Immortals: (Trevor Morris) All the flashy colors,
immense special effects, and painted abdominal muscles in the world make
little difference to intellectual viewers if the story that accompanies
them is pure crap. Fortunately for Relativity Media, intellectual
viewers don't make up more than a small fraction of the movie-going
public, and thus their 2011 eye candy spectacle,
Immortals,
earned over $200 million in gross returns. The concept of Greek Gods
seems to have increased studio perceptions of their bankability, and the
style of cult favorite
300 has merged with the Olympian legends
to yield movies like
Immortals, larger-than-life depictions of
Gods at war as seen through striking color schemes and almost comic
book-like violence. A battle between Hyperion and Olympus is the topic
of
Immortals, the former's quest for Ares' Epirus Bow fueled by a
desire to use the weapon to unlock the Titans from Mount Tartarus and
challenge Zeus and other famed Gods. The necessary tool with which the
audience can identify in this plot is Theseus, who, despite his known
lineage and destiny, is presented like the average underdog conscripted
to fight in ways imagined by lifeless video game players aspiring for
similar greatness with their console. A total lack of cohesion in its
plot is what caused
Immortals a poor reception from critics, its
character establishments nonsensical and its tendency to kill major Gods
somewhat limiting the practicality of its sequel potential. Nobody
should be surprised that a lack of truly functional plot in this
gorgeously rendered movie is reflected by a similar vacuous approach
taken by composer Trevor Morris. One of the many assistants to graduate
from Hans Zimmer's Remote Control production house, Morris found a
career for himself in historical television epics, earning multiple Emmy
awards for those endeavors. Those achievements are challenged with
Immortals, Morris' debut on the big screen. It's somewhat
disappointing to see the previous generation of Zimmer's crew typecast
into genres like this one, and to casual observers (or those
intellectuals described above), Morris won't have succeeded for
Immortals any better than Ramin Djawadi did for the embarrassing
Clash of the Titans in 2010. The enemy here is temp track
emulation and the desire of filmmakers to slap around willing audiences
with recapitulations of the sound that Zimmer, Inc. has already proven
successful. You can hear Morris struggle to work within these expected
parameters for this project, but ultimately the result is simply a
slightly more intelligent repackaging of tired, increasing boring
sounds.
Comprising the music for
Immortals are the
standard orchestra, chanting adult choir, mourning solo vocals, whining
solo electric strings, synthetic embellishments, slammed percussion
movements, churning ostinatos, and a de-emphasis of woodwinds and the
treble region. Surprised? Credit has to be given to Morris for at least
attempting to take most of the above techniques in somewhat refreshing
new directions. More importantly, a listener can appreciate some of his
applications of ethnic instruments and vocal contributions because of a
toning back of the droning synthetic and orchestral base layers.
Interesting performances can be heard in parts of
Immortals,
helping the score transcend its peers, especially in the usage of the
electric cello and the choir. There are fleeting moments of sincerity,
led by "Do Not Forsake Mankind," that break out of the expected mould
for this kind of film. Additionally, in his effort to maximize the
appeal of his most palatable cues of Zimmer resonance, as in
"Apotheosis," he succeeds. At the same time, the textural triumphs of
his music are diminished by poor thematic attributions and possibly
eliminated altogether by unoriginality in a few passages. The themes of
Immortals directly represent the ills of the film's plot; a lack
of empathy and clear narrative flow in the script also sinks the score,
which tears through each individual cue with style at the forefront but
no larger organization of worth. There are recurring rhythmic chants and
subtle themes here and there, but nothing to truly service a tale about
the Greek Gods. A three-note motif for Theseus is too generic to really
suffice, the softer romance material for Phaedra is tepid at best, and
the motif representing Hyperion subscribes to Zimmer's notion that a
villain can be best served with one repetitively blasting, manipulated
note. While the Theseus motif does at least become a viable facet of the
action cues, Hyperion's major musical representation in "Hyperion's
Siren" tries so hard to be stylish that it comes across as silly. It's
an odd cross between Zimmer techniques and Jerry Goldsmith's
The 13th
Warrior, both composers seemingly influencing Morris in multiple
places. The outright plagiarism claims in regard to
Immortals
resulted from the duo of "The Gods Chose Well" and "Fight So Your Name
Survives," the former especially reminiscent of the snare-tapped choral
progressions of Wojciech Kilar's
Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's not
Tyler Bates territory of shamelessness, but it does diminish some of the
achievements that Morris accomplishes elsewhere in the work. On the
whole, Morris surpasses Bates and Djawadi in this realm because of his
occasionally interesting techniques and a pair of solid cues of six
minutes in sum near the end, but a total absence of storytelling in the
music's limp themes and nebulous flow dooms it to a barely average
rating.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The packaging of the CD release comes in the form of a folding slipcase that
contains a handful of useless "trading cards" with pictures of characters, an
advertisement card, and another card with the production credits for the score. The
CD is "enhanced" and gives you a link to a video about the recording of the score
and, more importantly, the music itself in 5.1 surround sound. Otherwise, the
packaging contains no extra information about the score or film.
