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| Davis |
The Matrix Reloaded: (Don Davis/Ben Watkins/Rob
Dougan) So outstanding was the story and its cinematic execution that
The Matrix became an international super-phenomenon in 1999. For
a number of strategic reasons (related largely to shooting schedules),
Warner Brothers released its two mandatory sequels,
The Matrix
Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions, within the span of two
seasons in 2003. Despite the tremendous financial returns destined to
greet these films, this release tactic worked against Warner to a
degree, reducing box office potential and splitting votes in technical
categories during the awards season that followed. The still massive
popularity of the films is rooted in the highly intriguing but
remarkably simple idea that everything we are experiencing in real life
is actually an elaborate virtual reality. While we eat our hot dogs and
watch our reality shows on TV (in our mind, that is), our real bodies
are being harvested in a horrific, actual reality of machine dominance
over the Earth. Combine that premise with wildly innovative slow-motion
special effects and you end up with a series of films, games, and other
products based on
The Matrix that will probably continue to
reside brightly as a cinematic cult favorite from Hollywood for decades.
The religious element of the concept is blindingly obvious, the first
film challenging reality, the second one deconstructing the alternate
reality that results, and the third one challenging viewers to put their
own perspective on what these realities really mean. There's enough
messianic messaging in this franchise to overwhelm any audience, though
most average movie-goers were likely too enamored with the glitz of the
photography and effects, as well as the style of the violence (including
one of the big screen's most remarkable highway chase sequences ever
filmed), to even notice any deeper meaning. Likely because the original
film was not predicted to be the smashing success that it was, the
studio did not forcefully interrupt the collaboration between the
writing and directing Wachowski brothers and composer Don Davis by
flexing its muscle in favor of a mainstream composing name. Instead, the
brothers enlisted the very talented, but lesser known Davis for the
postmodern scoring project, one that he has often reflected upon as the
"dream assignment."
Davis' dissonant, highly challenging orchestral score for
The Matrix, littered with unconventional instrumental
applications and harsh electronic sound effects, was functional for the
film, though fans and critics alike were somewhat disappointed that the
sound presented in the original film's trailers (namely, that of the new
age group Enigma) was not the genre of music utilized to any degree in
the film. Davis' score was short on elegance and long on ambient
disillusionment, using various sets of propulsive rhythms at both
minimalistic and frightfully incongruous, full ensemble volumes to
define the bleak vision of the future and the heroes' desperate
maneuvers to counter it. Despite a lack of easy and obvious structural
cohesiveness in its motifs, Davis' work for
The Matrix was still
an effective element in a film that distracted viewers more with its
visuals than with its sounds. The most effective aspect of the score is
arguably the motif of rotating trumpets and horns pulsating between two
slightly disjointed notes nearly an octave apart, a sound that would
continue as the defining motif of the series. An accelerating motif for
the machines, often slapped on metallic percussion, was also memorable.
Provided in hints during
The Matrix were both the hero motif (for
Neo's transformation at the end of that story) and, more importantly,
the love theme for Neo and Trinity that only received two or three
complete performances in that score. There was a separate set of
challenges awaiting Davis when it came time to tackle the two sequel
scores, and foremost was the continuing use of non-score music as the
centerpiece of the soundtracks. It didn't take a genius to see that the
combination of the Wachowskis' song placements and Warner Brothers'
perception of fan response to the original film and its soundtracks put
Davis' own work at a disadvantage. The songs and other non-Davis
placements continue to be embellished in
The Matrix Reloaded,
especially with the return of Rob Dougan's "Clubbed to Death," which had
been inserted with great success into the "woman in the red dress"
training scene in
The Matrix. Additionally, with the Wachowski
brothers' interest in obtaining outside electronica and techno music
came the desire for a larger influence of that kind of music on Davis'
own score. Thus, the final result is a score for
The Matrix
Reloaded that is a collaborative effort.
Despite the flashy tones of the nontraditional score
contributions by others in
The Matrix Reloaded, Davis' music is
largely unhindered by electronica elements for much of its duration,
with several key cues featuring fully dynamic, orchestral (and sometimes
choral) performances. The film opens with the same rumbling piano and
alternating brass motif as the previous entry, a fantastic method of
accentuating the mind-numbing visual of seeing and imagining the green
numbers that stream down the screen, representing our virtual lives.
