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Review of Daredevil (Graeme Revell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are a fanatic collector of the Daredevil
concept and appreciate even the least engaging variants on the superhero film
music formula.
Avoid it... if you prefer your superhero scores to feature a memorable, superior theme and interesting, sustained action cues.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Daredevil: (Graeme Revell) The public's desire for
supernatural heroes once again guided studios in the early 2000's. After
Batman, The Shadow, and The Phantom breezed through theaters
in the previous decade, the comic-to-screen stars of the early 21st Century
included a resurgent Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and then
Daredevil, a hero with the twist of having a disability in his real life
guise. Adapted from Marvel Comics' long-running concept, Mark Steven Johnson's
vision of Daredevil failed to gain the illustrious following of the kind
that Spider-Man and X-Men have both experienced, thus causing
whatever initial indication of a franchise to fizzle quickly. It did allow for
Jennifer Garner's character of Elektra Natchios to be spun off into her own feature
film, not to mention a tabloid press following in relation to her attachment to
Daredevil's title actor, Ben Affleck. The composers of the music for these
comic book superheroes have rotated between many of the top names in the industry,
often producing at least average, if not enjoyable scores for these films. Graeme
Revell was perhaps the most widely seasoned composer to tackle this genre in the
time just preceding 2003, having composed for action and adventure films in a wide
range of instrumental and electric sounds. He is an unpredictable composer,
sometimes bordering on the verge of brilliance and at other times performing a
balancing act between the downright strange and the completely unlistenable. Like
other films of the genre that came before, Daredevil would fit a certain
formula that composers typically try to adhere to, and Revell followed those lines
to an extent. The challenge with superhero scores is to follow that formula without
making the music into a series of cliches that could damage the film. Conversely,
scores that try to be too stylish, in essence an attempt to reinvent the genre in a
more contemporary fashion, can be problematic as well. The latter is an affliction
that Revell suffers in Daredevil, striving for a postmodern kind of
superhero score that fails to really extend the genre in an effective new direction
while also, unfortunately, losing some of that good old fashioned dramatic appeal
along the way.
Revell did manage to avoid producing a score constrained by the genre's cliches for Daredevil. On the other hand, he didn't follow the superhero formula with enough consistency to make the score the least bit memorable, either. He attempts to infuse the score with a dynamically ranging title theme, moving in two-note strides that could almost represent the leaps from one tall building to another. Unfortunately, the theme is too long and drawn out in its construction to be adapted easily into action cues throughout the work, causing only three prominent performances of that theme ("Daredevil Theme," "Matt Becomes Daredevil," and partially in "The Necklace"). So anonymous is its construct that you won't be able to hum this action hero theme after the score is over. One predictable avenue explored by Revell is the translation of the theme into a rhythmically cool electric guitar performance in "Matt Becomes Daredevil," taking a page from the methodology of Danny Elfman's Spider-Man. The fight sequences in Daredevil are scored with unorganized orchestral blasts, often in disjointed key and never lasting long enough to build into a listenable experience on album. In "Kingpin" and "Bullseye," Revell stretches the instrumentation into the percussively bizarre, making the villain and his thugs neither scary nor sophisticated. Ironically, for an action film, the highlight of Revell's work for Daredevil is the reflective portion of the underscore. For Matt, this entails floating female vocal solos over a deep, male choral background and subtle, sensitive guitar and piano work for Elektra. The more mystical sequences feature this solid music, and might, for fans of the Daredevil concept, save the album. Absent, however, is the kick-butt action material that you need to hear in scores such as this. Revell employs a large ensemble for the project, including a massive French horn section, as well as the voices and an electric guitar for effect, but that sizeable group never unleashes much harmonic or, for that matter, coordinated force. Ultimately, therefore, this is a score that attempts to rely upon its textures to suffice, and with a bland employment and mixture of its ingredients, the recipe will be a disappointment for most listeners. For collectors of Revell's music, this work is certainly better than his Tomb Raider debacle, but it resides without distinction at the less interesting end of the superhero film music scale. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 40:17
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers, but no other information about
the score or film.
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