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Unfortunately, Deadpool is a return to a level of sonic hideousness that most associated with 300: Rise of an Empire, a combination of tedious, boiler-plate genre pounding and electronic elements that are violently challenging to both the heart and the brain. There has been some bad music for the "X-Men" films through the years, but none of it compares with the explosive flatulence of Deadpool. Add into the formula the placement of numerous totally unrelated songs from various decades in the movie, and you have a disastrous soundtrack on album as well. To supply the film with a distinctly retro vibe, Holkenborg employed an array of vintage 1980's synthesizers (ARP 2600, Synclavier, Oberheim, etc.) to create an intentionally cheesy version of what Daft Punk took quite seriously in Tron: Legacy. On top of that, he accessed the usual crew and resources from Zimmer's Remote Control to supply orchestral music that would connect Deadpool with its siblings in the franchise. Unfortunately, neither is accomplished to any degree whatsoever. The rambling, percussion-aided electronic sequences for mindless combat is glorified in such intolerable cues such as "Maximum Effort" and "Twelve Bullets," passages of these recordings so painful as to make a person laugh. The composer has even suggested in interviews that the purpose of these cues was, essentially, to amuse rather than inspire. Despite Holkenborg's stated intention to have these 1980's tones carry over to the more "emotional" portions of the score, these parts are instead treated to insipidly dull orchestral meanderings that are generally pleasing in a harmonic sense but never truly accomplish anything substantial. Most of the orchestral involvement entails the usual broad, low-brass muscularity and rhythmic cello work that has long overstayed its welcome in the genre. More importantly, the retro synthetic feel of some of the score's action cues doesn't effectively carry over in any meaningful way to the rest of the work, negating their purpose. A few Zimmer emulations abound, naturally, in the weak stabs at nobility.

There has been much banter in the film music community about Deadpool being among the worst scores of all-time, but, in all reality, it's not quite that bad. In fact, parts of it play like discarded ideas from Mad Max: Fury Road. Rather, it's simply incompetent and boring, the product of an artist who is out of his league, and it does suffer from one of the most incoherent album presentations ever assembled. Sure, there is humor meant in the combination of Holkenborg's often grating music and the song placements in the film, but when you actually try to appreciate this combination on the albums from Milan Records, you can't help but question your sanity. Somewhere between George Michael, Juice Newton, Neil Sedaka, Salt-N-Pepa, and DMX (not to mention the adaptation of TeamHeadKick's "Deadpool Rap" for this picture) exists the meaning of life, but that's far too big a spread to attempt to mingle in and around Holkenborg's own schizophrenic score. Though not guaranteeing salvation, the songs should have been clustered together at one end of the initial album. Similar problems exist with the "Deadpool Reloaded" follow-up album released by the same label a few months after the first offering. This frightfully short product contains only about five minutes of additional Holkenborg score, the pair of "Because I Want To" and "Same Mistakes" barely registering at over a minute each and "Fear the T-Rex" a redundant extension of the industrial rhythmic brooding of the score but offering some substance for fans of the work. Several remixes of the score and "Deadpool Rap" are offered, none of which likely to be of interest to film score collectors. Like the first album, a few classic diversions really mess with the flow of the listening experience, the vintage duo of "Mr. Sandman" and "You're the Inspiration" clearly appropriate in representing funny placements from the movie but not compatible with the album's other contents outside of context. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, the "Deadpool Reloaded" product is only for die-hard enthusiasts of the movie or Holkenborg. On either product, the music is a mind-bogglingly impossible listening experience, one that will disappoint even the most ardent fans of the Zimmer/Remote Control industrial complex.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Tom Holkenborg reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.16 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.49 (in 6,124 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.