: (Alan Silvestri) In its
overarching storyline, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been
establishing the background story for 2018's
and its direct sequel for many years. The franchise dabbled with
the ensemble cast merging of several of its properties in two prior
comes the opportunity to see all but two or so of these iconic
characters battling to save the galaxy. Don't expect much character
development in this haphazard narrative, only the villain, Thanos,
receiving significant expansion. With all the backstories of the heroes
already explored, this movie was the opportunity to create one massive,
continuous "payoff" conflict that seldom supplies meaningful rests from
action. Rarely has an ensemble cast production of this magnitude been
attempted, and audiences ate it up, rewarding Disney and Marvel with two
billion dollars in grosses in short order. Most interestingly, it's a
science fiction blockbuster in which the villain actually prevails,
setting up the clear need for an immediate sequel to rectify the
disheartening damage done to half of the heroes in the franchise.
(Cynics might wish the plotline would leave a slew of these characters
dead as to diminish the presence of so many Marvel films.) For some
viewers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been exploited so
frequently in the 2010's that it's difficult to maintain the same level
of excitement for each entry, and that general feeling of overload could
come to define Alan Silvestri's score for
.
With song usage in the film kept to a minimum (aside from the Guardians
of the Galaxy gang, who nearly require it), Silvestri was tasked with
providing a substantial amount of orchestral action and fantasy music
for a franchise he had helped define earlier in the decade. His themes
for 2012's
have been the most notable musical glue
for the MCU ever since, the veteran also assigning an identity to
Captain America along the way. Despite the composer's concurrent work on
, he collaborated with just one orchestrator and
conductor to flesh out the sound for most of
, a meaty solo effort for Silvestri at a time when such
assignments are usually tackled by an army of ghostwriters. Something
must be said for that.
Many film scores are destined for glory or disappointment
based on decisions made during spotting sessions, and in Silvestri's
meetings with the filmmakers for
Avengers: Infinity War, it was
determined that the composer would not attempt to interpolate a
significant number of the existing MCU musical themes into this score.
For many listeners, this score loses much of its appeal right there, as
what is the point of a true ensemble cast film without making at least a
token effort to exploit the efforts of all thirteen composers involved
with the franchise to form the ultimate "ensemble score?" Fans have
complained for many years about the lack of thematic loyalty in these
Marvel soundtracks, and composers have, in the late 2010's, been making
more of an effort to cross-populate identities to rectify the problem.
Silvestri's approach to
Avengers: Infinity War is a massive step
backwards in the musical arch of this whole concept, a tremendously
frustrating, wasted opportunity. There exist several scenes in the film
oriented, if even briefly, around one of the superheroes, and the
composer could have at least adjusted his instrumentation to address
these moments. Instead,
Avengers: Infinity War is a completely
competent and functional score benefitting from Silvestri's decades of
experience in the genre, but a dissatisfying entry nonetheless. The
score is unashamedly orchestral with occasional dashes of choral flavor,
its symphonic stature as strong as ever for the composer. Listeners
won't encounter as many vintage Silvestri mannerisms at work here
(
Ready Player One is the score for that), but there is still a
comforting level of mastery and tonal accessibility in this music that
makes it competently suitable for a film in which it excels at times in
surpassing the sound effects track to have an actual impact.
Unfortunately, the emotional weight of the music is rather lacking,
especially in the last few, pivotal cues. Silvestri utilizes the right
basic methodology for the villain's triumph in the end and the
lamentation that follows, but he fails to instill the sense of
convincing gravity into such situations. So while the action scenes are
served well by the composer's usual mode of operation, the few emotional
interludes of importance tend to underachieve. Even the action cues will
strike some listeners as anonymous, as they don't frequently exhibit the
composer's knack for rhythmic momentum to produce lengthy cues of
entertaining engagement out of context.
While
Avengers: Infinity War follows an
acceptably conservative musical narrative, its lack of thematic
continuation and development is critical. Silvestri coined two themes
for
The Avengers in 2012, a heroic fanfare and a militaristic
march, and both are utilized faithfully in most of the right places
here. The fanfare has become the dominant representation of the entire
franchise, used throughout several of the films, notably by Michael
Giacchino and Danny Elfman, in cameo moments to suggest the larger MCU
at work in the background. It opens and closes the film in appropriate
guises here, and its appearance at the end of "Forge" for an important
arrival to the battlefield is impactful. The secondary march is best
expressed early in "Help Arrives," a nicely full statement of the idea.
