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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Bear McCreary)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate the intelligence that Bear McCreary
brings to his work, his interpolation of famous themes from the
Godzilla franchise keenly woven into his own superior
instrumental and thematic sensibilities.
Avoid it... if you demand thematic continuity with Alexandre Desplat's score for the 2014 predecessor, though McCreary's handling of the concept and his dynamic recording are clear improvements.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Godzilla: King of the Monsters: (Bear McCreary)
There exist only three viable storyline variants for movies involving
giant prehistoric monsters rampaging on the earth: those that use the
shock and surprise of the beasts' existence to show humans running
around in awe and panic, those that depict how humans try to cope with
and control the beasts, and those that largely neglect human casualties
altogether and seek to show gratuitous beast-on-beast fighting. Until
filmmakers decide to put these monsters in space operas and/or
pornography flicks, that's about the conceptual limit. The 2019
cinematic entry in the famed Godzilla franchise dating back to
1954, the third such entry in America and the direct sequel to 2014's
successful Godzilla, sought to explore the second of three
options above, showing audiences how humanity tries to manipulate the
"Titans" amongst them. Of course, the temptation in any modern
blockbuster is to stray into the third option (pure battle), and there's
plenty of that in Godzilla: King of the Monsters as well. The
movie didn't work for audiences still enamored with freak-out nature of
option one, the 2019 sequel likely to lose money in the end for the
studio. A whole slew of ancient Titans, some alien and some of Earth's
radioactive doing, is awakened in this movie, in part because of a
militaristic group of humans attempting to control the monsters. Caught
in the middle is a dysfunctional family partially involved with the
military group, and, fortunately, they don't all survive. If the
fighting between monsters isn't enough for your sensibilities, there's
some mass civilian destruction included in Godzilla: King of the
Monsters as well. Luckily, the ultra-crappy storyline of the film
did not deter some production elements from achieving greatness, and
Bear McCreary's remarkable music for the movie is a reason why fans
should rejoice the studio's perhaps premature green light for another
sequel. McCreary, long producing solid music for television and video
games, finally broke through into Hollywood in the late 2010's with
significant help from his intellectually mesmerizing music for the first
two Cloverfield sequels.
Stylistically, enthusiasts of McCreary's music for 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox will find much to appreciate in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, many of the same instrumental techniques and colors applied as a base for the composer's new, additional layers of intrigue. One cannot help but marvel at the depth of intelligence conveyed by McCreary in these assignments. Normally, the abandonment of Alexandre Desplat's identities for the 2014 film would pose a major continuity problem, but McCreary reaches further back in the franchise to establish those connections, and he succeeds so well at this task that he ultimately shames Desplat's work for not doing the same. McCreary is proving himself a foremost leader of instrumental coloration, the application of each contributor in concept, the fleshed-out orchestrations, and a highly satisfying mix of the whole in the end product yielding phenomenally satisfying results for both the heart and the head. Whereas Michael Giacchino is perhaps the foremost choice in this era to write operatic blockbuster scores with immense and keenly developed themes for massive ensembles, McCreary is showing the capability to write at the same level but record his music with greater emotional gravity, deeper layers of contemplation, and a vastly superior recording mix. All of these traits can be heard in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, for which the composer carefully considered the franchise's past from the start. McCreary reached back to Akira Ifukube and Yuji Koseki's work from the first decade of the concept on screen and adapted three of their best-known identities into this sequel, rearranging their personality a bit to suit modern sensibilities. This tribute to the franchise is very carefully handled here, slowly revealing each usage until erupting in the final third of the film with the full, brazen applications of an immensely satisfying nature. Four or five original themes are supplied to the movie as well, their development and interactions elegantly managed throughout in the best of leitmotific methodology. Joining them are specialty instruments or vocal ensembles representing each identity consistently. The use of voice in particular is a highlight in this work, three totally distinct types of vocal performance types used to back three of the themes. For Godzilla himself, McCreary utilizes