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If you are among the many film score fans who found Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score from the previous year to be simplistic and juvenile, then Iron Man will irritate you even more. Djawadi has mentioned that he developed the musical persona of the title character over the course of the film and would welcome work on a sequel. The merits of that statement are extremely dubious, for Iron Man is all style and no substance. Not even several examinations of the 40+ minutes of music from the score on album can reveal intelligent development of any ideas over that length. Is the theme of Tony Stark the cool progression in "Driving with the Top Down," the reluctantly heroic chords of "Vacation's Over," or something else? The score never makes that clear. What motifs it does explore in singular tracks are extremely basic, mirroring the pleasantly dumbed-down progressions that define the Remote Control playbook. Djawadi will test your patience with stripped-down minor key pounding in Iron Man, and what attempts at structural complexity he makes are blatantly inspired by Hans Zimmer's work on Batman Begins and other standards going back to the Media Ventures days. An occasional string ostinato from that aforementioned score is typically accompanied by staccato, string-oriented chord hits that are nostalgic memories from The Rock, but whatever orchestrally-inclined ideas along those lines are usually interrupted by heavier, conventional rock rhythms for slapping snare and guitar rips. The rougher of these straight rock cues, led by "Fireman" and "Arc Reactor," tend to degenerate into slapping, tiresome noise that don't offer any instrumental creativity, structural complexity, or even any redeeming harmonic consistency. There are brief moments when individual cues create a hip atmosphere enjoyable enough on their own to sustain the listening experience, but all too often a sudden shift in direction breaks the mood. Also written are some respites from the action material, but cues such as "Extra Dry, Extra Olives" don't extend the musical narrative and neglect to provide the plethora of strong supporting characters with any identity of their own.

Perhaps some of the lack of overarching identity in Iron Man (outside of its basic instrumental style) is due to the fact that Djawadi has himself graduated to the level at which he can employ no less than five other clones to contribute additional music to his work. These stereotypical Remote Control scores are getting to the point where it really doesn't matter who leads the clones or with whom the music is recorded, for at the end of the day, the directors (and, unfortunately, audiences) who want to hear this unsophisticated music in blockbusters will continue employing anyone associated with Hans Zimmer to continue accessing that sound. The sole piece of comedy in the soundtrack for Iron Man is the inclusion of both the 1960's theme and current cover version of the classic jingle for the character; Jack Urbont's theme is so diametrically opposed to the Remote Control handbook for simplistic progressions that it's disappointing that Djawadi (or anyone in his flock) didn't take a stab at coherently interpolating it into the new work. A couple of source songs litter the soundtrack album, and of those, "Institutionalized" is so terribly irritating and stupid that it's almost fascinating to hear. Overall, Djawadi's score for Iron Man is so concerned with addressing the slick style of Tony Stark's persona that it's all muscle with no nuance. There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea of anchoring a score with electric guitars; the likes of John Debney, Dario Marianelli, and Danny Elfman have all been able to create music for heroes that merges symphonic complexity with the defiant personality of rock instruments. Iron Man serves as testimony that Djawadi, like most other Zimmer clones (and regardless of a filmmaker's wishes), is not yet ready to provide that level of intrigue. The album should only be the target of those who were aroused by the music's pounding presence in the film. It even has the one Jablonsky/Transformers-inspired cue of grade-school chord progressions and unified ensemble performance in "Vacation's Over." But, as was mentioned at the end of the Filmtracks review for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the search continues for a touch of finesse, prudence, subtly, elegance, and savoir-faire in today's blockbuster film scores.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 54:03