Jung makes no attempt to imitate or even truly represent the idea of cloning in his music for Mickey 17, nor is there anything to convey that the film exists in the future science fiction realm, staying organic throughout. He seems to have decided that neoclassicism is the base from which all the divergent sideshows in the score would emanate. The instrumentation is guided mostly by piano and strings, with specialty instruments thrown in rarely; contributors like accordion, fiddle, saxophone, and xylophone are mostly confined to the glitziest of cues. The personality of the work is softly sarcastic, using its faux elegance to punctuate the ridiculousness of the film's plot. The thematic breadth is extremely diverse, but Jung still manages to create an oddly boring score that is too reliant upon extended, melancholy solo piano passages. The highlights of the work all come in the full ensemble and choral sequences, the London Symphony Orchestra's contributions fantastic in the limited time during which they contribute. Each part of the score is too disparate to form a whole outside of the common waltz portions that guide the two main themes. The first of these ideas represents the journey of the characters as a whole, though it could alternately be considered a love theme for Mickey and Nasha. Its waltz formation is as clinical as it is cold, conveying absolutely no warmth for these characters even though they definitely show that spark of fire against the plethora of other, completely careless crewmates. The main theme is heard on solo piano throughout the sparse "Bon Appetit" and returns in similar fashion in "Nasha" but with a string quartet added early and the full strings striking some depth late. The quartet and piano mode doesn't develop any further in "Ulsang," and the same sour atmosphere applies to "Bon Appetit with Strings." Meanwhile, a theme of despair for the movie is its most versatile and is adapted extensively across genres. This different, darker waltz formation for the full ensemble emerges in "Immigrant" and expands into a bloated, melodramatic moment of comedy in "Vaccine." A piano solo pounds away at it in "Multiple" while a rowdier tango personality diverts the idea significantly in "Attention." Increasingly ominous in "Arrival," this idea revisits its piano-pounding mode in "Corridor of Love," where it is joined by surprising brass muscularity.

The secondary themes in Mickey 17 offer little to the narrative, each rather mundane in their extension of the work's overall depressing mood. A theme for Mickey himself struggles to define itself in the soul-infused solace from solo piano in "Barnes" but never goes anywhere from there. A theme for his love interest, Nasha, debuts its ascendant solo piano figures in the short "Nasha is Amazing I" and interjects on solo piano at the end of "Chaos," but that piano recurs in "Nasha is Amazing II" and is never joined by another instrument during any of its performances. A theme for the "creepers" that are the sentient bugs of the target planet consists of droning throat singing on key in "Why Kill Luco?" and develops into a fuller choral chant in "Chaos." The far more successful portions of Mickey 17 come when Jung unleashes his action material that doesn't really connect to any of the surrounding themes but still spices up the mood. These explosions of sound are thus more like comedy vignettes than actual culminations of anything heard in the remainder of the score. The outrageous polka of "Mayhem" resurrects memories of Danny Elfman's Pee-wee's Big Adventure and its sequel, with silly vocals building to a massive, pompous choral conclusion. More impressive are pulsating brass figures over perhaps slightly synthetic reminders of early James Horner brutality in "Set Off." Similar volume immediately follows in the crescendo of huge orchestral and choral force that builds at the end of "Chaos." These cues at the climax are really engaging and interesting, but that payoff comes after too many dull expressions of the score's main theme and non-descript, outright boring cues like "Frog," "Umma," and "Calm Before the Storm." There was nothing wrong with the idea of using a restrained and solitary waltz as the origination point for this score's comedy, but Jung never pushes that sound in any meaningful direction. Even as parody music, the demeanor may be too stuffy to suffice. That striking minimalism was likely the intent all along, but it makes for a challenging listening experience even if it serves the film's off-kilter personality well enough. The 49-minute album drags considerably but is never unpleasant, making for an easy but forgettable listening experience outside of the terrible and sickening religious source song for the villains in "Rejoice in the Lord" at the presentation's end. Like the film itself, there was too much potential for a really fantastic parody here that was left unexplored, despite the impressive action at the climax.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download