the kakegoe technique of vocalization in addition to traditional percussive tones from taiko drums and sticks. For much of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this secondary element in the score represents Godzilla alone, emerging in "Memories of San Francisco" to suggest the monster's activity in the previous film and persisting in "Old Rivals." The guttural chants and exhaled force of these performances is superb in the score; their rhythmic formations are adequate at supplying the titular monster with all the identity he needs until his official regeneration in the final act. By "Rebirth," McCreary unleashes the iconic Ifukube theme for the monster, its repetitively descending three notes manipulated well for dramatic effect. The percussion and voices are applied in perfect rhythmic propulsion in this cue, smartly dying out to a solo performance of the theme on woodwind near the end. The main motif and its vocal rhythms continue in battle throughout "Battle in Boston" and "King of the Monsters," the former building back up to the theme with precision in first 70 seconds. For such a simple construct, McCreary finds several ways to allude to the theme without simply churning through its minor third progressions endlessly. In the latter cue, the voices carry the opening alone while the descending phrase of the theme definitively concludes. A concert arrangement of the Ifukube material is presented lovingly in "Godzilla Main Title," updated to a densely contemporary setting. The composer did the same with Koseki's "Mothra's Song," which brings back a theme that dates to 1961's Mosura and is the calling card for the butterfly-like Mothra's existence in this picture. The first hints of interpolation of this ethereally choral and woodwind theme come in "The Larva" and eventually reveal themselves to be a uniquely benevolent presence in the score thereafter. Exotic woodwinds carry the theme late in "A Mass Awakening" before its proper introduction to the score in the first half of "Queen of the Monsters." The identity gets a bit overwhelmed when offered as an interlude to the others during thematic battle, which is a shame given this particular Titan's role in assisting Godzilla later in the story, as evidenced in its rather wimpy performance in "Battle in Boston." The third franchise theme returning in Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the brazen (if not slightly awkward) Godzilla fanfare written by Ifukube for 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla and heard in countless subsequent films. Given that King Kong is set to appear in the next American sequel based on the events in this movie, it's interesting to hear McCreary bring that identity back in this film. But it does serve as a general calling card for battle between Titans, a distinct fanfare that the franchise relied upon for sonic glitz when necessary. The first impactful burst of this brassy motif here comes in the initial minute of "Old Rivals" as the battles are first teed up. In the suite from "Rebirth" to "King of the Monsters" at the end, McCreary drops this fanfare into the most sensational moments of conflict, its stomping pace often slowing the surrounding action. He offers it as a grand opening to "Godzilla Main Title" as well. The remaining themes are the composer's own creations, and one could argue that the theme for the antagonist of this tale, Ghidorah, is the weakest of the lot despite its easily distinguished presence. The underlying Buddhist chanting and throat singing for this theme are a hypnotic effect that is highly effective throughout the score, and this technique takes away from McCreary's actual nine-note theme for the monster. His intent was to make the musical structures (and perhaps meters, too) for Ghidorah to be based on threes, as it is a monster with three heads that conveniently regrow. The chanting rhythmic base for the theme is indeed intoxicating, a smart move since the monster controls the attention of so many other Titans. Heard first in "Outpost 32," this rhythm yields to the main Ghidorah theme in drawn-out pacing later in "Ice Breaker" and, more formally, in "Rise of Ghidorah." The melody itself is palatable when presented with the force of the whole ensemble, but the underlying chanting does get obnoxious after several applications. Still, in "A Mass Awakening," it serves its purpose well despite its rather perverse attractiveness. In "Fog Over Fenway," which turns the chanting into something of a horror tool, the theme receives its final truly glorious statements. A concert arrangement of the idea in "Ghidorah Theme" intriguingly weaves in the Ifukube fanfare at its outset, but in far more subliminal fashion. Arguably the best of McCreary's new themes for the franchise in Godzilla: King of the Monsters is his representation of the "ancients," the idea of mystery surrounding the backstory of the Titans. It's a surprisingly pervasive theme in the score, occupying nearly the entirety of "Memories of San Francisco" and reprised regularly thereafter in "The First Gods," "The Hollow Earth," and "King of the Monsters." It's a remarkable bookending presence to the score, and especially in its first