and proceeded to perform one-armed push-ups on stage during
his acceptance speech, he launched a second, late career in the 1990's
advertising men's fragrances with a not-so subtle touch of virility
implied. Clearly, Tom Cruise must share this late career goal as well,
the actor continuing to supply his own stunts and leading man swagger in
his mid-50's for the two decade-long run of
films. By widespread accounts, 2018's
, the sixth feature adaptation of the classic television
series with Cruise as the lead, is a masterful action flick, yielding
massive box office returns as the franchise heads towards grittier
conflicts in its narrative. Writer and director Christopher McQuarrie
returns after his triumph with 2015's
and shakes up his crew in an attempt to achieve the more
serious, darker aim for the concept, and audiences approved. The sixth
film is a direct continuation of the previous entry, the surviving
villains seeking vengeance (no, really?) and portable nuclear devices
with which to destabilize the world's populations (no, really?), all the
while Ethan Hunt's team of secret operatives perseveres through internal
betrayals (no, really?) to stop the evil plot with seconds to spare (no,
really?). McQuarrie's decision to change over some of his crew members
despite a mostly returning cast was a curious decision, and in no part
of the production did it have as much impact as in its music. The
director had turned to his lifelong collaborator, composer Joe Kraemer,
for
, and the results were
spectacular. For
, he sought a
strictly Hans Zimmer/Remote Control sound for the score, so, despite his
continued association with Kraemer, he ended up with beleaguered RC
poster boy Lorne Balfe to supply him with the desired Zimmer rip-off
soundtrack. Zimmer, of course, had already lent his electronic touch to
the second film in the franchise in 2000, though that trajectory in the
concept's music was ignored by Michael Giacchino and Kraemer in
subsequent entries.
Mainstream audiences likely won't care to notice whether
the music in these films remains closely tied to the Lalo Schifrin style
of vintage coolness or succumbs to the Hans Zimmer era of brooding
masculinity, especially if the franchise's main theme persists. But for
many film music collectors,
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
represents a completely unnecessary and potentially offensive surrender
of a franchise to stylistic mediocrity by the demand of filmmakers eager
to cater to a cynical, violent public stimulated by brute force rather
than a wink and a nod... or even a sarcastic grin from Ethan Hunt. Some
listeners argue that McQuarrie's replacement of Kraemer with Balfe
should not constitute a problem so long as the succeeding film is vastly
different. But the opposite is true. Kraemer and those who loved his
smart approach to the prior score have every right to be deeply
offended, for it's a composer's job to adapt to the director's whim.
Certainly, had McQuarrie directed Kraemer to produce an edgier, moodier
version of his already RC-guided material for
Mission: Impossible -
Fallout, the composer could have obliged with as much intelligence
as before. Instead, listeners receive an occasionally engaging but
mostly derivative and obnoxious capitulation of RC staples from Balfe.
The Zimmer clone has been soundly criticized though the years, sometimes
unfairly, for his frequently terrible regurgitations of the baseline RC
noise (i.e. music meant to appeal to the loins rather than brains), and
Mission: Impossible - Fallout will strongly reinforce such
opinions. If you remove the Schifrin references from this work, you have
a frightfully ridiculous homage to the Zimmer Batman-related scores and
Inception, the techniques applied here so tired and
unsophisticated that it's a shame audiences still react positively to
them. Balfe blasts you in the face with this material without any
significant deviation in technique, and the emotional variance within
the score is surprisingly ineffective; you have diarrhetic action,
action, and more action, followed by occasional constipation in the form
of brooding, ambient suspense or emotionless drama. Balfe has mostly
lost the sense of style inherent in the franchise's music in the process
of confusing Hunt with Batman, and all of the score's highlights are
tied directly to the Schifrin interpolations at their most obvious.
Fortunately, Balfe does rely heavily on the recurring two melodies from
the franchise, the primary theme and the "Plot" theme from the original
series.
The use of the two legacy Schifrin themes in
Mission: Impossible - Fallout salvages the listening experience
from total mediocrity, and Balfe does offer his integration of their
structures into Zimmer's realm about as well as could be achieved. He
actually relies upon some of the underlying chord progressions
established by Kraemer to convey the descending three notes of the main
theme in super-dramatic fashion. Those three-note phrases are all over
this score, as is the jumpier "Plot" theme, and the main melodic line
from the franchise makes a handful of appearances for obvious needs.
