: (Steve Jablonsky) Imagine the
frustration of author Orson Scott Card for a moment. Much of his adult
life has been devoted to the concept spawned from his story of
over the 1980's and 1990's, and when his fictional
universe was finally adapted to the big screen in 2013, not only was the
movie an artistic disaster, but all anybody wanted to talk about during
the publicity tour for the project was Card's distaste for
homosexuality. The fact that Card, a Mormon, would argue against
equality for homosexuals in today's world is somewhat amusing given all
the heavy philosophical subject matter in
,
definitely a thinking man's examination of Aristotle's good old factors
of ethos, pathos, and logos at the highest of levels. The story exists
in Earth's future, when the planet comes under attack from an alien
species. Humanity trains its brightest young minds to use video game
simulations to prepare them for the upcoming retaliatory war against
this species, with unintended consequences and heartbreak for those with
any sense of diplomacy. The controversy involving Card's public
statements about today's political landscape were just one fraction of
the problems faced by
; more tellingly, its
post-production work was shattered by the reported firing of a
significant number of crew members. The finished product was not only
boycotted by some viewers because of Card's opinions, but reviews of the
adaptation were poor and worldwide box office returns failed to recoup
the production's budget and Lionsgate was forced to retract all
discussions about a franchise that would have clearly been the intent of
this film given Card's wealth of conceptual material and the cliffhanger
ending to this first entry. One of the aspects of the film suffering
from uncertainty was its soundtrack. At the start of 2013, respected
veteran composer James Horner was announced as being attached to
, but at roughly the same time as his removal from
the badly received 2013 version of
. Both films suffered significant late rearrangement, and while
Horner did record a full score for the earlier
The choice of Horner for
Ender's Game was
initially an inspired one. Had the film's production values been of
greater merit, the composer likely could have addressed many of the
nuanced sociological themes in Card's concept, especially within the
psyche of a young mind. Such intellectual approaches are few and far
between in Hollywood of the 2010's, however, and it is no surprise that
the production, in need of some quick fixes at the behest of careless
studio knuckleheads, turned to the Remote Control-born Steve Jablonsky
as a dose of salvation. Known best for his perpetuation of Hans Zimmer
methodology in the
Transformers franchise (at a more affordable
price, of course), Jablonsky was still being ridiculed in 2013 for the
absolute and almost hilarious awfulness of his score for
Battleship the previous year. Any remnants of
Steamboy and
other promising glimpses at his capabilities have largely been erased in
the 2010's, and
Ender's Game won't serve to rectify any negative
impressions about his limitations. If director Gavin Hood, his team,
and/or the studio wanted a safely stupid power-anthem score to cater to
the lowest common-denominator as a method of milking as much out of
Ender's Game as possible, then that's exactly what they got.
Jablonsky phoned in a score for this film that is completely devoid of
the intricacies of thought and emotional gravity of inner turmoil that
Horner could have addressed. In fact, from listening to this generic
Remote Control work, one could assume that the film has completely lost
all of its philosophical gravitas. The bad news, especially for Horner
enthusiasts, doesn't stop there. Not only is Jablonsky's approach to the
film one of blubbery waste, but it's highly repetitive as well. Few
scores rotate as endlessly through the same core set of basic ideas as
this one, testing anyone's patience when conveyed outside of the context
of the film. For a universe as intriguing as
Ender's Game, it's
astonishing to ponder just how incredibly underdeveloped the music for
this film turned out to be. The minor-third progressions, the synthetic
augmentation of orchestral sounds, the vocal integrations, the rhythmic
churning of enhanced strings, the expansive brass whole notes, thumping
percussive brainlessness, all present and thriving in yet another
capitulation to mainstream convention.
There are defenders of the score for
Ender's
Game in existence, those for whom the cheap thrill continues to
outweigh higher brain functions. For these listeners, the score provides
something Horner would never dream to stoop down to: a pair of decently
enunciated anthems of ultra-muscular bass that pound away with enough
deliberation to expose any tiny cracks you might already have in either
your eardrums or the sheetrock on the walls of your room. The opening
"Ender's War" builds up to the first of these identities, the one that
ties most of the score together. If that doesn't stir the lions
adequately, there's the secondary anthem for the Dragon Army subset of
young heroes in the story. First announced at the end of "Dragons Win,"
this idea is featured three or four times in full during the score. Upon
casual appreciation, these themes will be indistinguishable and function
just the same. Outside of these ideas, Jablonsky seems content to let
his common ostinatos hold everything together, each one hopelessly
rooted on key and rotating mostly between the minor-associated notes
directly above. There is some choral grandeur to be heard, the latter
half of "The Way We Win Matter" a decent example of this execution, but
the soundscape is devoid of any interesting counterpoint, and in that
cue in particular, the moment of beauty is followed by the usual array
of irritating electric guitar and alarm clock manipulations. The moments
of contemplation in
Ender's Game are scored with extreme
disregard for emotional impact, a cue like "Ender Quits" a meandering,
pointless exercise in ambience. All of this said, Jablonsky does attempt
some minimally interesting utilization of solo strings in the work, the
violin line over the ostinato in "The Battle Room" being the ballsy
2010's power-anthem version of Trevor Jones' adaptation of Dougie
MacLean's "The Gael" in two cues of
Last of the Mohicans. If
that's the brainiest element a person could find in
Ender's Game,
then perhaps it's best that Horner spent his time over the year at
charity events and other meaningful gatherings. Like the
Transformers scores, there is a guilty pleasure suite to be
compiled from Jablonsky's generic output for
Ender's Game,
perhaps even fifteen minutes of tonally dumb but tasty red meat for avid
Remote Control collectors. It's significantly better than
Battleship, but then again, damn near everything is, even the
concurrent Remote Control disaster for
Captain Phillips. Keep
chewing on that well-done steak, RC fans. You'll get it down
eventually.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Steve Jablonsky reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.2
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.47
(in 11,924 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
