This is part of a series.
- Here’s the prior post on various 2024 scores - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=139081
- If you want the full set of links, click on my profile.
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For many score fans, Ramin Djawadi had an extremely disappointing year.
A new House of the Dragon season saw the departure of co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who’d had a hand in some of the most notable musical moments of Game of Thrones, and sole showrunner Ryan Condal seemed to have a different vision for the role of music in storytelling. Even outside the many music-free scenes of council meetings, the score seemed oddly understated, with its only noteworthy aspect being a stylish vocal burst near the end - a shame given that Season 1 had Ramin’s finest score for the franchise. Meanwhile, the former Game of Thrones showrunners launched their Netflix adaptation of the Chinese sci-fi book series 3 Body Problem, but whereas his last team-up with them resulted in a transparently thematic score, their reunion catalyzed something more abstract, Ramin creating “off-putting” soundscapes and an irregular “Morse Code” rhythmic pattern to tie in with the story’s focus on interstellar communication. Alas, that score was even more muted in context than the one for House of the Dragon, pulsing along like generic thriller music while underplaying many of the show’s other aspects; Ramin cited numerous examples of “purposely [dialing] back the score so it didn’t get in the way.” You could arguably swap some of it with the less abrasive parts of former assistant William Marriott’s Beacon 23 music without most listeners noticing.
A reteaming with Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy was more rewarding. Ramin had worked with one or both of them on Person of Interest, Westworld, and Reminiscence and was now enlisted for their streaming adaption of the post-apocalyptic game franchise Fallout. Those games juxtaposed mid-century tunes with moody score, a blend the showrunners looked to be faithful to, and with a variety of songs from the 1940s-1960s driving the first aspect it fell to Ramin to deliver the other. Any composer could have a field day with a show boasting desert wastelands, bombed out cityscapes, subterranean vaults, giant mutants, cowboy gunslingers, and zealot soldiers in hulking metal armor, and Ramin responded by combining more familiar elements for him (world music, rock, pulsing synths, ambient sounds) with new ones including various metallic samples, intoning religious voices (his own voice electronically pitched down), Spaghetti Western allusions, and even some Philip Glass-style choral repetition for a crazed mid-series cult ritual. The music also helped nail the dramatic revelations in the season finale, the occasional reliance on solo strings (particularly cello) unsurprising given the composer’s affinity for that when trying to provide emotional heft. The score will not be for those who tend to run for the hills at the mention of the word soundscape. But Ramin’s creation, one that lent surprising coherence to the varied locations and story elements, was a much more interesting and distinctive textural accomplishment than his score for 3 Body Problem, and his moody, militaristic idea for the steel-clad Brotherhood was among the year’s more underrated musical identities.
If the widely acclaimed Fallout suggested that the quality of video game-based films and shows was continuing to improve, Borderlands was a sign that the pendulum could always swing backwards. The space Western looting game franchise adaptation eventually got off the ground in early 2020, but amidst COVID controls, a screenwriter swap, and reshoots supervised by a different director (Deadpool director Tim Miller taking over for Eli Roth) nearly two years after principal photography started, the end product barely resembled its source material and satisfied neither critics nor audiences. All that poor composer Steve Jablonsky - who took over from original composer Nathan Barr - could really do was lay down some rock energy to cover both the film’s action scenes and its forced attempts at comedy without inducing any stylistic whiplash (unlike Fallout, one directive was not to use any of the original game’s score). “The way the movie’s structured, there’s not a lot of room for big, sweeping themes. Certain filmmakers are more into the vibe and the drive and groove.” Expect a familiar but not entirely unsatisfying journey through Media Ventures and Remote Control action tropes via orchestral heavy metal, with late-stage mysticism evoked by wondrous synths & solo vocals helping it to stand out a bit from the composer’s earlier indistinctive chugging for the Transformers sequels.
Steve’s other project had a production process that seemed just as troubled, with Paramount’s animated adaptation of the novel The Tiger’s Apprentice also swapping out directors (and much of its animation team) mid-flight and eventually being unceremoniously dumped on the studio’s streaming service instead of its originally-intended theatrical release. Sampled skateboard sounds as percussive effects served as a creative way to mirror the protagonist’s favorite activity, and much of the rest of the score was an intriguingly contemporary take on an East/West fusion sound, albeit one with an obvious debt to its composer’s Media Ventures and Remote Control past. That contemporary nature was perhaps also a double-edged sword at times; even Steve’s more orchestral endeavors like DC League of Super-Pets don’t always sound like the most organic creations, but this one seemed to have a budget feel in places (even with a full orchestra being credited along with a choir and a range of soloists). Still, if you’re intrigued by something not too dissimilar from what Brian Tyler might’ve written for the concept, seek it out with confidence. It’s fun, and it deserved a better film.
Fallout Season 1 - ***½ - Ramin Djawadi; add’l music by Garret Reynolds & Brandon Campbell;
orchestrated by Stephen Coleman & Michael Lloyd; original video game theme by Inon Zur
The Tiger’s Apprentice - ***½ - Steve Jablonsky; add’l music by Elisa
Alloway & Freddy Avis; add’l programming by Jared Fry & Sven Faulconer;
add’l music & score coordination by Sophia Blake; orchestrated by Penka Kouneva,
Philip Klein, Liz Finch, Larry Rench & Tim Williams; add’l orchestration by Greg Prechel,
Weijun Chen & Dan Brown; conducted by Jasper Randall; flute by Pedro Eustache
Borderlands - **½ - Steve Jablonsky; add’l music by Jared Fry, Bryce Jacobs,
Steven Silvers & Roger Suen; add’l programming & score coordination by Elisa Alloway &
Sophia Blake; orchestrated by Nga Weng Chio & Tim Williams; conducted by Jasper Randall;
synth programming by Klayton Albert; technical assistant Eduardo Resende
House of the Dragon Season 2 - **½ - Ramin Djawadi; orchestrated by
Stephen Coleman & Michael Lloyd; technical score advisor Garret Reynolds
3 Body Problem Season 1 - ** - Ramin Djawadi; add’l music by Linden Joseph; orchestrated by
Stephen Coleman & Michael Lloyd; cello Tina Guo; technical score advisor Garret Reynolds
Beacon 23 Season 2 - ** - William Marriott; title theme by Ramin Djawadi
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Next time: “It had a bit of tragedy to it, which really appealed to me.”
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