is a Sandra Bullock
production in which she also stars as a romance novel writer who bases
her characters' adventures off of experiences she learned with her
deceased husband, who was an archeologist. While on tour promoting a
book with the male model who is the cover inspiration for it, she is
abducted by a young billionaire in search of a rare jewel, and he
believes the writer can determine where it is hidden. The adventure
takes them to an exotic island location where the writer and her cover
model team up with locals and other quirky characters to save each
other. The chemistry between an increasingly disrobed Bullock and costar
Channing Tatum yields the charm of
, and the adept
casting allowed the comedy to appeal fairly well to audiences. Directors
Adam and Aaron Lee hired ascending composer Pinar Toprak to provide the
film's score, which combines original material of a typical adventure
mould with a handful of parody and source placements. Toprak burst into
the mainstream with 2019's
after impressing film
score collectors with her comparatively obscure but high-quality output
of the 2010's. She approached
with the intent to
resurrect the romantic adventures of 1980's John Williams music while
also tending to the comedy inherent in the story. Ultimately, her work
succeeds in referencing both the Williams and Alan Silvestri mannerisms
of that era, though the result doesn't always sound entirely
comfortable in the middle. Her score plays like its actual inspirations
were Andrew Lockington's enduring adventure classic,
, and A.R. Rahman's
, with
several technical and melodic elements of the score strongly suggesting
that the Lockington work may have served as a temp track for
. Interestingly, Toprak's product enjoys and suffers the exact
same benefits and drawbacks of her
score, the
music competent and ambitious but ultimately forgettable due to the lack
of clarity in its themes and lagging energy.
The pieces are all there for Toprak in
The Lost
City, an orchestra and choir joined by exotic percussion and winds
and, of course, the obligatory female vocalist that serves as the siren
call of the remote island just as Lockington had done in
Journey 2:
The Mysterious Island. The exotic element is genuinely humorous when
it needs to be, and those contributors, along with the female vocals,
are provided a nicely wet mix compared to the surrounding orchestra.
Some listeners may balk at the outright tribal, percussive personality
of "You're Safe Now," "The Island," "People Eat Cake," as they border on
the kind of parody silliness that one encountered in James Newton
Howard's
Major League score. The choral ensemble, meanwhile, is
afforded too timid a position in the mix, its presence in "The Tomb" and
the conclusion of the film not as powerful as necessary. Still, the
score achieves the right tone at most times, allowing its highlights to
impress. The construction of the music is competently robust and yet
lacking an "it" factor in such a way that it conveys itself with the
same enthusiasm as a generic John Debney entry in the genre. These kinds
of scores have really solid moments and are generally successful
throughout, but they don't reach out and engage you as much as they
should. Part of this issue stems from a lack of depth in the
orchestrations of Toprak's work, and another interesting detriment is
the rather slow pacing to many of the score's action sequences. It's
difficult to get the blood pumping when the music seems sluggish in its
most voluminous passages, and you don't encounter many scores that
withhold their potential because of poor pacing. This is the rare
exception. Whether due to this struggle to find the right pulse of the
film or due to the anonymity of the themes themselves, Toprak's
identities for
The Lost City are all present but somehow dissolve
in the middle of the narrative. Her ideas for the film as a whole, the
writer, the model, and the targeted treasure often share progressions,
allowing them to bleed together and cause association problems. These
shared progressions aren't flashy enough to grab your attention, though,
and her applications of the phrasing as stingers aren't frequent enough
to make them memorable. The villain's theme, meanwhile, can't decide if
it's going to base itself on fear or comedy, causing it to accomplish
neither.
The main theme by Toprak for
The Lost City is
admirable in construct, its first four notes and final three notes of
its main phrase sometimes separated for their own purposes. It is
revealed in a major statement to open the score in "The Lost City of D,"
is hinted at the start of "Ruins Revealed," and turns romantic and
restful with woodwinds at 0:31 into "Contoured Scenery." It grows out of
the score's fantasy theme on piano at 0:45 into "Got Your Back,"
transforming into a more flowing identity at 1:16, its notes shifting to
an ascending formation instead. The theme returns to original form at
1:43 into that cue on strings and enjoys a massive ensemble and choral
statement at 2:30 as part of a huge conclusion. It informs the middle of
"A New Adventure Beginning" in tenderness before a whimsical, choral,
fairy-tale ending produces a second huge conclusion in two cues. A
mystery variation of the main theme uses four-note phrases similar to
main theme but with the harmonies altered, and this exploration can be
heard at 0:36 into "The Only Clue" and is repeated elusively thereafter.