two major performances, it strongly resembles the tonally attractive portions of 10 Cloverfield Lane in its Bernard Herrmann-like string figures and eerie yayli tanbur solos. The manipulation of this theme for the suspense of revelation in "The Hollow Earth" is notable, as the vocalizations and percussion of Godzilla's identity continue to weave in and out of the ancient's theme. McCreary's theme for the human family in the plot is spread even more thinly throughout the score but receives its expected payoff at the end. Dominated by its first four, descending notes, this idea is most clearly heard on piano in "For Andrew" but rarely receives that length of development until the final cues. It's a pretty but appropriately fleeting identity, and the descending four notes often occur alone, such as at the ends of "Memories of San Francisco," "Outpost 32," and "Hollow Earth," and in the latter half of "The First Gods." It starts to mingle with the action material in "Stealing the Orca" and serves as an interlude within "Battle in Boston" before becoming a resolute presence for full ensemble at the end of "Redemption." Throughout the score, this theme comes into stylistic conflict with the theme for the Monarch organization attempting to control the Titans, with which the family is initially aligned. In "Welcome to Monarch," audiences are treated to a reprise of the same ambitiously rhythmic style that spanned both the main paradox theme and Shepard machine theme in The Cloverfield Paradox, this time afforded an Andrew Lockington-like brass hero identity over the top and snare, timpani, and cymbals underneath. In fact, this score has a knack for reminding of The Cloverfield Paradox each time this identity is even hinted; this isn't a deal-breaker, certainly, but it does prevail in "Outpost 32," the latter half of "Queen of the Monsters," peripherally in "Stealing the Orca," and in rhythm alone during the first half of "Redemption." Mimicking the style of Giacchino is McCreary for his theme representing the adversarial Rodan in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, perhaps the least accessible idea in the score. The cue "Rodan" develops this theme to most of its depth, using jungle percussion underneath wailing French horn pairs meant to emulate the calls of the monster. This idea returns with gusto in the middle of "Battle in Boston." The final theme in the score extends out of the Ancients theme and extends McCreary's use of Babylonian translations of text he wrote for these scenes. In "The Key to Coexistence" and especially "Goodbye Old Friend," this theme merges the phrasing and sensibility of the Ancients and family themes into an identity that accompanies the Ken Watanabe character, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, as he descends to an undiscovered underwater world to save Godzilla with a nuclear detonation. These moments in the score are no doubt poignant, the latter cue exercising its vocals gorgeously. There are few moments in the score that do not explore these themes as explicitly, but even these contain important hints of the identities in fragments and subtle stylistic references. For instance, the lengthy "The One Who is Many" opens with subtle allusions to the family theme before offering Ghidorah, Monarch, and Godzilla ambience. In sum, McCreary has produced a magnificent "monster opera" that blends intelligent thematic handling with his usual knack for memorable instrumental design. He occasionally applies irritating electronic effects, such as descending "sinking feeling" bass tones, but these are rare. The recording is so vibrant that it is challenging to return to Desplat's extremely flat-sounding predecessor. On album, it would have been nice to hear the family and Ancients themes explored in their own concert arrangements or long end credits suite, as Giacchino did with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, though "Redemption" and "King of the Monsters" may serve this purpose for some listeners. McCreary's adaptation of the 1977 Blue Oyster Cult parody song, "Godzilla," a high priority for the composer, unfortunately made the end credits of the 2019 movie. Its tone is totally incompatible with the rest of the soundtrack and is the lone glaring weakness of the album presentation. A 2-CD version followed a digital release with different track ordering but the same contents; a lossless option is highly recommended for this extremely dynamic McCreary recording. Few sequel scores penned by a composer new to a franchise are as competent and enjoyable as this one. McCreary clearly proves that he belongs on the blockbuster stage with the biggest of monsters. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 97:21
(The digital album contains the same contents in a different track order)
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and an extensive note from the composer
that offers lyrics to the chanted vocals.
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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 Godzilla: King of the Monsters are Copyright © 2019, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/19/19 (and not updated significantly since). |
