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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Fast X (Brian Tyler)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you can still forgive Brian Tyler for perpetuating one
of the most consistently anonymous franchises of film scores in modern
cinema.
Avoid it... if you remain hopeful for the triumphant return of the concept's main theme in meaningful development, Tyler again focusing instead on one new, pervasive character theme as the core of his new work.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Fast X: (Brian Tyler) At some point, it has to end,
right? There are only so many ways you can work car chases into an
action movie, and the Fast & Furious franchise has long lost its
original appeal as a street-racing concept. Instead, it's more tired
action from aging actors, the script for the eleventh installment,
Fast X, met with derision from critics and skepticism from
audiences. The production itself wasn't a smooth experience, veteran
concept director Justin Lin quitting his duties at the helm after
disagreements with reportedly tardy and out-of-shape actor/producer Vin
Diesel caused him to exclaim, "This movie is not worth my mental
health!" on set. What was meant to be the culmination of the franchise
was extended into two or three films, this 2023 entry ending on a
cliffhanger but managing to kill off a major character. The Toretto
family of old street racers and criminals is caught up in a
world-traversing plot of revenge involving the story of a previous
installment, Fast Five, some of which is reshot from the
villain's perspective this time. That villain is the son of a drug lord
killed in that earlier plot, and James Momoa's likeable performance
guides most of the appeal of Fast X. Expect minimal intelligence
and ample depictions of insurable losses. The film, which was among the
most expensive ever produced, fared poorly at the box office compared to
expectations, though concluding sequels are still planned. The
soundtrack for Fast X once again features a bevy of hip hop, rap,
and other songs, though composer Brian Tyler continues his duties
providing the crossover original score. For those of you who have little
tolerance for the films' lack of new ideas, the music has been equally
difficult for Tyler to evolve since the fifth film in the series in
2011. The style of the scores is consistently a hybrid mix of
orchestral, rock percussion, and electronic manipulation, with few
distinguishing characteristics in each work. Tyler has made varied
attempts at providing a little unique character here and there in the
franchise, though he has struggled to maintain thematic consistency in
the overtly obvious applications you would expect in these types of
films.
Without any truly impactful development of themes by Tyler in the "Fast & Furious" franchise, satisfaction with the music resides in the sheer style of the music. His blend of percussive-laden orchestral mayhem with hip-hop, Latin, and electronic dance music remains anonymously proficient, especially in the action sequences, and much of the material could be placed in multiple concept films without much loss in applicability. The action in Fast X remains totally bland but serviceable in a contemporary setting, occasionally engrossing but usually merely tolerable at best. The orchestra chugs away in dutiful modern action mode, nary a moment of truly memorable constructs. What's enhanced this time is a slap-happy Tyler at his drum kit, the percussion joining a bevy of tired electronic manipulations and the dreaded "sinking gut" pitch slur that makes eyes roll. The rock percussion is overbearing at times, as in "Home Invasion." He strives for a bit cooler attitude in this work, the style of the hip hop source music in "Slap Party" bleeding into several other cues. Like F9: The Fast Saga, this score is sufficiently noisy, sometimes dramatic, and always synonymous with the more generic parts of the Now You See Me and later Rambo scores. Thematically, Tyler confesses that he's juggling over a dozen themes by this point, though most won't register with all but the most ardent franchise fans. The composer has struggled to enunciate his ideas for individual characters in a timely and effective fashion, and some ideas are simply abandoned or neglected along the way. He has always tackled the franchise with character themes, the most lasting identities originating in 2009's Fast & Furious, but his main, propulsive theme for the team of protagonists best enunciated in 2011's Fast Five. Most of Tyler's ancillary themes are recognizable but not progressing to any new purpose. Even in Fast X, these ideas often connect dots rather than mature along with the characters, and the franchise loses poignancy because of it. Nothing is more frustrating in this franchise than Tyler's inexplicable diminishment of the main franchise theme. It's not the most complicated identity, but the composer still fails to supply it with any of its original zeal and energy from ten years prior. The staccato style of Tyler's main theme was largely absent from F9: The Fast Saga, and while he does supply it in more applications in Fast X, the usage remains sadly fleeting. Hints of its melody guide the ultra-cool "Fast X" remix, complete with humorously effective "move" vocals. The theme understandably rediscovers its prior glory throughout "Veloce e Forte," on violins at 1:32 and fuller at 2:20, including rare choral chanting. (Tyler hasn't utilized voices often in this series.) The theme returns to original Fast Five form for a moment at 3:50 into "Veloce e Forte" and opens "Momentum" on percussion, building to a full string version with brass counterpoint. The "move" vocal and basic rhythms from "Fast X" is reprised in "Move," and the idea segues out of the F9/Jakob Toretto theme in "Aviation Schism." From there, it slides into oblivion, though, hinted slightly in the middle of "Home Invasion," informing rhythms in the first half of "The Final Lesson" (and coming clean for a moment at 2:52), and influencing movements again in "Finale X." But that's it, and the lack of better development of a theme so integral to Fast Five in this extension of its plot is disappointing. On the other hand, as lead characters Dom and Letty tend to their post-criminal family life and that sanctity is threatened, their pretty, Latin-flavored love theme is treated to an increasingly diversified role. The