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Review of G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Henry Jackman)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you experienced uncontrolled spasms of joy while
watching the intellectually devoid mayhem of this film's plot and
hearing its equally juvenile and derivative rock score.
Avoid it... if your mamma taught you better than to be a sucker for stupidity.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation: (Henry Jackman) Never let
intellectual failures deter you from milking a cash cow, a lesson
reminded by the 2009 cinematic adaptation of Hasbro's classic "G.I. Joe"
toy and comic lines. Despite its artistic shortcomings, G.I. Joe: The
Rise of Cobra was a fiscal blockbuster worthy of a sequel, though
the arrival of G.I. Joe: Retaliation took longer than anyone
anticipated. The film was ready to debut in the summer of 2012, but
Paramount withheld it until early 2013 to convert it to 3D, squandering
millions of dollars of promotional tie-ins and advertisements that had
already been committed to the prior year. A significant turnover in the
cast and crew of the sequel causes several incongruent aspects of the
budding franchise to disappoint, many actors portraying returning
characters refusing to reprise their parts. The plot of G.I. Joe:
Retaliation doesn't crank up the intelligence meter, however,
resorting to yet another set of logical fallacies of a massive scale
that yields even more grotesque destruction of a major world city due to
terrorist activities. In this case, the President of the United States
(Jonathan Price, in a twist of Bond villain irony), along with members
of his security detail, is replaced by a Cobra-sponsored impersonator
who unleashes nuclear horror upon the planet. So much for powers of
observation by the travelling press (seriously, Chuck Todd's goatee
could spot this farce). The solution? Hire Bruce Willis and Dwayne
Johnson to solve the world's ills with pithy commentary and equally
nonsensical access to military assets certainly responsible for
America's bloated national debt. Out the franchise's door with director
Stephen Sommers went composer Alan Silvestri, who supplied at least
serviceable, if not obnoxiously anonymous music for G.I. Joe: The
Rise of Cobra. In with dance-obsessed young director Jon M. Chu came
Hans Zimmer spin-off composer Henry Jackman, who, in his defense, had
proven in the early 2010's to be among the most capable artists to
emerge from the Remote Control production house. With his choice,
however, the "G.I. Joe" series was taking the inevitable step towards
combining its musical sensibilities with those of the "Transformers"
franchise, the two rumored in 2013 to be merged in a forthcoming
picture. Whereas Silvestri had pandered to the modern, synthetic,
techno-action sound while retaining some of his trademark orchestral
mannerisms in the prior score, Jackman makes no such attempt to bring a
sense of class to G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Instead, he proves
himself just as capable in the role of brainless, knock-off Zimmer clone
as any number of less talented composers.
There is good news in regards to the music for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, however: it isn't as wretched as Steve Jablonsky's Battleship. As moronic and derivative as these types of scores can be, at least Jackman (aided by his own team of ghostwriters, the true sign of having graduated past the highest ranks of the Zimmer factory) shows glimpses of promise during some sequences of exotic texture and ballsy action. Still, this is, without question, a procedural, library cut and paste job with no unique features whatsoever, as well as continuing proof as to why this sound has been met with such a vehement backlash from traditional film score collectors. Some of Jablonsky's Battleship samples seem to have inspired the soundscape for Jackman, the expected, straight electric guitar performances slashed by heavily manipulated synthetic tones that often swallow up the string and brass-dominated orchestra. The only woodwind performer in the group is tasked with providing some Eastern flavor in "Storm Shadow," a dramatic highlight of the work. Rock percussion is supplied as needed, laying waste in "Get Me the GI Joes" and congealing with the main theme in "Honor Restored" in ways that will fry the brains of the average Silvestri enthusiast. That cue does present Jackman's heroic main theme in its best light, but even here it's so generic that it simply seems to convey pleasantly noble progressions rather than a cohesive motif. The villains' material is led by the atrocious "Firefly," a rowdy but nearly unlistenable cue sullied by the electronic layovers. Some of the synthetic effects are so emphasized in the bass region that they cause possibly intentional distortion in the mix, essentially the old "sinking feeling" effect gone ridiculous. None of the themes in G.I. Joe: Retaliation reprises what Silvestri had already written, which makes little sense given that Jackman's ideas are inferior versions that try to take advantage of the same basic musical concepts. If you combine "Prologue," "Storm Shadow" and "End Game," the last of which features a few hints of Silvestri's organic action mode in its latter half, you might achieve three or four minutes of decent material. But that's not enough to float a 56-minute experience on album, a presentation in which the music is tedious and fails to make any attempt to distinguish itself. Jackman is better than this. Would he have been fired from the assignment for writing a more fluid hybrid score with at least token nods to Silvestri's original? Perhaps with a few Jerry Goldsmith meters thrown in for good measure? Probably not. Earning paychecks for this kind of trash is fine, but don't expect to receive any praise for it, other than the instinctive spasms from those in the mainstream who buy rock scores because they can't restrain themselves from leaking their precious bodily fluids while watching such idiotic displays of illogic. *
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 56:06
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about
the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from G.I. Joe: Retaliation are Copyright © 2013, Varèse Sarabande (Digital), Varèse Sarabande (CD) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/30/13 (and not updated significantly since). |