Davis ensures that this, the scores' most easily recognizable motif,
continues to represent the overarching story in both sequel scores.
Continuing to restate both the wavering brass motif and the accelerating
machine motif throughout its length (and the latter most prominently at
the end of "Trinity Dream"), the score for
The Matrix Reloaded
builds through several coherent and enjoyable cues into an effort that
far exceeds Davis' previous entry in terms of balancing those ideas with
the harmony of Neo and Trinity's two related themes. Since the plot of
this sequel drops much of the shocking horror element and replaces it
with religious grandeur, a shift to tonal accessibility in the music was
inevitable. His music is allowed to flourish with continued complex
structures but without as many awkward synthetic sound effects, with
more clearly delineated instrumentation, a dramatic use of choral
accompaniment, and, surprisingly, a decent amount of tonal harmony
contributing to a more satisfying whole. This time, as special effects
slow the frames during spectacular scenes, Davis responds with grand
orchestral and choral gestures of whole notes of power and substance.
Greatly reduced (but not gone by any means) is the brazenly dissonant
approach that truly dominated the previous score, and Davis really does
traverse a little closer to the Enigma style of elegance and deeply
thoughtful underscore that many had hoped to hear in
The Matrix
(and that sound, of course, is expanded upon even further in
The
Matrix Revolutions). Davis does incorporate electronic aids in his
solo compositions, and the presence of metallic grinding is perpetuated
to represent the continued mind-numbing plot twists, but they play a
seemingly minor role compared to
The Matrix. So impressive are
parts of his choral incorporation that casual listeners will be reminded
of Alan Silvestri's memorable
The Abyss, a score known widely for
its finale of massively beautiful choral simplicity.
Aside from a preview of some of the messianic element at
the introduction of the underground hideaway of Zion, the conclusion of
The Matrix Reloaded provides most of Davis' highly attractive
material for this score, and while some of it touches upon the brazenly
heroic theme for Neo that stamped the end of
The Matrix with
grandeur, most of the pleasing and redeeming tones at the end of the
sequel are extensions of the love theme for Neo and Trinity. While this
theme begins to espouse the sense of romantic tragedy that will envelope
it in the subsequent score, it is still a remarkably refreshing glimpse
of hope in an otherwise troubling musical landscape. The solo horn
performance of this theme near the end of the commercial album's major
score suite is striking despite its low volume. In short, Davis'
intelligent mix of harrowing dissonance and awe-inspiring ensemble
harmony for the sequel is what many had wished he would have produced
for the original, though given that the first film had a much stronger
sense of horror to it, you have to forgive the necessary process of
evolution through the three scores in retrospect. But the story of
The Matrix Reloaded isn't finished there. The Wachowski brothers
hired the electronica group Juno Reactor to score the famed freeway
chase scene and a handful of other sequences. Existing in the
psychedelic trance and techno scene for a few decades, Juno Reactor's
core member, Ben Watkins, had recently shifted the group's efforts away
from the repetitive trance genre towards the use of additional live
musicians and an orchestral accompaniment. Watkins had contributed
popular cues to multiple
Mortal Kombat films, and the tone of his
music as the leader of Juno Reactor represented the desired combination
of hard electronica and orchestral depth that the Wachowski brothers
sought. It still seems odd that the brothers didn't ask Davis to provide
these sounds for the film himself, for he was certainly capable of doing
so, but they were so impressed with Watkins' "Mona Lisa Overdrive" cue
that they requested him to also provide that hard-nosed edge to the
"Burly Brawl" cue. Compared to Don Davis' contributions, the
Watkins/Juno Reactor cues are heavy and electronically persistent, and
obviously a switch of genre (though the lack of musical continuity from
scene to scene didn't seem to bother the Wachowskis in any of the
films). In general, these recordings offer more of the action-packed
thrill and less of the awe-inspiring beauty in the equation.
In an interesting twist of competence, Davis was
allowed to work with Watkins his contributions to
The Matrix
Reloaded, assisting in the large-scale orchestration effort behind
the electronic pulsations. Both of Watkins' cues feature a steady
orchestra as a powerful assistant, and the latter cue, "Burly Brawl," is
a perfect blend of the two styles, with Davis' alternating brass motif
omnipresent. In addition to Watkins and Juno Reactor, the Wachowski
brothers also wished to expand upon the use of "Clubbed to Death" by Rob
Dougan in the first film. Thus, they went straight to the source. Dougan
was also an artist combining electronica with orchestral sounds at the
time, and his heavily orchestrated pop music was often compared to
soundtrack scores even before this assignment. For the "Chateau" cue,
Dougan introduces his rising "Clubbed to Death" theme and expands it
into a full-fledged action motif with exciting orchestral accompaniment.
