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Review of Armageddon (Trevor Rabin)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you want the ultimate anthem representing of the
Media Ventures glory days, with simplistic pounding and extremely basic
harmonic themes in their fullest synthetic and organic blend.
Avoid it... if you've never cared for Hans Zimmer's trademark, synth-dominated action music or any of its variants.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Armageddon: (Trevor Rabin and Harry
Gregson-Williams) If there ever was a score that single-handedly defined
the simultaneous arrival of (and backlash against) the concept of a
"Media Ventures" score, it would be Armageddon. The 1998 Jerry
Bruckheimer blockbuster was ridiculed at press screenings, blasted by
the more intellectual half of society, and eventually fell, several
years later, to its more appropriate B-film status. But that didn't stop
the poorly conceived and written film from earning far too much money,
for the late 1990's were time when CGI effects had made it both possible
and popular to show the worst disasters of biblical proportions on
screen. So proposterous is the plotline of Armageddon that the
special effects were really the only reason to go see the film. Terrible
acting by pop-culture stars and an equally weak score from amateur
composer Trevor Rabin were also to blame for the film's laughable
outcome. While Rabin had been involved for several years with Hans
Zimmer's Media Ventures clone factory, Armageddon would represent
the former Yes guitarist's fourth score over a span of two years, making
him frightfully inexperienced to handle a project of this magnitude. And
it shows. The Armageddon score is a haphazard combination of
Rabin's own guitar-driven sensibilities and Zimmer's stereotypical
keyboarded rhythms and samples faux-orchestral sounds. It's one of those
kinds of scores where you can't tell if the music you're hearing is
performed by a keyboard or an orchestra, a real choir or a synthetic
sampling... and it doesn't really matter. What Rabin accomplishes,
ironically, is really all the film needed: a brainless series of
testosterone-driven militaristic sounds mingling, occasionally, with
basic romantic thematic wanderings meant to represent the ridiculous
love story element in the film. In its overall sound, Armageddon
is cheaply rendered, with its instrumentation (or better yet, sampling)
extremely basic and existing without a hint of the finer points of
counterpoint or other compositional complexity. Ironically, that
simplistic nature makes parts of Armageddon a rather easily
listening experience, and is no doubt why Media Ventures fans dearly
love this score.
There are essentially four parts to the Armageddon score, ranging from the rather pleasant to the completely intolerable. The title anthem, the wild guitar rhythms, the keyboarded action cues, and the romantic, Celtic-laced romance variants on the title anthem and love theme are these four parts. The anthem in and of itself is listenable if only because of its own dumbed-down chord progressions. Written for real or fake strings, the anthem is among the more readily memorable themes to come out of Media Ventures during its height, and it flourishes in the launch and landing sequences in Armageddon. When Rabin reverts to his unrestrained guitar wailings, the score ultimately fails; from "Oil Rig" to "Armadillo," these passages are so abrasive that they're hardly listenable (and they also break up the otherwise decent "Finding Grace"). The typical Zimmer-ized keyboarded action for the major effects scenes in the film are filled with samples familiar to those who collect Zimmer's work; it's all terribly derivative, and the method of providing a heightened sense of excitement through the short, staccato blasting of the keyboards isn't going to win any awards. The final, most digestible aspect of the score is, not surprisingly, the work of Harry Gregson-Williams, who was also just getting his feet wet at the time, but who would also eventually prove himself to be one of the top two Media Ventures artists in the 2000's. When Rabin's score was deemed lacking enough romantic appeal, Gregson-Williams was brought in to add the Celtic flavor you hear in the cello and flute performances of the anthem and sub-theme for the love story. The film didn't necessarily call for that ethnic sound, but given the record sales of James Horner's Titanic score at the time, it's no surprise that the sound was considered a potential selling point. The exact extent of Gregson-Williams' contribution to Armageddon (overall) is still not entirely clear, and the history of the work on album hasn't made the situation much clearer. After Rabin released 30 minutes of his own score on a promo to coincide with the release of the film (only a song album was initially available), a commercial release with 50 minutes (and some of Gregson-Williams' uncredited work) was offered late in the year. It's a rare day when the lack of a song on a score album is considered an unfortunate event, but the presence of Aerosmith's song "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing" would have been welcomed on the score album given its prominent placement in the film. A 2-CD bootleg with over two hours of music from the film, including alternate takes and a snippet of Aerosmith, eventually hit the secondary market a few years later. It is, despite the hype, not complete. The additional 80+ minutes of music on this bootleg is pretty much more of the same, so if you enjoyed what you heard on the commercial album, then the bootleg just gives you significantly more of it. Of particular note is the inclusion of additional Gregson-Williams music, including significantly more representations of the love theme for cello and flute. The flute solo hidden in the middle of "Bad News" among the reasons why people flocked to buy this score in the first place. That particular cue is perhaps representative of the overall score more than any other... Gregson-Williams' beauty is tragically interrupted by more Rabin pounding just as you're getting used to the gorgeous, softer themes. The sound quality on the bootleg is equal to that of the commercial album, with the exception of the finale cue alternately named "Returning Home" and "Armageddon Trailer," which in either case sounds muffled. Rabin's mutilation of "America the Beautiful" is atrocious, though people with a sense of humor may interpret it as a rendition of what the song would have become had the Nazis won the war. Given how worshipped Armageddon is by Media Ventures collectors, perhaps the appeal of the bootleg (and its countless variants and revisions) comes as no surprise, but the score on the whole is so amateurish and underachieving that two hours of it is a mind-numbing experience. Still, it was the right score for the right film at the right time, and you can't help but shake your head and laugh at its predictable success. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1998 Promo Album:
Total Time: 30:10
1998 Sony Album: Total Time: 50:13
2000 2-CD Bootleg Set: Total Time: 132:29
(Several variants of this bootleg exist, some of which containing more music)
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert in Sony's commercial album contain a note about Rabin and extensive credits.
(it gives no credit to Harry-Gregson Williams). The other albums contain no consistent artwork or
booklet information.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Armageddon are Copyright © 1998, Promotional, Columbia/Sony, Bootleg and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/22/98 and last updated 1/6/07. |
