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| Giacchino |
Mission: Impossible III: (Michael Giacchino)
Neither of Brian De Palma or John Woo's first two films in the
Mission: Impossible set any intelligence records, with logical
fallacies that rendered their plots almost laughable. The whole point of
the franchise on film has been, of course, to provide a clothesline for
outrageous physical stunts and incredible explosions. After all,
explosions are fun! The third movie is much of the same formula,
compared at its worst to some of the duller James Bond movies. Perhaps
the fourth
Mission: Impossible film will combine outrageous
physical stunts and incredible explosions with Scientology and Katie
Holmes, and then people will get truly excited. Along with the
awkwardness of Tom Cruise these days (is he jumping off a sofa or a
burning bridge?),
Mission: Impossible III has overcome critical
reviews and pleasured brainless audiences to the benefit of $100+
million for the studio in its first month. The music for the franchise,
like the concurrent
X-Men franchise, has switched from composer
to composer since its first installment, which typically leaves no
overarching identity for the franchise musically. Luckily for
Mission: Impossible, Lalo Schifrin had already done all that was
necessary, and each of the three scores for the films over the past ten
years have utilized that theme to some extent. Outside of that theme,
none of the scores have maintained their own identity, with Danny
Elfman's original suffering from a bland anonymity and Hans Zimmer's
sequel score completely losing touch with the origins of the show's
sound. For
Mission: Impossible III, director J.J. Abrams' "like a
brother" composing partner Michael Giacchino takes his first stab at a
summer blockbuster.
Giacchino officially graduated from the realm of epic
video game scores (
Medal of Honor & sequels) and diverse
television scores (
Alias and
Lost) into the world of high
stakes film scores with the highly successful
The Incredibles a
few years ago. In Giacchino's favor for
Mission: Impossible III
is his uncanny intelligence at adapting themes and styles from other
works (he is aware of his musical surroundings moreso than many other
composers these days who allow their egos to shut out music relevant to
their current projects), and the result is finally a
Mission:
Impossible score that really makes strong use of Schifrin's original
ideas. Giacchino's liberal statements of Schifrin's inspiration in
Mission: Impossible III is a refreshing development that Elfman
barely touched upon and Zimmer fumbled. His execution of the theme is
successful because Giacchino assembles the 1970's instrumentation, from
the percussion to the woodwinds, necessary for an authentic
interpolation of that theme. And, taking that idea a step further,
Giacchino incorporates that instrumentation into several cues in the
score. Some of these are all-out expansions of Schifrin's material, such
as the hip "See You in the Sewer" cue that even throws in Schifrin's
"Plot" theme for good measure. Another aspect of
Mission: Impossible
III that Giacchino has moving in his favor is his ability to pace
his music with a consistent sense of urgency. His rhythms are almost
never stale, and much of this score moves with the same intent that
propelled his
Medal of Honor music. There are a few action
pieces, including "Factory Rescue," that sprint with the same John
Williams'-style string chopping that Giacchino utilized so well in those
video games. The large ensemble is nimble in its performances, though
some more complex variations on Schifrin's title theme may not suit fans
of the original series' music.
The strangest aspect of Giacchino's
Mission:
Impossible III, and its potential downfall for many listeners to its
lengthy album, is its ability to sustain the action (as required by the
film) without really creating any sort of identity for itself. For all
of its smart usage of theme, instrumentation, and pacing, Giacchino has
created a score that passes with the same anonymity as Elfman's
original, though much more easily listenable. The action material
changes direction and style so often that it alone cannot sustain the
album. The ensemble explodes, stops, changes ethnic style, meanders in
lower ranges for a while, explodes again, throws a few false crescendos
at you, and stops again... and then you get a token statement of
Schifrin material. This process repeats over and over again, sometimes
atonal, sometimes a bit easier on the ears, but in the end, the only
common element is the fact that it continues to change at a swift pace.
Even the impressive "Schifrin and Variations" suite of adaptations on
Schifrin's theme moves between ideas at a staggering pace. Any one of
the hinted adaptations would have made for a great extended performance,
and the same could be said about many of Giacchino's extensive action
cues within the score itself. There's something ironic about the
possibility that Zimmer's "Injection" cue, perfect for a John Woo
environment but as far from Schifrin's style as possible, remains the
most memorable cue in the trilogy on album. Why are these scores so hard
to get right? Using Abrams' equation in his notes, maybe it's the fault
of the films' terrible stories. On the whole, Giacchino's score is the
best of the three, but you get the impression that the flaws in his
frantic and wild pacing mirror the flaws of the film itself, thus making
it a marginalized success.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46
(in 43 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.21
(in 23,448 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a note from the director about the score,
as well as a list of performers and extensive photography from the film.
