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Review of Zack Snyder's Justice League (Tom Holkenborg)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are prepared for a four-hour thesis proving that
Tom Holkenborg is highly proficient at imitating almost all of the most
ineffective Hans Zimmer methodology for this franchise.
Avoid it... if you are guided by hope for Holkenborg's opportunity to develop the franchise's themes in that immense running time, his new ideas poorly conceived and reprises of old themes highly inconsistent.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Zack Snyder's Justice League: (Tom Holkenborg) It
should come as no shock to anyone that studio executives sometimes screw
up, looking after their own bonuses and making poor artistic decisions.
Few better examples of this malpractice exists than with 2017's
Justice League, the much maligned financial disaster for Warner
Brothers that was to bring glory to the DC Extended Universe of comic
book adaptations. Instead, it caused the studio to abandon the concept
of the combined superhero extravaganza that had worked so well with the
Marvel concept and concentrate on only solo character films. The issue
that Warner had with director Zack Snyder's version of Justice
League was its dark tone and immense running time, and the studio
brought director Joss Whedon into the fold to helm a controversial
rewrite and reshoot of the movie, adding the demanded levity and
shortening the narrative. Fans dissatisfied with the 2017 result
clamored for years to witness Zack Snyder's director's cut of the movie
in its full form, and, amazingly, Warner eventually capitulated and
allowed Snyder the opportunity to finish and release his product in
2021. Much of the basic narrative stays intact, the famed six heroes of
the DC comics uniting to fight planet-threatening plotting by the evil
Steppenwolf and Darkseid to rid Earth of pesky humans. The longer
version of the movie allows for much more exploration of each hero's
background and interactions with the slew of secondary characters
carrying over from other movies in the franchise. The four-hour running
time was originally to be split into a streaming mini-series, but Warner
ultimately provided it to viewers as a self-contained film. Not
surprisingly, fans reveled in the expanded version, Zack Snyder's
Justice League more than compensating for the financial losses of
the 2017 release. While the movie was primarily available via streaming,
Snyder created a version with a 10-minute intermission in its middle to
prepare it for IMAX distribution. During this intermission was to play
the score cue "The Crew at Warpower," written by Tom Holkenborg.
The electronica pioneer better known by his Junkie XL stage name, Holkenborg had provided upwards of an hour of music for Snyder's 2017 film prior to exiting once Whedon took over and hired Danny Elfman to write a replacement score. Holkenborg was approached by Snyder to complete his music for Zack Snyder's Justice League and, after considering the maturation of his own skills since then, decided to start over and write the longest film score in history from scratch. There will forever exist controversy about whether the music of the DC universe will be defined by the epic vintage scores of John Williams and Danny Elfman or the newer, heavily synthesized and brooding alternative universe established by Hans Zimmer. The disagreement is partly generational, but there's no question that the 2010's version of DC characters on screen is less romantic and more troubled, encouraging many listeners to assume that Zimmer's gloomy, ultra-masculine tone is better suited for these films. Holkenborg, of course, who was brought into the film composing industry by Zimmer himself, agrees with the darker path, so expect his music for Zack Snyder's Justice League to sound like a direct descendant if not outright imitation of Zimmer's music for the prior two movies in the franchise. It is no wonder that Zimmer protects and praises Holkenborg's work without fail, for the latter follows the former's exact formula for tackling a film's themes in general suites and applying almost the same instrumental coloration and cue structures. Given that Zimmer established his superhero tone in those prior DC films, it's not surprising to hear Holkenborg imitate it, but that emulation is so thorough that it reprises the exact strengths and weaknesses of Zimmer's vision for the franchise. The technique of writing massive suites for each theme and allowing those to guide the rest of the score, in some cases being tracked in liberally by the director, is once again evident here. In both those suites and individual score cues, Holkenborg also follows the tiresome Zimmer method of structuring many cues in the "long crescendo" format, cutting off at anticipatory notes without resolution. When not building to those moments, the score chews through time by using highly repetitive riffs that go on for extended periods. The general instrumental tone of Zack Snyder's Justice League is oppressively harsh and