PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

The resulting score couldn't save the film, but it remains a treat for score collectors. Many viewers of the film have long claimed that Jones' score lacks a distinctive title theme. This is partially incorrect; Jones does offer a two-bar, eleven-note brass theme several times in the score, sometimes within great crescendos, but unfortunately this theme was lost in the film due to erratic applications and poor mixing amongst the other sonic elements in the production. It would have taken a theme of the bold caliber of Last of the Mohicans or Cliffhanger to overcome the poor editing of the score in the film. Almost mechanical in its methodical pace, Jones' theme is worthy especially for the like-minded creations of Nemo in the film. It has no swing, sidestep, or interlude, instead choosing to blind-side the listener like a flying brick. There's nothing wrong with that approach, and the theme is quite enjoyable, but it fails to stir up a sense of importance involving the special circumstances that coincide with the joining of these awesome characters. The actual major fault of the score is the lack of any depth to the scoring of individual characters, with only Quartermain (Connery's character) and his African affiliations given a specific motif or sound. Thus, while Jones was attempting to score the League as a whole, the personality of each individual talent in the group is musically neglected. Some will correctly argue that in film as poorly developed as this, it would have been difficult for Jones to achieve such a goal with any significant effect on the picture. But when has Jones stepped away from a challenge in an assignment like this? The characters don't even receive subtle instrumental associations of any value. The technique Jones instead followed wins points for consistency, however, and leads to the greatest asset of the music for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: its sustained action. Jones' adventure music has seldom whooped butt with a full orchestra for continuous excitement in his many assignments to the genre, Dark City an obvious and explosive exception. He can turn a theme and mark a short cue with an orchestral crash along with the best composers, but rhythmically sustained action with the full ensemble (as opposed to the more singular "Elk Hunt" approach in Last of the Mohicans) is something relatively rare in his career. Several cues in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen defy this tendency, however, offering action material of monumental proportions.

The "Nautilus - Sword of the Ocean" cue is worthy of study in and of itself. It is the first major application of the title theme in the context of the film's journey to save the world, and it is among Jones' best career work. As the adventure begins, the submarine (although awkward in its CGI portrayal on screen) is scored with a flourish of seaworthy activity by the orchestra. Percussion rips and strings boil while the brass belt out non-stop statements of the score's primary identity. In the last minute of the cue, the rolling rhythms of the music offer a strikingly similar sound to that heard in Mark Snow's worthy 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea score, a circumstance perhaps intended. After this cue, and well through the scenes in Venice, Jones presents explosive orchestral material for sustained periods, taxing the stamina of the London Symphony Orchestra with the continuous level of robust, snare-driven material. The cue "Capturing Mr. Hyde" is another action highlight of Jones' career, pulling out all of the stops on the frantic strings, bellowing brass, and heart-pounding rhythms. The cue "Dawn of a New Century" serves as a good concert suite-like arrangement with an added choral touch. The immensely broad scope is truly the attraction in these cues; Jones clearly puts the fate of the entire planet on the line in them (including "Storming the Fortress") by creating an expansive soundscape through the employment of extremely diverse layers of sound, especially in the brass section. These action cues are indeed spectacular in parts, though the softer moments of Jones' work are less enticing. What little character development is offered in the film is mirrored by rather tepid, uninteresting meanderings of strings. Cues such as "Mina Harker's Secret" and "Portrait of Dorian Gray" are surprisingly generic in their constructs, though at least Jones maintains a consistently harmonic foundation for these sequences, translating into smooth album listening. Again, the score never establishes strong subthemes or smaller motifs for secondary characters. The African scenes are scored by both Jones and Joseph Shabalala, performed in Swahili by the Ladysmith Black Mambazo male group. These performances are out of context in both the film and on the album, begging questions about its choice for this application. When these African performances are merged with the orchestra, such as in "Son of Africa," the sound begins to form some connections to the remainder of the work. But in the film, they still sound misplaced. The vocal source cue written by Jones for the saloon scene, "Promenade by the Sea," is more appropriate for its Victorian setting in the film, but also makes for a striking change of tone on the album presentation.

Overall, Jones' score is flawed, but it features twenty minutes (or more) of outstanding action writing for the full orchestral ensemble. The score's frenetic pace propels it from one loud orchestral outburst to the next, and Jones collectors will not want to miss The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on album. But miss it where? The questionable executives who determine the application of music at 20th Century Fox decided to toy around with this score on the market, causing significant fan irritation. Admittedly, Filmtracks doesn't hold such decision-makers at Fox with high regards (since the time the studio threatened Filmtracks with legal action over its Moulin Rouge review), but Fox clearly proved its stupidity with this score's album release. As Billboard initially reported, Jones' score was to be made available for downloading only through Apple's iTunes Music Store. For $9.99, score fans could download the score as of July 3rd, 2003, and Billboard continued by saying that "the soundtrack will be an online only release, not to be issued on any physical medium or associated with any label." Well, with the entry of Varèse Sarabande into the equation, they were wrong. You have to feel sorry for Varèse, because it's easy to get the impression that they were manhandled into this situation by Fox (not to mention the fact that the film failed so badly that it evaporated hopes of high album grosses). With iTunes offering music only to Americans in 2003, Varèse was able to press a normal, identical CD album of Jones' score and sell it overseas and, thankfully, exclusively through their website to anyone. Although this was more expensive for Americans, it did offer non-Apple Mac users (and those who hadn't switched to the Mac OS X yet; recall that iTunes was exclusive to OS X users at the time) an opportunity to get their hands on the score without seeking the inevitable bootlegs. Audiophiles could immediately distinguish a slight diminishing of sound quality on the downloaded version compared to the CD. It was a dumb decision all around, but it was due to no fault of Varèse, which did the best it could given Fox's decision to experiment with the Americans concerning the online release. It was simply too early for this kind of endeavor to work, because not only was the technology too restrictive at the time, mainstream score collectors obviously weren't yet ready for this move. The score has remained in print at Varèse's site throughout the rest of the decade, however, helping alleviate the situation in the long term. As for the score, it comes highly recommended for enthusiasts of Jones' wild orchestral rides, with boisterous, symphonic action that will not disappoint in its highlights. While the entirety of the work has some flaws of its own, the score's poor integration into the film does not do it justice.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Score as Written for the Film:  ***
• Score as Heard in the Film:  **
• Score as Heard on Album:  ****
• Overall:  ***

Bias Check:

For Trevor Jones reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.78 (in 18 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.41 (in 24,905 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 54:41