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Review of The Maze Runner (John Paesano)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you appreciate the idea of sonic wallpaper in the
action/adventure genre as long as it is rendered with interesting
orchestrations, relative newcomer John Paesano impressing with his
capability to emulate the best of other composers.
Avoid it... if a clean musical narrative is your interest, this effort a bit thematically obtuse because of its position at the start of a tale of mystery, or if you are easily bothered by scores that expose their inspirations too readily.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Maze Runner: (John Paesano) Ah, yes, yet
another dystopian science fiction book aimed at teenagers makes its big
screen transition, the concept written by James Dashner in the late
2000's meant to take advantage of that seemingly endless demand for
depictions of average teenagers placed in heroic circumstances. This
particular low-budget 2014 venture, The Maze Runner, performed
extremely well financially and 20th Century Fox immediately green-lit
its sequel. Its The story tells of a group of random teenagers that find
themselves deposited in the middle of a large natural maze, with few
memories of their prior life and left to their own devices to survive.
How refreshing it must be to not worry about prom dances all of a
sudden. But wait, of course, there's the apocalypse awaiting them
outside the maze that is the true story. Where would any of these films
be without a little "end of the world" intrigue? The crew and cast of
The Maze Runner is largely unknown to mainstream viewers, the
director making his major successful debut here. The same could be said
of composer John Paesano, though he has a few big screen credits and a
plethora of video game and television experience under his belt. His
press kit and online biographies indicate that the classically trained
Paesano has worked to some degree with John Williams and Jerry
Goldsmith, and while he suggests that he wrote additional material for
three of Goldsmith's final scores in the early 2000's, his involvement
on those projects must not have been significant enough to merit
crediting on any of the albums for those scores. He was clear in naming
Goldsmith, Williams, and Hans Zimmer as his inspirations when
approaching The Maze Runner, however, and veteran film music
collectors will be able to hear the connections to not just the works of
these composers, but a wealth of others as well. It's always interesting
to hear newcomers to the big stage quote their inspirations and then
judge the temp track adherence that results. In the case of Paesano and
The Maze Runner, it's a pretty transparent series of adaptations
of style from not only the composers he specifically references, but
from James Horner (an Avatar homage), James Newton Howard (the
finale), Thomas Newman (character interludes), and Trevor Jones (the
opening theme), among others. For some listeners, these recognizable
influences will be a deal breaker. That said, though, given the
relatively lower budget nature of this film and Paesano's lack of major
credits thus far in the Hollywood feature franchise realm, listeners
have to be satisfied with this first effort.
Perhaps more important to remember about The Maze Runner than just the references to others' styles is the simple fact that this score was explicitly constructed as an origin work in such a way that the thematic foundations may not make sense as of the initial film. There are interesting themes introduced in this score, highlighted by the opening and closing tracks on the album release, but don't expect to hear these ideas fully fleshed out in the mass of the underscore. In fact, you have concepts in the film, especially relating to specific types of characters, that seem slighted by the thematic assignments, cues like "My Name is Thomas" and "Why Are We Different" taking distinctly Thomas Newman mannerisms to hazy melodic structures that don't really tackle much. Likewise, concepts within this first movie, such as the dreaded Grievers, don't seem to enjoy tight motific identities that are easy to grasp for the listeners. Some of the issues related to obtuse themes relates back to the simple fact that this score is approached like many others in which a composer recognizes that he is taking a huge step forward in his career. These situations seem to beckon the idea of sonic wallpaper in these artists, as a project like The Maze Runner affords a composer the opportunity to produce a sampler of all his capabilities and thus he crams in every kind of impressive idea he can muster into each cue. Very much in this vein is this work, a score extremely dense in many parts and thus indicative of Paesano's capabilities across a broad stroke of emotional lines. The composer recorded a number of unusual natural sounds and altered them for inclusion in his very aggressively orchestrated score. A cue such as "Section 7" opens with such creativity. At times, the rhythmic application of these ideas yields a "Brian Tyler effect," the phenomenon in which a hell of a lot of ruckus rolls along without actually moving a narrative in any direction. It's meant to thrill you in the moment rather than move you forward. Such scores have difficulty congealing into a truly cohesive listening experience, leaving you searching for the easy harmonic statements of theme. Paesano treats many of the character moments in The Maze Runner with comparatively light tones for acoustic guitar and woodwinds, allowing too much contrast between the unbridled explosions of noise in the action material and the needed emotional connections of the softer portions. Also working against him is a very dry mix that sounds shallow at times. His electronically manipulated elements are fine, as is the occasional choral infusion, but the ensemble does have the resounding feeling in the recording that he was seemingly seeking; as such, the whole is a bit flat. Still, this a good starting point for any franchise, and one can hope that the narrative will be clarified in future entries. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 63:26
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and a note from the composer. The text on the page
with the bulk of the production credits is nearly impossible to read due to poor design.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Maze Runner are Copyright © 2014, Sony Classical and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/21/14 (and not updated significantly since). |
