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Written 6/9/10
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Buy it... if you appreciated John Ottman's heavy metal and grungy
industrial score in the context of the equally abrasive revenge flick,
emulating the style of Marco Beltrami in similar situations of stylish
schlock.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear the complexity of layers and
instrumental subtlety that you usually encounter in Ottman's lower
budget scores, replaced here by generally straight forward smash-mouth
attitude and only occasional contemplative interludes of smooth
harmony.
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| Ottman |
The Losers: (John Ottman) The Vertigo comic book
series "The Losers" has a group of five heroes, but the kind of gritty,
humorous, and rogue special forces heroes without superpowers. On a
mission in the Bolivian jungles, they are betrayed by someone on the
logistical end of their operation and are thought to have been killed
when a friendly helicopter meant for them was destroyed. They team up
with a mysterious female agent to seek revenge against their common
enemy, who happens to be a creep in Miami that claims to be in near
possession of a new weapon of mass destruction that can wipe out entire
cities without the nuclear fallout. Their cat and mouse game is the
subject of the comic, and Sylvain White's 2010 adaptation The
Losers covers the events of the first two volumes of the concept's
printed form. Attention was paid to shooting the film in a way that
would preserve the illustrated style of the comic's art, and this
aspect, as well as competent pacing of action, led to generally fair
critical reviews. The film, after bouncing between studios in
pre-production and yanked around in its release date several times,
barely recouped its $25 million budget in domestic grosses, perhaps
limiting hopes of a sequel. Its soundtrack didn't present composer John
Ottman with a genre in which he had no experience, though he did tackle
the assignment from a fresh perspective. Ottman is no stranger to heroes
big and small, providing music for a handful of films of lesser budgets
and rougher protagonists as well. The Losers is essentially a
grungy revenge flick drenched with contemporary sensibilities, so it's
no surprise that Ottman dropped his usual, orchestral compositional
style and explored metal and rock avenues perhaps inspired in part by
Sin City. It plays like a low budget score (though the film
likely required nothing more substantial anyway), depending upon
attitude rather than any significant depth. The composer tends to
provide low budget, largely synthetic scores that suffice or excel
because of their creativity and individual character, and there are
brief portions of The Losers that will remind Ottman collectors
of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Goodbye Lover, and others. The
ensemble here seems almost entirely synthetic, dominated by keyboards,
looped percussion, synthetic effects, and normal rock band elements.
There are occasional flurries of orchestrated action sounds, though
outside of some momentary contributions from brass, these tend to sound
closer to Ottman's Point of Origin in their electronic
sensibilities.
Ottman offers a slick title theme for
The Losers
that is somewhat marginalized in the score. Introduced on smooth guitars
in "Dead Men," the idea receives its necessary statement of defiance in
the subsequent "Not Soldiers Anymore," as the group of operatives
accepts their new destiny. Piano and acoustic guitar briefly supply
warmth to the idea in the easy-going "Interlude." Thereafter, Ottman
unfortunately only sparingly applies the theme, most memorably throwing
a short, splashy performance at the end of "Good Catch" (hello,
3:10
to Yuma!) and taking it through the score's range of emotions in the
suite at the conclusion of the album, "The Losers." When the
smash-mouth, perpetual cymbal hitting performance at the outset of that
final track is joined by string counterpoint, it takes on a more
sophisticated personality absent from the rest of the score. There
really aren't any other significant musical identities to be heard in
The Losers, with the tone of the score alternating between heavy,
industrial metal slamming to contemplative strumming of a harmonic
nature. Ottman has never laced a major score with so much abrasive
electronic attitude before, and the raw tone and performances do
somewhat dilute his knack for subtle creativity in the layers of his
music. Everything here is straight forward, taking an instrumental
palette more common to Marco Beltrami's career and keeping it more
accessible despite its often nasty demeanor. Several individual cues of
note exist in the score, and they may save the listening experience for
those who appreciate Ottman's previous scores but aren't interesting in
ear-shattering metallic blasting. In "Miami Heist," the composer perhaps
predictably generates some hip David Holmes-style material, complete
with an impressive interlude for snazzy brass in the middle. In "Bad
Business," that jazz crosses over to David Arnold territory, complete
with some the British composer's Bond-rooted sound effects. The most
humorous moment in the score comes at the outset of "Max Factor," when
Ottman infuses some stereotypical Middle Eastern flair (presumably for
the Aisha al-Fadhil character) with female vocal and a brazenly out of
place duduk. Later in the score, you hear some better connections to
Ottman's previous works, the end of "Angle of the Dangle" calling upon
rhythmic and synthetic string effects from
Point of Origin and
the sleazy electric bass early in "Psychic Bullets" reminding of
Goodbye Lover. Ultimately, the (initially download-only) album for
The Losers is no doubt a strong accompaniment for the concept and an
interesting diversion for Ottman, though it's more likely to appeal
directly to the film's fans than the composer's established base of
collectors.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.17
(in 35 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.05
(in 21,453 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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