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| Jackman |
Captain America: Civil War: (Henry Jackman) What
does it mean for a franchise when negotiations with actors become the
most important aspect of its ongoing production? The quantity of Marvel
Universe characters intertwined in the series of films inspired by the
classic comic books ballooned to ridiculous levels by the latter half of
the 2010's, development of each one unsatisfyingly minimal and
meaningless. But who cares about any of that when more action figures
can be cranked out in the also ever-expanding merchandising realm? This
whole Marvel phenomenon is commercially tasteless from an artistic
viewpoint, but credit filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo for infusing
enough integrity in their products to keep audiences, including critics,
happy and eager to continue opening those wallets. In 2016's
Captain
America: Civil War, the franchise seeks to wrap up the original
Captain America trilogy while expanding upon a slew of additional
characters that are positioned to join the titular hero in even more
fanboy bait over subsequent years. In this particular entry, with both
Captain America: The Winter Soldier and
Avengers: Age of
Ultron establishing the timeline, the heroes are split by United
Nations action to regulate them, all the while the terrorist
organization Hydra continues causing problems as per usual. At a time
when audiences were treated to seeing Batman and Superman clash on the
big screen, it's only natural to see more division in the fashion that
the world unfortunately seems to desire. Yesterday's divorce court
television is today's "end of the world" superhero face-offs. With both
Captain America: The Winter Soldier and
Captain America: Civil
War performing extremely well at the box office, expect the Russos
to return for more Marvel adventures, a move that solidifies composer
Henry Jackman's place in the franchise. While Jackman has proven himself
highly capable in several genres through the years, his superhero music
in the X-Men and Captain America areas has not matched that of Brian
Tyler, Patrick Doyle, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, or Christophe Beck.
Some cynical listeners attribute this comparatively poor result from
Jackman to the "Remote Control Effect," with Jackman's scores emanating
from and, as some would say, suffering the consequences of the
derivative influence of Hans Zimmer procedures. Jackman's score for
The Winter Soldier was widely derided for its abrasiveness and
lack of loyalty to Silvestri's franchise theme. In
Civil War, the
result is slightly better but still a disloyal mess of scatterbrained
ideas.
The tone of the music in
Captain America: Civil
War differs from that of
The Winter Soldier in that the
emphasis rests more on truly authentic-sounding orchestral elements,
despite the composer's statements that the industrial elements of the
preceding work would be a guidepost. There was turnover in the assistant
composers (affectionately known as ghostwriters at this site) between
the two works, which could explain some differences. The electronically
hideous material for Winter Soldier returns in the first cue but,
fortunately, the organic elements prevail for much of the remainder of
the work. In fact, that character's thematic translation to strings in
"Adagio" is a bit bizarre in its resemblance of Ennio Morricone's
The
Thing. Captain America's theme, albeit Jackman's version and not
Silvestri's, does return, highlighted by the score's pinnacle in "Cap's
Promise," and, like the previous score, expect Silvestri's
snare-slapping style (a la
Judge Dredd, really) does inform these
performances for basic continuity. Other than minor nods to prior Iron
Man and Avengers motifs, expect nothing to satisfy you thematically the
way Tyler and Elfman did in
Age of Ultron. On the other hand,
Jackman does conjure a variety of new themes for this score, the most
cohesive of which existing for the film as a whole (the "Civil War"
theme is a descending series of phrases summarized wholly in the cue of
that name and thereafter) and for Spider-Man (whose idea in "A New
Recruit" and "Larger Than Life," among others, vaguely resembles the
strings of Elfman and brass of Zimmer). A new theme for Iron Man, as if
one was needed, seems to develop in "Making Amends." There are also
minor motifs for Black Panther and Zemo that have little overall impact.
The issue with
Civil War is that none of this material comes
together in a truly cohesive way, yielding minimal summary personality
outside of its individual components. Whereas
Age of Ultron was a
distinctive score (largely due to Elfman's contributions),
Civil
War is strictly procedural and businesslike, with little passion in
its instrumentation or recording. If
The Winter Soldier was
minimally acceptable because it bored you rather than being as obnoxious
as it could have been, then
Civil War will bore you just a little
less while dispensing with most of the synthetic detriments of the
predecessor. There remains nothing memorable from a score like this one,
its new themes mundane, its orchestrations lacking intrigue, and its
disposal of existing franchise themes nonsensical and dissatisfying.
While a modest improvement within Jackman's sphere and thus barely
earning a third star,
Civil War is hapless, soulless music devoid
of loyalty, mission, or aspiration.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.8
(in 25 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.78
(in 7,249 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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