Some of Balfe's interpolations are really quite clever and deserve
praise, though the rendering of his adaptations usually spoils the fun.
Senselessly, the composer shuns Kraemer's themes for the IMF ("Steps
Ahead") and Solomon Lane/Syndicate ("The Syndicate"), reassigning the
"Plot" theme to the former and writing an obnoxious new mood-setter for
the latter. The use of Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" from the 1926
opera "Turandot" doesn't return, either, despite the character's
persistence. These abandonments don't make sense given all the direct
story and cast ties between the two films. Balfe instead provides a few
new inconsequential and badly developed motifs, the most important of
which existing most clearly in "We Are Never Free" and providing a
tortured string identity for Hunt's emotional turmoil. The Syndicate and
other motifs are best conveyed by Balfe's only truly elegant
instrumental element: the piano. The meandering piano lines, typically
punctuated by phrases in trios of notes, are a welcome addition to the
mix in every instance. Otherwise, the instrumentation is disappointing
all around. The tom-tom drums appear by necessity but are diminished
here. Woodwinds were kicked out of the room. The brass could be organic
or manipulated to the point of despair, parts of the score forcing
symphonic elements through processors meant to give the instruments an
abrasive, synthetic edge. The action sequences in the latter quarter of
the score are outright obnoxious in their domineering, simplistic
stupidity and harsh attitude. Listeners are even treated to a tribute to
Brad Fiedel's
The Terminator in "The Last Resort." Portions of
"Scalpel and Hammer" will make one wonder once again if there is failing
industrial machinery in earshot, and don't be surprised if you find
yourself skipping these passages entirely for the sake of your sanity.
Even the blasting horns from
Inception had more intrigue than
this.
There are, despite all these misgivings, a few
highlights worth recommending in the score for
Mission: Impossible -
Fallout. When Balfe allows the natural style of Schifrin's main
theme to guide an action cue, he generally thrives best. The rowdy
"Stairs and Rooftops" is definitely the pinnacle of the work, with
"Escape Through Paris" and "Kashmir" several steps behind. Depending on
your sense of humor, the concluding performance of the main franchise
theme in "Mission: Accomplished" may be of interest. As if you didn't
get the point that the new world is a big, bad place full of
planet-exploding perils, Balfe layers the obligatory tribute performance
of Schifrin's full theme with gothic vocals once again appropriate for
either masked superheroes or invading alien forces. It's so brazenly
juvenile that you can't help but laugh. If you desire one remarkable
summary of Balfe's "Ode to Zimmer" in this work, look no further than
the rather pleasantly tonal "Fate Whispers to the Warrior," which
overcomes its surface similarities to Dario Marianelli's far more
genuine
V for Vendetta to dwell in the lowest common denominators
of slapping percussion, chopping string ostinatos, brass manipulated to
near synthetic tones, long crescendos of mood, stomping low brass whole
notes, and, of course, drawn-out noises in the bass that could have been
the hum of propeller blades prior to the 27 separate filters that were
applied to it over the past ten years. Overall, Balfe's approach to
Mission: Impossible - Fallout provided the director with the
dumbed-down attitude he desired, and some listeners will find the score
to be a satisfying RC-inspired romp. But the exhaustingly long album
presentation doesn't do it any favors; as if the lengthy digital release
wasn't insufferable enough, La-La Land Records pressed a 2-CD set of 110
minutes that features six completely useless additional cues at its end.
Also, be aware that the album's attributions of Schifrin's two themes to
each individual track is incomplete, with both identities in far more
cues than indicated by the packaging. Ultimately, it's difficult to
blame Balfe for this disappointing score's existence, for McQuarrie led
listeners down this unfortunate path. Kraemer had already supplied a
fair dose of RC muscularity to the concept without sacrificing its
roots. And those roots remain relevant despite the franchise's change in
emotional emphasis because Hunt still exudes swagger and coolness in his
mannerisms. In this respect, the concept is no different from that of
James Bond, and Balfe's score here is the equivalent of hearing a
frustrating Zimmer emulation for that storied franchise. Balfe has
proven he is no fool, but he sometimes writes like one, and directors
like McQuarrie are the reason for that continuing loss of finesse.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83
(in 30 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.86
(in 23,387 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
