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| Giacchino |
Land of the Lost: (Michael Giacchino) When studios
are so bankrupt of new ideas that they have to resurrect the laughable
1970's television disaster "Land of the Lost," you know that universe is
indeed not quite right. What compelled Universal to allow this 2009
adaptation to happen? Was it some notion of the potential for excellence
in the production? Was it the hefty budget for special effects? Was it
simply Will Ferrell? The last question probably reveals the true answer,
but even Farrell fans will find Brad Silberling's
Land of the
Lost to be too boring on the whole to justify its few marginal
laughs. Despite the studio's aggressive advertising campaign for the
film, critics quickly put the sorry product in its proper place with a
universal lashing worthy of trashy independent films that require drug
use in order to appreciate. The problem with
Land of the Lost is,
simply put, that the material in the script is so poor that even Ferrell
can't salvage it for comical purposes. Enthusiasts of the original
series will see the main characters changed into sex symbols and
ridiculous sidekicks, and while an honest attempt to pay homage to that
crowd was made, there's simply no excuse for the kind of mangling of the
concept that exists here. After his involvement with the similarly
disastrous
Speed Racer adaptation a year prior, perhaps it
was no surprise that Michael Giacchino was involved in this nightmare.
At least the still rising composer can point to his concurrent work for
Star Trek and
Up and receive deserved praise, because no
significant accolades will likely be thrown his way for the score for
Land of the Lost. It's another case in which a composer's campy
cue titles (as seen on the album release of the score) can't inject
enough humor into the music to make it even marginally entertaining.
Giacchino's talent for creative instrumentation and thematic continuity
are at play in
Land of the Lost, but both are betrayed by a
completely aimless overarching personality. The composer addresses the
needs of each moment and, in the process of offering wacky ideas for
each scene, the score loses focus on the whole. It's difficult to
imagine how so many of the right basic ingredients can produce such an
unremarkable and unmemorable score, but Giacchino has unfortunately
managed to reflect the precise problem of the entire production. It's
simply limp and unengaging.
Part of the reason behind the lack of a cohesive
personality in the music for
Land of the Lost is precisely the
composer's wild attempt to diversify the ensemble's sound. In the
process of utilizing exotic percussion and contemporary electronic
elements and integrate them with the expected 88 orchestral and 35
choral performers, Giacchino loses focus on the narrative. It's a work
of all texture and no direction, there's no true beginning or end to the
work. Only in the snazzy "End Credits Can Suck it!" recording does
Giacchino really develop and sustain a personality for a lengthy period.
Unfortunately, this performance of the title theme is so obnoxious in
its merging of textures that even this development will likely irritate
some listeners. In an intellectual sense, the combination of electric
guitars and drum pads with exotic percussion, a banjo, solo voice,
stylistic instrumentation from the 70's, and traditional fantasy sounds
seems like a smart move for the alternate universe seen in the movie.
But the fact remains that the overall product is simply so bizarre that
it, like the film, may very well require some foreign substance in your
system to fully appreciate. Fans of lower brass will, as with
Star
Trek, once again appreciate their performance emphasis; they're
joined by low woodwinds at the forefront here. Some of the material for
the Sleestak lizard people, especially upon the use of deep male voices,
is satisfying. But these individual bursts of energy, some of which
recalling vintage use of strings by John Williams, are so engrained with
the pitch-defying meandering of a solo guitar or theremine (which sounds
like a distant wailing voice), among other things, that the overall
effect is often too challenging to enjoy without any context. A lack of
overall flow to the score is compounded by the presence of pseudo-exotic
sub-themes that effectively create a timeless atmosphere but also offer
no solid footing for the score. All of these challenges are accentuated
by an extremely flat and dry recording quality, an aspect of several
recent Giacchino scores that reduces the appeal of the music for some
listeners. While extremely intimate recordings are appropriate in
certain genres (and they certainly allow for an appreciation of each
element of the ensemble), such flat sound is a hindrance to the depth of
fantasy in the assignments Giacchino has been involved with during this
time. Ultimately, an hour-long presentation of music from
Land of the
Lost is extremely taxing in parts and dull in others, compounded by
the dry recording mix. Several alternate takes punctuate an album that
really only required the end titles track. It's a disappointment that
was sadly predictable in retrospect.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.51
(in 37 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.21
(in 18,409 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no extra information
about the score or film.