Also a relative of the main theme is the one for the writer, Loretta,
that supplies the score's comedy. This theme shares the second half of
its primary phrase with the main theme but simply starts differently.
Its waltz-inspired form is often applied by keyboards, heard best
throughout "Pino Grigio on Ice" on self-important piano and jazz band
and returning at 0:22 into "Book Tour" in prickly, snazzy style.
Loretta's theme turns mysterious at 0:53 into "The Only Clue" but
bounces back in spritely piano at 1:18 into "Gotta Go Up." It realizes
more somber tones on piano and clarinet at 1:42 into "Contoured
Scenery," vaguely opens "Hands out, Butt to Butt" before consolidating
the melody at 0:26, is a bit diluted at 1:19 into "Dulcius Ex Asperis,"
and returns to its original cuteness throughout "A New Adventure
Beginning." In many ways, this theme is the most recognizable identity
in the score, as its attitude really shines in contrast to all the other
surrounding material. Toprak doesn't adapt the idea as well as necessary
in the work, though some listeners may argue that the main theme's
related phrasing achieves that integration anyway. Less effective in all
corners is Toprak's approach to the model, Alan. Though devising a theme
for his character, it is poorly enunciated in the score, the latter half
of "Alan Gets a Moped" not doing much to clarify its progressions.
The highlight of
The Lost City is Toprak's
fantasy theme for the Crown of Fire, the call of the ancient king and
queen whose tomb is sought. Punctuated by a yearning, three-note
aspirational phrase often performed by the solo female voice, this idea
debuts at 1:21 into "The Lost City of D" (its chords inform the
remainder of the cue), recurs at 1:10 into "Pino Grigio on Ice" with
more subtlety, and interjects at 0:10 into "The Only Clue." It briefly
figures at 0:22 into "It's Not a Metaphor," applies more force at 0:17
into "Watch Your Step" (where it closes the cue in longer vocal form),
and is reduced to chords during the first half of "The Tomb" before the
theme emerges faintly at 2:18. It bids farewell at 0:38 into "Got Your
Back." Toprak seemingly provides a longer-lined relative of the fantasy
theme to represent the island itself, opening "The Island" massively but
briefly and developing it further throughout "It's Not a Metaphor" in
soft tones. The villain, Fairfax, receives a theme of stomping,
descending phrases that attempts to emulate the equivalent in Howard's
Jungle Cruise. It bursts forth at 1:38 into "The Only Clue,"
retreats to lighter shades at 0:33 into "Ruins Revealed," conveys slight
dignity at 1:10 into "Highly Trained & Very Dangerous," and returns to
its big, "The Only Clue" stomping at 0:48 into "Hands out, Butt to
Butt." The villain's theme simmers through the middle of "Alan Gets a
Moped," becomes comedic in "Set Your World on Fire," especially on
xylophone, offers sinister allusions to open "Watch Your Step," shifts
to action at 0:48 into "Fairfax Escapes," and achieves its full evil
mode late in "Dulcius Ex Asperis." Ironically, despite all these themes,
Toprak saves the best for one short moment, the "Book Trailer" source
cue that features an extremely pretty, Celtic-flavored theme with the
female vocals and a whistle not developed elsewhere in the score.
There's a hint of Atli Örvarsson's
Ploey: You Never Fly
Alone in this lovely cue, and it is fortunately included as a bonus
at the end of the score's album. That product, released digitally and on
a limited CD from La-La Land Records at the time of the movie's debut,
also follows 47 minutes of score with a handful of Latin-flavored cuts
applied as source material. The most humorous moment of the work comes
in a re-recording of the famous riffs of "The Final Countdown" for the
Alan character. Overall,
The Lost City affects you much as
Captain Marvel does; it's an effectively enjoyable genre work
with no outright detractions. But its themes aren't enunciated as well
as hoped, its mix isn't wet enough, and its nagging lethargy restrains
the fantasy element.
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