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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Avengers: Infinity War (Alan Silvestri)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the expanded "Deluxe Edition" album in lossless
download form to collect 20 to 30 minutes of the best highlights of Alan
Silvestri's solid action score into an engaging presentation otherwise
absent from either of the two album offerings.
Avoid it... on any album if you expect Silvestri to interpolate the existing themes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe soundtracks into one fantastic "ensemble score," this otherwise sufficient music a massively wasted opportunity.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Avengers: Infinity War: (Alan Silvestri) In its
overarching storyline, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been
establishing the background story for 2018's Avengers: Infinity
War and its direct sequel for many years. The franchise dabbled with
the ensemble cast merging of several of its properties in two prior
Avengers films in 2012 and 2015, but with Avengers: Infinity
War 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 Avengers: Infinity War.
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 The Avengers 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
Ready Player One, he collaborated with just one orchestrator and
conductor to flesh out the sound for most of Avengers: Infinity
War, 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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Regular Edition:
Total Time: 72:11
Deluxe Edition: Total Time: 116:16
* unreleased on the regular album ** contains music unreleased on the regular album
NOTES & QUOTES:
The packaging for both editions includes no extra information about the score or film.
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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 Avengers: Infinity War are Copyright © 2018, Hollywood Records (Both Editions) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/3/18 (and not updated significantly since). These Marvel films would be much more interesting if all the characters were forced to battle each other while wearing only socks. |
