: (James
Newton Howard) Got a novel worth making into a movie? Why not make it
into two movies per book? Hey, it works! It doesn't matter what the
franchise is these days. Let's bleed the worldwide consumer by adapting
screenplays so you can whip two movies out of a book instead of one and
make a few extra hundred millions of dollars. In the case of
at the
same time, the existence of the extra films resulted in prolonged agony
for some viewers, for the storyline really didn't need stretched to such
lengths. But fans of the Suzanne Collins "Hunger Games" concept didn't
care, making the split 2014 film the most fiscally successful of the
series regardless of the shameless commercialism of its division. The
war is definitely on between the rural Districts and evil Capitol by
this point in the story, heroine Katniss Everdeen surviving multiple
trips through the Hunger Games process and becoming the figurehead of
the rebellion against the wealthy overlords of this lovely vision of a
future humanity. Social commentary juxtaposed against interpersonal
relationships continues to define the series, and between all the
comparisons to real-life warfare, battles over communication
technologies, and the obligatory love triangle, it seems that the
concept has all the bases covered. The music for this series has always
been something of an unfortunate mess, starting with veteran fantasy
composer James Newton Howard's late arrival on the scene of the first
film and the disappointing infusion of outside talent in the lending of
themes that muddied the franchise's soundtrack identity. It would seem,
finally, that Howard was given a bit more direction (or at least
presence) over the music used in
, because the film places a much stronger emphasis on the existing
identities and Howard's own creations. The main exception in this entry
is the pivotal source song for this film, "The Hanging Tree," which was
penned by Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of the American folk band,
"The Lumineers." Howard was tasked with arranging this important song
into this new score and developing his own growing collection of themes,
all the while being mindful of the continued insertion of the "Horn of
Plenty" melody from the first film that continues to prevail in
.
There is reason for both hope and disappointment upon a
casual listen to
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, and both
sides of the equation can be attributed to Howard. The most obvious and
glaring aspect of this score is the absence of any interplay between the
"Horn of Plenty" melody and that of "The Hanging Tree," a clear musical
dichotomy that needed to be explored in the soundtrack to further
distinguish the rebels from the politicians. Don't expect to hear "Horn
of Plenty" integrated anywhere in the score, and usage in the film seems
tracked in to such a degree that it wasn't even deemed necessary to
include it on the album for
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part
1. Meanwhile, "The Hanging Tree" is the single most important
counterpoint to that theme in this film, performed by actress Jennifer
Lawrence (apparently with some difficulty from shyness, though her
singing is perfectly fine) to represent the on-screen rally call for the
rebels. So popular was her performance of this melody that the label for
the soundtrack albums belatedly copied it over from the score offering
so that it could also be downloaded with the standard song compilation.
While the melody of this song, adapted stunningly by Howard and his crew
in the latter half of that song's duration, should really represent the
score as well, Howard only slightly alludes to it in "District 12 Ruins"
and, more clearly, "Taunting the Cat." The folksy instrumentation and
progressions of this theme do, however, coincide well with Howard's
original approach to the lead character's heritage. Outside of this
oddly missed opportunity for explicit thematic battle, Howard is
intensely loyal to his own themes from the prior two scores, really
picking up especially on his identities for
Catching Fire.
Enthusiasts of the franchise will enjoy hearing nearly everything from
before, including the softly restrained love theme, the churning games
identity, and the Rue material that has morphed into a larger purpose.
That last point of interest is something a problem in this score,
because it's sometimes difficult to determine exactly what Howard is
trying to denote with the application of a theme. You have to love the
usage of these existing themes in "The Mockingjay" and late in "Air Raid
Drill," sometimes stated with full ensemble authority. But there are
more questions than answers in how some of these conflicting identities
are applied to the narrative. Whether that bothers you to any great
extent will probably determine your opinion of the score as a
whole.
Despite the issue with muddy thematic attributions in
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, this score is clearly the
most mature of the franchise in terms of overall symphonic strength. The
reason for this praise is simple: Howard has finally managed to refine
the suspense and action material into a better package in this work.
Building off of "Monkey Mutts" and other glimpses of the Howard
excellence that prevails in his better scores, the action cues in
particular are the highlight here. The trio of "The Arsenal," "Incoming
Bombers," and especially "Air Raid Drill" are worth your investigation,
and the first half the score in particular excels in its suspenseful
underscore as well. There's nothing as sustained in the action cues as
the music in Howard's
Maleficent, but it's still entertaining.
The score does suffer from some disjointed misadventures in its later
cues, led by the intentional electronic distortions of "Jamming the
Capitol." Even in this cue, however, fans of
Salt will find some
merit once the electronics define a cohesive rhythm instead of
disrupting it. By "Put Me On the Air," however, Howard is back to his
choral and orchestral grandeur mode, and there are more such interludes
in this work. The concluding "Victory" is clearly a cliffhanger, and a
solid one at that. Overall, this franchise's music is, despite its
continuing melodic haziness, achieving greater potential for enjoyment
with each entry. You can get a sense from the scope of Howard's movement
through these scores that he is shifting away from the folksy origins of
the franchise and approaching truly a militaristic end, a transition
explicitly heard in the snare rhythms of "Snow's Speech." Even as he
does so, he has increased the role for cooing choirs and romping
orchestral rhythms, parts of this score reminiscent finally of
The
Last Airbender. The composer's inability to really work the
contributed themes into his own and manipulate them into battle against
each other remains a disappointment. The score-only album presentation
is too long for its own good, too. There are a number of filler cues,
including a continuation of the electronic contributions in "Inside the
Tribute Center," that really slow this listening experience to a crawl.
A very solid 40-minute rearrangement awaits a Howard fan. Also note that
the awards-nominated pop song, which has absolutely nothing to do
structurally or stylistically with Howard's score, does not appear on
the score's album. You will find yourself returning to "The Hanging
Tree," though, as you parse through the best soundtrack moments of 2014.
This track alone makes this entire soundtrack the best of the three so
far.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.41
(in 63 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.4
(in 76,334 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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