dominated by bass resonance. Expect not only doom and gloom but a heavy dose of electronic manipulation or, at the least, augmentation to give the score a distinctly grungy, metallic sheen. Even when the composer opts for a more organic approach, as with the Cyborg material and some of the Superman familial passages, the orchestration of these cues isn't dynamic or expansive in the soundscape, failing to pair sufficiently different instrumental sounds to yield any satisfying spread to the music. It doesn't matter which theme is playing and what the emotional need of the scene may involve, for Holkenborg offers every cue with a consistent despondency that, in moments intended to be lighter, translate to ambivalence. Many of the emotional deficiencies of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice are reprised in this entry, a massive disappointment given how inadequate the sound design techniques of those two scores were. Listeners who complain that Zimmer's French horns are mixed in a way to sound synthetic will encounter similar issues here, and the electronic grinding in this work is almost as bad in parts. (The nasty synthetics of "The Path Chooses You" make it one of the worst single film score cues of a generation.) When attempting to apply piano and other softer tones, Holkenborg still manages to leave a wall between his recording and the listener, sentimental cues like "The House of Belonging" and "Earthling" not emotionally engaging in any genuine sense. Holkenborg's inability to modulate for the sincerity of such emotions is either due to his intentional attempt to match Zimmer's equal challenges with a hearty embrace in these scores or because the composer does not yet have the experience to balance both the masculine bravado and interpersonal intimacy. The latter may be the more likely scenario, for Zack Snyder's Justice League also suffers from new themes that are substandard and show a lack of intuition about how melodic progressions affect the listener. Whereas Zimmer excelled in Wonder Woman 1984 by superbly manipulating his thematic constructs to compensate for the still masculine tone of many sequences, Holkenborg does not do the same here. His themes are either unmemorable or poor matches for their characters, leaving the work both thematically wayward and emotionally tone deaf. For whatever reason, Holkenborg decided to reprise Zimmer's themes for Superman, Wonder Woman, and Lex Luthor from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice while creating all-new themes for the other characters, including an abandonment of Zimmer's Batman theme. It goes without saying that he doesn't access any themes by Elfman or other composers. Some of the broader statements of his themes merit praise in this score, even if their intelligence levels are rather low; there is tonality in these ideas that surpasses the dreadful structures of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But don't expect any of Holkenborg's new themes to really stick in your mind outside of his unnecessary new identity for Batman, which is itself a completely illogical construct. The team as a whole receives a "Justice League" theme highlighted in percussive fight mode in the suite arrangement of "The Crew at Warpower." It explores romantic inclinations with choir in "The Foundation Theme," a return to a grinding action mode in "We Do This Together," and noble, anthemic tones on brass at 2:31 into "At the Speed of Force" and 0:40 into "An Eternal Reoccurrence of Change." Holkenborg closes out the identity in "Our Legacy is Now," but the overall arc of the theme isn't significant enough, nor the progressions memorable enough, to compete on any level with Alan Silvestri's primary franchise theme for The Avengers. His theme for Batman doesn't make a whole lot of sense in that he emulates Elfman's basic idea of repetitive phrases leading up to one big, dramatic chord shift, but the repeated phrasing is descending. This downward movement to the theme makes it a really viable and memorable villain's identity, one obviously misplaced for this superhero. Holkenborg applies the theme frequently and inartfully throughout the picture, debuting it in the story during "Things Fall Apart" before softening it in "Long Division." Later, the main five-note descent in the theme comes to represent the bat signal, as near the end of "Carry Your Own Water." The batmobile sequence at 1:21 into "And the Lion-Earth Did Roar, Pt. 1" is truly terrible, and the menacing overtones in "The Provenance of Something Gathered," leading to the dramatic chord shift, confirm that this theme needed paired with a villain. The album features two suites for this awkward but moderately catchy theme: "Batman, a Duty to Fight" and "Batman, an Invocation to Heal." The Superman material in Zack Snyder's Justice League will be among its highlights for enthusiasts of Zimmer's music for this franchise. Holkenborg puts some effort into expanding the identity's range in this work, though don't expect it to adequately address all the familial relations