Dougan fans should note that he does not use his deep, rich voice in any
of the recordings for the score, however. While Davis was not a part of
the development of the orchestral elements in "Chateau," Dougan's
contribution is another well-placed piece in the larger musical tapestry
of
The Matrix Reloaded. It's an appropriate connection between
the training exercise in
The Matrix and the execution of Neo's
experience in this film, though it should be noted that the orchestral
cue that Davis originally wrote for this scene ("Chateau Swashbuckling")
is remarkably entertaining in a conventional action way. When pulling
back and placing the soundtrack's different artists in unison, the
regular orchestral film music fan will note that there are a small
handful of moments when Watkins' music doesn't completely mesh with
Davis' score. Davis may have been able to provide the electronica
elements for the chase and fight scenes himself, but the outsourcing to
achieve the proper talent was still handled well enough to result in a
coherent soundtrack. When the film was initially released, the standout
track on the main commercial album was the suite edit of several Davis
cues at the end of the 2nd CD in the product, a collection of the
score's best material that simply blows away the music provided by
Dougan and Watkins with its magnificent scope. For
The Matrix,
song and score albums were release separately; both were flawed, with
the song album not including some key, popular uses in the film and the
Davis score album short in length. For
The Matrix Reloaded,
Warner Brothers intriguingly offered both in one package, giving
consumers only a small taste of the score as a result.
On the initial commercial product, some of the songs
contained on the first CD are indeed in the film, and they fall towards
the hard rock and electronica side of the musical spectrum. The score
cues by Davis, Watkins, and Dougan occupy the second CD, which is only
40 minutes in length to accommodate the enhanced-CD extras that reside
on that CD. For film music fans, the first CD is a waste, with Dougan's
"Furious Angels" the only track tolerable to classically-inclined ears
(and, honestly, it should have appeared with Dougan's other cue on the
second CD). Marilyn Manson's insufferable "This is the New Shit" is
obviously not what most Davis fans are looking for. Regularly, the
forcing of score fans to purchase both the score and song CDs together
is a major detriment, but Warner Sunset and Maverick managed to figure
that they could turn a profit while offering the 2-CD set for the price
of a single album. Some American retail stores initially sold the set
for only $11.99, and this excused the bundling of the songs with the
score. After
The Matrix score was given expanded treatment in
2008, such an equivalent for
The Matrix Reloaded was inevitable,
and despite a few licensing hurdles that were never completely resolved,
La-La Land Records finally illuminated Davis's score, along with the
Watkins and Dougan material, on one limited 2-CD set in 2013,
eliminating the need for the bootlegs with that material that had long
been in circulation. While the true tonal highlights of Davis' music
were included in the previous album's suite arrangement, the fuller
renditions of those ideas are quite compelling, especially in the Zion
sequences. The intricacy within the composer's conversational cues is
fascinating, and the first two-thirds of the score features much more
accessible material than you may expect. The previously mentioned
"Chateau Swashbuckling" is among the best attractions. Those most
enthusiastic about this franchise's scores can use the 2013 album to
explore the development that Davis brought to the concept's themes in
preparation for their resolution in the subsequent score, even though
the composer claims that he did not coordinate the two scores explicitly
in that fashion. Overall, the music for
The Matrix Reloaded is
less frightening, dissonant, and disjointed than its predecessor, making
the 2013 album a great purchase. It hits most of its major beats in
stride, and its weaker portions can be forgiven because of their
brevity. It may not be as overwhelmingly attractive or easily memorable
as the conclusive statements in
The Matrix Revolutions, but it's
clearly a better listening experience than
The Matrix.
Deconstruction rarely sounds this good.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Don Davis reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2
(in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 44,938 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 2003 Warner album includes no extra information about the
score or film. It crams its credits information into a completely unreadable mess of
tangled text on the insert. The 2013 La-La Land set's insert contains extensive
notation about the film and score.