initial ascending five notes of this idea are all over the score in various guises, starting at 0:40 into "Scales of Power" in action mode, fragmented in suspense after 1:16 into "Nobody's Rome," opening "Letty and Dom" lightly in contemporary tones, and somber but appealing at 1:24 into "Hermana." Thereafter, it really strays, its opening notes staggered tentatively in "While Rome Burns," agonized in fragments at the start of "How Do You Choose?," reduced to very slight keyboarding in the middle of "Visions of the Past," bloated to an action burst at 1:39 into "One if by Plane," and carrying heavy weight at 1:55 into "Family Values." A variant of the Dom and Letty theme offers quick hope at 1:48 into "Viaduct Dodge" while similar structures are hinted early in "The Final Lesson." It returns to impressive action support at 1:22 into "Finale X" (emerging out of the F9/Jakob Toretto theme later), and closes "Finale X" as part of the cue's action crescendo, affirming its new protective purpose. Tyler's continued exploration of the F9/Jakob Toretto theme is one of the more successful aspects of the music for Fast X, though the theme never experiences the satisfying, expected catharsis given the plot of this film. Heard at 0:36 into "Nobody's Rome" on piano, the idea is intertwined with the new villain material in "Jakob's Ladder," becoming boldly dramatic at 1:56. It guides the drama in the second half of "Legacy" and is devious early in "Aviation Schism" before transforming into a cool action variant at 1:46. Fragments on brass intersperse with the action in "One if by Plane," and the theme struggles against the villain's music in the middle of "Family Values." Not surprisingly, the idea becomes somber at 2:11 into "Finale X" on low strings. Don't expect any elongated performances of the theme as compared to its treatment in the prior score. Meanwhile the family theme attached now to Mia Toretto receives some marginal air time, heard dramatically in the latter half of "Letty and Dom" and providing acoustic guitar warmth in "Hermana." The slew of other themes by Tyler for various characters affords cameo appearances, and listeners interested the most obvious of these moments will appreciate 1:54 into "Momentum," the opening of "Nobody's Rome," an infusion of Latin flavor in the middle of "Piquete," the melodic elements throughout "Under New Management," the later portions of "Black Site," slight inferences in "The Lens of Time," the latter half of "Visions of the Past," 1:42 into "The Final Lesson," and the concluding moments of "Finale X." These singular passages are supplied sparingly because Tyler opted to dominate Fast X with his new villain theme. It's not hard to get the impression that the composer over-thought this idea, especially by the time he built the theme on twists of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" due to a story connection. But the theme essentially works, Tyler proud of utilizing "the devil's interval in reverse" and intentionally creating a third chord in his melody that is, as he says, "wrong" in its harmonics. Don't expect overt Tchaikovsky connections in the melody, though Tyler does outright restate the actual swan theme's first two phrases with a distinctly Hans Zimmer style of bravado at 3:57 into "Back to Swan Lake." If anything, more of this overt, straight usage of Tchaikovsky may have better served the character and the score. Approaching Dante as an alluring but sinister villain, Tyler rather sought a blend of high orchestral sophistication and electronic modernism akin to Ludwig Göransson's Black Panther. The composer divides his music for Dante into two parts that often overlap: a slithering, introductory motif around key that is not actually that seductive despite such intent and a four-chord theme of simplicity with that off-kilter third chord. The intro motif is heard immediately on strings in "Dante's Inferno" while the actual theme is keyboarded 1:00 with that intro motif underneath; the theme sounds like a Jon Carpenter idea and is repeated with brass and electronic interference from 2:16 to the end of the cue. The underlying Dante motif drives the action rhythms of "Veloce e Forte" on strings all the way through the cue, the rare choral element joining in the middle. That motif dominates the end of "Momentum" with heavy force while the theme proper interjects on brass at 4:15. The motif emerges late in "Scales of Power," closing out the cue. The theme is keyboarded at 0:58 into "Origin Story" over the intro motif, gaining momentum briefly, but the motif reasserts itself powerfully at 3:14 and mingles with the theme later, its best instance at 5:15 before saturating with the Black Panther style. The motif rumbles against the F9/Jakob Toretto material at the start and end of "Jakob's Ladder," opens "Legacy" with sinister attitude, is distorted in "Showtime," and dominates the first half of "How Do You Choose?" The theme returns at 2:50 into "Back to Swan Lake" over the diluted intro motif, that motif stuttering at the start of "Roman's Riches" (shifting to almost James Bond-like coolness), barely guiding the action rhythms of "One if by Plane," stewing to open "Family Values" but extending to flamboyant brass, and continuing a subdued posture into "Rebalance of Power" over groaning electronic effects. The intro motif offers swagger to the middle of "Viaduct Dodge" and becomes sickly and distorted at 0:28 into "Standoff" before the theme returns ominously at 1:19 and is repeated several times. This idea grinds over electronic dissonance in the second half of "The Final Lesson" and supplies intrigue to "Finale X," in which the intro motif gains steam again at the outset while the theme is defiant at 0:46, the motif returning for the conclusive crescendo. The villain music is adequate but cannot alone float the score. More compelling is Tyler's good orchestral adaptation of the rap song "Won't Back Down" as a score element. Other than that, Fast X continues Tyler's run of proficient and occasionally entertaining but totally anonymous music for this franchise. An overly long album presentation over 100 minutes can be trimmed to half an hour of decent additions to similar highlights from the prior entries. Three-star music seems to be this concept's destiny. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 103:48
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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