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| Zimmer |
Dark Phoenix: (Hans Zimmer/Various) In the final
years of 20th Century Fox's control over the "X-Men" concept on screen,
the studio extended one last sequel in its already once rebooted series
of films related to the famed mutants. Of the twelve films in the nearly
20-year-old franchise, 2019's
Dark Phoenix is the most monumental
failure. It has been projected to cost Fox more than $100 million in
losses, a product of oversaturation and the immense misfortune of a
production schedule at odds with Disney's acquisition of Fox and formal
merging of the "X-Men" films into their own Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The post-production of
Dark Phoenix was a nightmare years in the
making, in part because Disney's late involvement required a different
direction for the film if only for their own narrative desires. The
story of the movie is a rather pointless revisitation of the Jean
Grey/Phoenix corner of the "X-Men" realm, the events of 2006's
X-Men:
The Last Stand conveniently erased by the prior two films as a
logical method of milking more money out of the franchise with younger
actors in the lead roles. With series stalwart Bryan Singer no longer
palatable to direct, screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg steps up to
the helm, with disastrous results. For film music enthusiasts, this
transition meant the exit of composer John Ottman from the franchise as
well, his music one of the few connective tissues surviving both
generations of the concept during its run on screen. Instead, we get
music producer, marketer extraordinaire, and occasional composer Hans
Zimmer for an orphaned entry that defies his pledge from 2016 to
permanently remove himself from the superhero genre. After some prodding
by friend Ron Howard, Zimmer rethought his decision and agreed to seek
out superhero scores if they spoke to his heart. For whatever reason,
Dark Phoenix did just that, and he dove into the nightmare of a
project that ultimately yielded about 16 hours of recorded music from
his Remote Control Productions clone army. Roughly a dozen ghostwriters
assisted Zimmer in what he deemed a band-like experience of creating
music for the film, though Steve Mazzaro, David Fleming, and Andy Page
served in the lead contributor roles. (To his credit, Zimmer did put all
twelve names on the cover of his second album of music from the
picture.)
The result of this massive Remote Control group think is a
remarkably unremarkable film score for
Dark Phoenix, a standalone
new age experience that once again reinforces Zimmer's role in the
industry as a marquee name rather than a convincing provider of truly
nuanced and effective film music in context. For the avid Zimmer
collector (or apologist, depending upon how you look at his position in
the industry), this music is a somewhat stylish extension of his
established baseline of dreary superhero ambience, his themes extremely
simplistic in composition and their rendering lacking any
non-repetitive, intelligent layering. It's tempting to write off the
album presentation of
Dark Phoenix as a standard new age Remote
Control jam, but the tracks as presented on the primary product are, in
many cases, nearly identical to what is used in the film. Zimmer seems
to have fully embraced the process used especially in Europe of writing
suites of music to represent concepts in a film and then let the music
editors sort out the placement in the actual movie. For a superhero
film, that's a very dubious prospect. Zimmer also chose to abandon
everything established by Ottman for the franchise, including his main
theme. Perhaps that identity was too "jolly" for his sensibilities. In
fact, anything resembling heroism is gone from the equation here, Zimmer
gleefully revolving the score around three general identities consisting
of dreary brooding (the main theme), sad brooding (the Phoenix theme),
and angry brooding (the Magneto theme). All of these things dwell firmly
in the bass region with singular layers sometimes occupying high octaves
above; a significant lack of care in the midrange layers seems to
prevail. The most amazing attribute of Zimmer's themes for
Dark
Phoenix is how juvenile and self-absorbed they are. The main theme,
for instance, is a way-too-long line of note pairs that move with so
much saturated deliberation that Zimmer clearly expects listeners to be
amazed by each shifting chord. Likewise, the Magneto theme is literally
pounded in nearly every instance, its progressions only slightly more
complicated. These themes are ridiculously simplistic and devoid of
meaningful variation. The Phoenix theme does lend itself to more
emotional range, though even this idea is surprisingly constricted. At
times when Zimmer's crew overlaps themes, they persist in only their
base styles, making them very transparent but not enhancing the
narrative with any sense of depth.
There are a few benefits to Zimmer and team's bonehead
thematic structures in
Dark Phoenix, led by not only the absurdly
simple progressions but also the memorability factor. In some ways, it
helps that the three main themes are similarly repeated in a majority of
the tracks. And, perhaps most importantly to fans, the themes are
certainly easy listening on album, assuming you take your gourmet
brooding with a side of synth and electric guitar. The morbid tone of
the score is overproduced and overwrought in most cues, the weight
consistently grim and befitting a disturbing doomsday topic far less
fantastic than an "X-Men" film. A comparison between Zimmer's finished
product and his concept suites shows that any orchestral performances in
Dark Phoenix were pointless because the atmosphere of his
synthetic renderings yield the dominant personality here whether
intended or not. If you're going to write generic muck like this, after
all, why bother hiring live players? One nice touch by the team is a
range of vocals for Phoenix that attempts to infuse some genuine heart
into the score. Sadly, the actual rendering is highly reminiscent of
either Graeme Revell's
The Saint or, humorously enough, James
Horner's
Titanic. There are also a fair number of keyboarded
passages meant to beef up the familial aspect of all the characters, but
this element gets lost in the mix more often than not. Zimmer certainly
shouldn't win brownie points from anybody for applying a slurring
electric guitar to anything related to energy or lightning or, in this
case, Magneto. In the case of the electrical edge and vocalizations,
Zimmer occasionally goes totally experimental, and it's in these
blasting or chanting passages that this score ceases being a palatable
listening experience on album. The album presentation presented some
heartache for Zimmer fans, as the original 68-minute product was missing
the end credits music and the concept material that Zimmer had teased
about at the release of the film. Typically, the composer is shy about
releasing his additional or concept recordings for his products, but he
lobbied Fox and Disney hard to get a second album of
Dark Phoenix
music released, and while he was not initially successful in convincing
the studios to press a 2-CD release representing music from a disastrous
movie, he did get two lossless digital options presented to fans. The
latter, called "Xperiments From Dark Phoenix" and released a few months
after the primary album, contains the brief end credits music and almost
77 minutes of concept recordings.