with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The idea, originating from Man of Steel, is explored in both "Superman Rising, Pt. 1" and "Superman Rising, Pt. 2," the second cue pounding at the identity. A better representation of the idea comes in the resurrection of nobility summarized in "Monument Builder." Holkenborg doesn't dial back the theme well in conversational scenes or those for Lois, a cue like "A Splinter from the Thorn That Pricked You" barely registering any warmth whatsoever. That's precisely what Holkenborg attempted with Cyborg's theme, summarized best in "Cyborg Becoming." This idea is intentionally acoustic but still ends up sounding synthetically rendered in the mix, and don't expect to recall this moderately pleasant material after it is over. Meanwhile, Holkenborg sadly neglects to reference any of the existing options for a Flash theme, his original take on the character in "Flash, the Space to Win" resorting to anonymous rhythmic pounding in minor third alternations, droning bass, and heavy electric guitar. The absence of any reference to Rupert Gregson-Williams' surprisingly melodic score for Aquaman is a major detriment in this work, though Holkenborg does apply electric guitars in a vague fashion to suggest a connection. You'll encounter this music from the fifth minute onward in "The Center Will Not Hold, Twenty Centuries of Stony Sleep" and during "Aquaman Returning/Carry Your Own Water," both of which particularly lazy in their rendering. Lastly, in the league of heroes is Wonder Woman, whose music in Zack Snyder's Justice League is the source of much ridicule. The character's war anthem is reprised, but Holkenborg totally ignores all motific development from the much superior Wonder Woman 1984. Instead, in "Wonder Woman Defending" and "Wonder Woman, a Call to Stand/A World Awakened," you get a new wailing female vocal motif that is applied liberally throughout the score, possibly increased in frequency by the film's editors. In this context, it's almost a parody application, doing nothing to merge with or extend the rhythm or war cry of the character. The fact that the wailing vocal effect occurs when Wonder Woman is only one of several heroes on screen is humorously ridiculous. For the villains of Zack Snyder's Justice League, Holkenborg doesn't need to darken the mood much from the heroes' themes. He throws in deeper bass, atonal electronic effects, and an extra dose of thrashing for these tired moments. Steppenwolf receives rising, menacing chords in "Middle Mass" and "As Above, So Below" (how can Steppenwolf 's theme be ascending and Batman's be descending?) and informs the confrontation in middle of "And the Lion-Earth Did Roar, Pt. 2." The idea transitions to Darkseid as necessary in "That Terrible Strength," suggesting that these foes are interchangeable musically. The late Lex Luther scene draws an obnoxious reprise of Zimmer's theme for the character from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in "Your Own House Turned to Ashes," but, more interestingly, Holkenborg decided against applying Zimmer's pitch-defying motif for the Joker in "All of You Undisturbed Cities." None of these bad-guy themes can compete with Batman's villainous new identity, however, an astonishing misfire. One of the most amazing aspects of Zack Snyder's Justice League is that the score had four hours in which to develop these themes into a tight but expansive narrative. And yet, it doesn't. There's no arc to most of the themes or to the score in its entirety, leaving it a long, tiresome conveyance of individual themes and boring action sequences that achieve the basic emotional needs of the film but nothing more. Three hours and forty-five minutes of score occupy the album, many tracks with long fade outs at their ends, revealing unnecessary silence to slow the pace further. The majority of the film's songs are not on the soundtrack, but the two that do appear as bookends are easy on the ears. When comparing the album to the film, expect substantial difference in areas, with alternate cues or micro-editing making the match difficult. In the end, enthusiasts of Zimmer's darker music for these DC films will be impressed by Holkenborg's faithful impression of his work. It's impossible to compare this approach to Elfman's alternative, though even listeners guided by nostalgia might admit that Holkenborg's music is a better fit for the tone of this film. It is deeply flawed functionally, though, its themes poorly rendered and barely enunciated with any adequate emotional range. The orchestrations and mixing give the work a constant demo feeling, the result sounding cheap. Someone needs to better equalize these Remote Control-inspired albums, too. Zimmer can defend all of this until he's blue in the face, but this score cannot support a four-hour listening experience and proves little more than Holkenborg's paycheck-earning imitation skills. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 233:48
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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