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If you recall Revell's mainstream action scores of the late 1990's (such as The Negotiator and The Seige), you'll note that these scores often served their films well, but offer less than desirable substance on album. In the case of Collateral Damage, Revell accomplishes neither, producing a catastrophic disappointment that many had deemed to be among the least effective scores of 2002. The score barely meets the basic expectations of stock action music, and it is reduced to a drab and uneventful series of electronic pulses and looped rhythms that do little to capture any range of emotion. Despite the extra time gained due to the delay in the film's release, as well as the full orchestral ensemble hired for the film, Revell's music lacks any engaging personality, thematic identity, harmonic sensitivity, or stimulating fight cues. Instead, two performers on synthesizers (Revell included) are preferred over the orchestral players and produce run of the mill rhythmic underscore that could serve nearly any lower budget film. Most Media Ventures amateurs could write more interesting material than this. The lack of a strong theme is not surprising; both Revell and director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) had been known to reach that end before, but that tactic doesn't help a lead actor who was not only an icon but required a thematic identity to help compensate for his relatively poor acting skills in this context. More surprising is the extremely underperforming (or downright missing) element of action. Even during scenes of hand to hand combat and village massacres, the music continues its droning, looped rhythms that brood deep in the bass region without regard to synchronization points. The tone of the film is so badly misjudged by Revell that the "End Game" cue only cranks up the intensity of this material rather than develop it into any substantial transcendent climax. Even the opening scene of the film, featuring the horrific terrorist bombing, is scored with only mundane contemporary background material, with no foreshadowing of emotion or malice entering the equation. The scenes of remembrance are approached with such cold, heartless unenthusiasm that it could make one believe that that main character cares about his deceased family to the same degree that he cares about his pet rock.

When heard on album, the weaknesses of the score are witnessed in plain sight. The opening "Century City Bombing" lacks any hook to get the listener interested, the subsequent melancholy cues of emotion are badly underdeveloped, and the last two cues, "End Game" and "It's Over," give you absolutely no indication that there is any sense of satisfaction achieved in the film, nor a clear resolution in a technical sense. It's an album that maintains a consistent, ambiguous set of rhythms, messes around with variants of those throughout, usually at minimal volumes, and simply quits without warning after 35 minutes. The samples inserted into the rhythms suffer from an absence of creativity, with a handful of exotic drums and distorted vocals presented to authenticate the location of Columbia. These elements are best heard in "Journey Up-River," which stands as a highlight of the album even though it is barely audible in parts and the manipulation of ethnic vocals sounds more appropriate for the Middle East than South America. The seemingly tap-danced sound effects heard in this cue are both distracting and mysteriously out of place as well. As a listening experience, the album is adequate in that it is at least consistent. It avoids the lowest rating because it is only dull rather than obnoxious. The duration of the album sustains a morbidly depressing mood and sticks with it, and without an abundance of dissonance employed by the composer during the formulation of the score, there is nothing particularly unlistenable on the product. After fifteen minutes of having been lulled into its boredom-inducing state, you have wonder what the heck happened to the reported 13 French horn players, as well as the rest of the mammoth brass section. Did they play for only two minutes on this composition? Ultimately, questions about Revell's direction over the early 2000's were warranted, after several substandard scores coming from his highly-anticipated projects. Even if you set aside Tomb Raider as an example of disastrous assignment handling and exonerate him of the ills of that score, there had still been a level of drab and uninteresting production from the composer in that era that may have permanently stunted his chances at achieving a higher industry status. Collateral Damage is a clear example of a score that could have (and needed to be) a whole lot more dynamic and intense.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.78 (in 17,131 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 35:25