As if the quality of Zimmer and team's output for
Dark Phoenix wasn't frustrating enough based on its own merits,
the album situation still isn't well suited for fans, either. Assuming
that you either appreciate Zimmer's ultra-brood methodology or desire a
mind-numbing new age album experience for pleasure, the highlights of
the score are split between the two products. The performance of the new
main concept theme that opens the first three minutes of "Gap" on the
primary album is a genuine reminder of Zimmer's glory days from the
early 1990's (still... why can't the man employ an electric guitar
nowadays with as much pizazz as in those early years?), but the second
best performance of that idea, the end credits cue, is "X-SS" on the
"Xperiments" album. Listeners enamored with the theme can hear it woven
throughout the score proper, such as at the end of "Intimate" and
beginning of "Reckless," but you need the "Xperiments" album to hear it
go orgasmic in "X-X," where the obvious Vangelis love is treated to the
crowd-pleasing counterpoint of "CheValiers de Sangreal" from
The Da
Vinci Code. Likewise, if you prefer the main theme in zone-out mode,
you'll want the somber "X-TX." (That's a superhero theme? Really?) As
for the Phoenix theme, you'll receive the film versions in "Dark" and
with better connections to the heart in parts of "Frameshift" and
"Insertion." Seek its more brutal variation in "Deletion." Meanwhile,
the "Xperiments" album provides this idea in techno form in "X-HZT," the
only track attributed solely to Zimmer by one report. This 17-minute
concept track is hilariously awful in its whole, proving that Zimmer
either has way too much time to enjoy his jam sessions or the man has no
idea what to do with his own themes. If you preferred the "Dark"
rendition, then "X-LGDP" and "X-MDP" will extend that performance
further. You can tell that the team found much allure with the Magneto
theme, as it's exercised frequently and with force throughout. It pounds
with outright violence in "Frameshift," "Intimate," and "Insertion." If
that isn't enough pain for you, then clear out your sinuses with more
Magneto suffering in "X-MT" on the "Xperiments" album. Ultimately, it's
the main theme that will attract the most casual interest, as the
Magneto material is pure testicular magnetism and the Phoenix theme is,
despite its consistent applications, too elusive emotionally with which
to connect. By contrast, the main theme, while structurally devoid of
interest, is at least tonally pleasant and reminiscent of Zimmer's early
glory days at enough intervals to merit an appreciable 10 to 15-minute
suite.
There are ideas floating about in
Dark Phoenix
that aren't related to the three main themes, but not so you'd really
notice. In fact, don't bother with them unless you have a framed photo
of Zimmer in your bedroom. One is an adaptation of English classical
composer Henry Purcell (Of course! For an "X-Men" film! Why the hell
not?) into a theme of loss that is highlighted in "Amity" and seems to
accompany death throughout the film. It informs of the action in
"Reckless" and is consulted again in "Coda." For the "Xperiments" album,
the idea is reprised with boring results in "X-F." The alien D'Bari
villains in the tale receive their own ineffective material in
"Negative" and the outset of "Intimate," the former track extended in
"X-SI" on the second album. One of the more attractive cues is "Coda,"
which does a fair job of summarizing two of the main themes and the
Purcell/death influence, and an alternate version of this idea is
presented on "Xperiments" as "X-CH." Once again, the final minute
reveals that the mutants were actually searching for the Holy Grail at
the Louvre, at least according to Zimmer and co-jammer David Fleming. So
what do we make of all of this Zimmer-hyped madness as usual? Well, it's
madness, no doubt, and the self-absorbed type that you expect when the
score is about the process rather than the result. The track titles on
both albums are less than helpful, the "Xperiments" titles showing that
the composer likes playing games that his fans must love to decipher. He
includes obnoxious sound effects and recording session noise and vocals
on that second album. After all, we can't simply have an extension of
music from the film without unnecessarily awesome grinding noises
joining tracks and, behold, the voice of Zimmer himself! Given how awful
the film turned out to be, it's somewhat disturbing to think about how
much effort across Remote Control was put into this soundtrack; there
are many far worthier films that could have merited 16 hours of
recordings. But that's not what is important to Zimmer. It's all about
the RCP JAM, the collaborative process that furthers the striving for
ultimate coolness, even if that's not what the film required. There are
worse Zimmer works out there, as
Widows can certainly prove, but
few are as unnecessarily senseless and stupid as
Dark Phoenix.
Abandoning a franchise's musical identity is tough enough to handle, but
to replace it with a juvenile, repetitive, and chest-thumping style
befitting the composer rather than the concept is simply unacceptable.
All of that said, even those most ardent Zimmer skeptics can assemble a
viable suite of the composer's easy-listening anthemic mode from the two
albums. Just don't tell your brain you're doing it.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: *
- Music as Heard on the Albums: **
- Overall: **
| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.93
(in 98 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 276,210 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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No official packaging exists for either album.