Meanwhile, although Silvestri claims he did not address the concept of
the Infinity Stones with a specific theme, he does seem to treat them
with the same descending strings that he had applied as a Tesseract
motif earlier. Meanwhile, the score's primary identity exists for the
villain, Thanos, and the same idea encompasses all his various minions
of darkness. Introduced in growling tones in "Travel Delays" and
expanded to a sinister degree in "Undying Fidelity," this stomping and
tragic, descending figures arguably reach their best development in the
location transition at the end of "Even For You." The motif returns
gloriously in "A Lot to Figure Out" and occupies "Infinity War" with
appropriate grandeur. A more melodramatic punch with the Thanos theme in
"Porch" would have been desired. Outside of these themes, there are
allusions made at times to other characters, including a moment
suggesting Silvestri's own Captain America motif, but the only
significant theme by another composer to make an obvious appearance is
Ludwig Göransson's
Black Panther, fulfilling the desire of
that composer to hear his theme announce a return to Wakanda, a vital
setting in the film. (This cue is not on either album.) Of the themes
not utilized by Silvestri, the biggest disappointments come with the
production's abandonment of the identities for Doctor Strange, Thor, and
Spider-Man, each having specific scenes in the film that could have
greatly benefitted from a tasteful thematic cameo. As Danny Elfman
proved in the DC Comics ensemble film
Justice League the prior
year, there are very subtle ways in which you can interpolate existing
themes into a new cue without getting carried away. Certainly, Silvestri
could have accomplished the same if the filmmakers had trusted him with
the task.
Overall, it's difficult to criticize the general
symphonic effectiveness of
Avengers: Infinity War, as it will
accomplish its purpose perfectly well for many listeners. But true MCU
fans and film music collectors will be frustrated by the lack of loyalty
to a franchise of music begging for some meaningful catharsis beyond
cumulative bombastic thrills. Even as a standalone effort, this score
may disappoint some collectors expecting to hear the less anonymous
personality that guided the music for
Ready Player One. In fact,
in some of the conversational cues in the middle of
Avengers:
Infinity War, where subtle interpolations could have been
intelligently applied at will, Silvestri manages to yield softer music
that may seem downright dull. The memorably rambunctious Silvestri
action mode heard in
Predator,
The Mummy Returns, and
Van Helsing is absent from most of this score, creating a
situation for film music collectors that will sound like a Silvestri
auto-pilot effort. The score tends to drag on album, necessitating
substantial trimming to extract the best moments; this comment points to
the shorter, 72-minute presentation that was pressed on CD by Hollywood
Records. A "Deluxe Edition" of 116 minutes was aimed at download
audiences (including high resolution listeners), and its length is
extremely tiresome but not without some rewards in its selections. The
propulsive action of "Field Trip" is littered with references to
Silvestri's prior identities, including the snippet from the Captain
America theme at the end. A magnificent performance of the fanfare
graces the conclusion of "One Way Ticket." Some more traditional
Silvestri fantasy tones emerge in "Is He Always Like This?" The expanded
presentation also features the lengthy "End Credits" arrangement of the
Thanos material, exploring the idea's tones from "Even For You" even
further. The relatively somber attitude of the "End Credits" picks up
steam in the latter half to provide some optimistic fight that relies
more heavily on Silvestri's usual percussion array, especially the
metallic contributors, and the track concludes in epic fashion. Several
other action cues are expanded, but the shorter album edits will suffice
for those cues in most cases. Oddly, while the 72-minute album tends to
test the patience even with its condensed presentation, there is
necessary music on the expanded edition that needs to be combined with
twenty minutes from the shorter product to form the best overall
assembly of music from this score. The whole situation, both in film and
on album, is a significant disappointment despite affording the film
with sufficiently robust Silvestri tones. It's hard to shake the feeling
that there was a potential five-star score lurking somewhere in these
shadows.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39
(in 36 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 34,196 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
