ottman's work here sounds like the
early style of David Arnold, especially when combining his deep brass and pounding
timpani with an adult choir. A secondary theme of flowing romantic quality for
woodwind and strings takes a page from James Horner's
The Rocketeer and
other love themes from that composer's early days, serving as a potential highlight
of the album with its compelling performance in the middle section of "Suite From
X2." If there is a complaint to be correctly lodged against Ottman's
X2, it
is a slightly sterile personality in the recording. He does employ a diverse array
of percussive effects, but never in such a way as to distinguish this score as one
of the truly fantastic ventures of the genre (as he creatively did, for instance,
with
Incognito or
Goodbye Lover). A piano performance of the
secondary theme in the aforementioned suite hints at the possibility that Ottman
was headed in the right direction to diversify the score, and perhaps a somewhat
over-dampened recording hindered the orchestral sections (and the strings in
particular) from expressing the vibrant power that the score probably could have
possessed. At any rate, the music for
X2 is a definite improvement over
Kamen's original, and Ottman collectors will be pleased with the effort. It isn't
as flashy as John Powell's score for
X-Men: The Last Stand, nor does Ottman
approach the ambitious generation of grandiose, epic sound that Powell would
explore. But he finally introduced a distinguished title theme and consistently
harmonic component to the series, and the liberal choral addition roots the score
and film in their proper genre.
X-Men enthusiasts should especially feast on
this one.
****
| Bias Check: | For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.29 (in 28 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 15,533 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information
about the score or film.
