is living proof that poor critical response
sometimes means nothing to the right cult viewership, and the 2016
sequel is enjoying the same audience embrace despite intellectual
indifference. The majority of the principle cast returns for yet another
set of logic-defying twists and turns in a most improbable plot. The
remaining members of the squad of magician heist artists known as "The
Four Horsemen" returns, adds a new babe, learns more about the
mysterious organization of magicians known as "The Eye" that they become
a part of, and strives to out-maneuver their former employer and his son
in a chase after high-tech gadgetry. Regardless of the endless quantity
of plot holes that defy gravity in
, the style of
the story rules over its substance, and the intrigue of the ensemble
cast and the concept of magical deception have yielded enough
enthusiasm, especially in foreign markets, to justify yet another
sequel. Much disagreement existed in regards to composer Brian Tyler's
hip but extremely obvious score for
, its prominent
placement in the film distracting for some viewers while others
appreciated its ability to almost singlehandedly propel the film through
its various improbabilities. Unquestionable was the uniqueness of
Tyler's approach, which avoided all the pitfalls of a David Holmes
knock-off effort for the heist element and the obvious Remote Control
beckoning from the action portions. Tyler's own keen sense of style,
likely fueled in part by his own enthusiastic performances on seemingly
half the specialty instruments in the score, resurrected the mannerisms
of jazz and funk spanning the 20th century and managed to emulate the
best of Lalo Schifrin and Marvin Hamlisch without failing to offer the
muscularity necessary for any modern action-oriented topic. One cannot
fault some listeners for rejecting Tyler's often over-the-top demeanor
in that work, though, and it remains a "love it or hate it" prospect for
film score collectors. Tyler's involvement in
,
despite a shift in director and writers, is a most welcome development,
in part because it allows the sequel score a proper album release that
has, in the years since 2013, remained absent for the prior entry.
One of the maddeningly fantastic aspects of the score
for
Now You See Me was just how ambitiously fragmented it was in
its thematic and rhythmic core. The score was simply all over the place
in both regards, offering a wealth of themes that almost suggested that
Tyler was having too much fun to stop generating jazzy eruptions and
produce a truly concise score. That issue of depth complicates the
sequel, because Tyler, naturally, is inclined to carry over nearly every
element he can from that work into
Now You See Me 2 and throw in
some new nuggets, too. There's some occasional head-spinning that
results in
Now You See Me 2, and its greatest weakness is Tyler's
inability to use the opportunity to really condense his ideas from the
first film into a clear narrative in the second. He's done an
outstanding job of handling individual moments, teasing out new
alterations on his existing themes and playing the audience with false
crescendos of pleasantly harmonious victory, and he especially
emphasizes the dramatic side of the concept. But as an entire package,
Now You See Me 2 is just as frenetic and schizophrenic as its
predecessor. The score still works, and it does so quite well, because
of the core thematic foundation and Tyler's smart, continued
interpolation of those ideas into nearly every corner of the work.
Whereas the strength of
Now You See Me 2 is in its enhanced
dramatic appeal in five or six cues, sometimes aided by Danny
Elfman-like light choir, the weakness of the score is Tyler's infusion
of a tad too much of
Fast and Furious electronica abrasiveness
into three or four cues. The first score had some really obnoxious
portions that step outside of the boundaries of stylish jazz for the
sake of modern techno-thrills, and here those moments of caution for the
listening experience exist in the second half of "Equivoque," the start
of "Trifecta" (an otherwise really fine cue), and to lesser degrees in
"Octa" and "Diversion Tactics." These moments expose some uncertainty on
Tyler's part about whether to keep the high style caper jazz of
yesteryear as the centerpiece of the score or to fully embrace the more
ballsy contemporary alternatives. On the other hand, these portions are
balanced by Tyler's expansion of the dramatic element in
Now You See
Me 2, some of which informed by existing themes but some quite
fresh. The first half of "300 Seconds," "United," and "Deliverance"
present this material, and "Revelatory" and "Behind the Curtain"
complete it with surprising heart.
The primary attraction in
Now You See Me 2
remains Tyler's more engaging action and caper themes, however, and the
main theme receives several extended treatments in the work, including a
lengthy suite arrangement in "Now You See Me 2 Fanfare" that Tyler
conducted live to much praise in London concurrent to the film's
release. The two main caper themes are provided their moments of glory,
"Now You See Me 2 Main Titles" and "See You in 3 to 5" offering them
each their due attention. The progressions and underlying rhythms of
these three main ideas are everywhere in the score (listen for the good
deconstruction of caper themes in "Slight of Hand"), though do expect
some straight cut and paste insertions in "A Special Invitation" and
"The Big Finish," among others. The secondary themes of note from
Now
You See Me return as well, including the idea for Morgan Freeman's
elusive Thaddeus Bradley ("Thaddeus' Game" and a nice hint late in "300
Seconds") and the descending, meandering idea of mystery that exists
throughout but solidifies in "Behind the Curtain," suggesting it as a
representation of "The Eye." New to the score is a little, perverse
waltz for techno-wiz "Walter Mabry" (confined mostly to "Off the Grid")
and a touch of new caper attitude for the babe added to the team in "The
New Horseman." Other new tangents include a homely motif for an evil
twin in "Sibling Rivalry" and nice new caper identity at 1:25 into "A
Special Invitation." The dramatic material culminates in a solid new
rhythm of determination at 0:19 into "See You in 3 to 5." Overall, the
sequel score is extremely faithful to its predecessor and throws enough
new paint at the wall to keep you entertained. But
Now You See Me
2 remains wildly inconsistent in direction, exploring many ideas
without desired development, perhaps in an effort to deal an appropriate
dose of musical misdirection at the plot. The fantastic arrangement of
the main theme at the start of the album is not to be missed and is
superior to anything else in either score. The album presentation for
Now You See Me 2 follows Tyler's typical habit of providing
length but no chronological ordering, and there are a few seemingly odd
or abrupt edits (the start of "Deliverance" and the middle of "See You
in 3 to 5"). But these are small quibbles on an otherwise entertaining
reprise of a Tyler score that remains a hidden gem of the 2010's. One
could say that the sequel score has better singular highlights but lacks
the same sense of wondrous freshness that exuded from its predecessor.
Regardless, these scores are romps unlike much of anything else in film
music of this era, and that's a hat trick in and of itself.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2
(in 41 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.13
(in 19,695 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
