Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,126
Written 2/11/22
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Buy it... if you know that a vengeful assassin is on his way to
kill you and you'd rather be bored to death first by Mark Isham's
totally mundane music for this film.
Avoid it... if you continue to wonder what happened to Isham's
lyrical capabilities, the decent themes in this work going absolutely
nowhere within the bland, largely synthetic environment of suspense.
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| Isham |
Blacklight: (Mark Isham) One might almost forget
that fine actors like Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington once had
promising careers in leading dramatic films. Both seemed so permanently
typecast as vengeful killers by the 2020's that Neeson finally played
one such agent of death in 2022's Blacklight with the bonus
depiction as a grandfather in the story. Pushing 70 years old, the actor
still scowls at the camera and menacingly holds a gun on the movie
poster, the tagline "They're gonna need more men" reaffirming that no
meaningful context for the lead's bad mood is really needed anymore.
But, alas, he does have something to be angry about in
Blacklight. A black light is normally what you use to expose all
the otherwise invisible urine stains on the walls around your guest
toilet, but this movie instead reveals corruption in America's
much-maligned FBI. Neeson is a somewhat rogue agent who is proof that
the FBI does actually assassinate undesirable people in America, but his
formerly friendly FBI director (played by Neeson's good friend, Aidan
Quinn) ultimately sends the agency's goons after him for getting out of
line. The movie is, to nobody's surprise, another excuse to see Neeson
think, grimace, say something cool, and kill those who deserve an early
grave. The fact that he's protecting a granddaughter in this instance is
only proof of the man's viability. Director Mark Williams had been on
this joyride with Neeson for Honest Thief a few years prior, and
contributing to that muck was composer Mark Isham. While his career has
remained fairly steady and included ventures in an admirably wide
variety of genres on screens big and small, Isham hasn't enjoyed
significant mainstream success over the ten years prior to
Blacklight, his thriller music for The Mechanic films and
Williams' production of The Accountant among the notable entries.
His techniques in this genre are generally consistent, proficient, and
tiresome, and Blacklight is a predictable extension of that same
sound. The composer has struggled to supply some of his scores with
meaningful identities, this one no different from that trend. Like
The Accountant and Honest Thief, there are a handful of
more palatable, character-centric cues that merit attention, but the
whole is forgettable.
The substance of
Blacklight is provided by
Isham's synthetic array, with string, brass, and percussion sections
perhaps partially virtual in "Garbage" and "Security," among others.
These orchestrally-styled passages sound very much like John Powell's
Jason Bourne franchise formula of ostinatos, so an organically dynamic
presence for their contributions is really not necessary for the desired
effect. Extremely abrasive electronic and percussive rhythms exist for
the FBI villains, "The FBI's Dark Side," "Car Chased, and "Battle of the
Henchmen" all monotonous action-thriller cues not worth your time on
album. Low key electronic ambience prevails in "Funeral," "History," and
"Missed the Play," these mundane cues causing the middle act to drag
badly. A climax of rambling synthetic dissonance erupts in "The End of
Operation Unity" and will damage eardrums if not turned down.
Thematically, the score underdelivers, with its three discernable ideas
not consistently developed. A theme for Neeson's Travis Block character
contains repeated, ascending phrases of ass-kicking attitude throughout
"Travis Block," a deconstructed version following in "Good Soldier,"
vague hints in the dramatic swell of "Who Are the Good Guys," and softly
tender, distant shades lingering in the latter half of "The End of
Operation Unity." A separate family theme contains pleasantly soft
keyboarding in the second half of "Home" and is faint in "Day Care,"
brief early in "Security," and closes out "The End of Operation Unity"
on strings. It's a wishy-washy identity that sadly achieves nothing but
absolutely basic positive feedback. The most compelling idea in the
score opens the album in "Sofia Flores," that character's theme
containing a descending set of four ascending phrases in a totally cool
demeanor; this theme has a good structural dichotomy that should have
keenly informed the rest of the score. The idea influences the more
determined rhythms of "Figuring Out the Story" but otherwise does not
figure into Isham's larger equation. The whole score suffers from a lack
of coordination between these motifs. There is merit and potential in
each of the three thematic modes, but Isham seems to have zero interest
in doing anything intelligent with them in a way that average listeners
can register. The production of the score is fine, the layers well
mixed, but there's so little unique substance here that the ambience is
all you ultimately feel. The long album is a sloppy release with no
dedicated cover art. Outside of the brief and unspectacular thematic
highlights, expect this music to bore you to death. No vengeful
assassins necessary.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Mark Isham reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84
(in 26 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.88
(in 9,975 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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