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| Trapanese |
Oblivion: (Anthony Gonzales/Joseph Trapanese) Be
careful when filmmakers claim to have an original science-fiction
concept, because, more often than not, what they're offering is some
blend of ideas executed in superior forms in other movies. Director
Joseph Kosinski has claimed that 2013's
Oblivion is a tribute to
1970's science fiction cinema when, in fact, it borrows a frightful
number of plot elements from more recent genre entries and therefore
threatens to derail its greatest asset: its concept twist. Without
revealing this mid-way plot redirection, it's safe to say that
Oblivion is a post-apocalyptic depiction of the remnants of Earth
dealing with a war against invading alien forces that explores
significant identity issues along the path to figuring out exactly who
the heroes and villains are. Logical fallacies in the timeline are the
telltale signs of a flawed script, and while the movie performed well
with audiences (thanks, in some part, to Tom Cruise's involvement in the
lead role), it fell short with many critics because of its problematic
story. Kosinski wanted to follow the success of his
Tron: Legacy
cinematic debut with this unconventional sci-fi affair, and, as you
might imagine, a non-traditional approach to the music was one of his
primary interests. Admitting the Daft Punk would not be appropriate for
this assignment, he instead turned to French electronic group M83,
insisting that he wanted a similarly unconventional score by "pulling an
artist from outside the movie business to create an original sound for
this film. M83's music was fresh and original, and big and epic, but at
the same time emotional and this is a very emotional film and it felt
like a good fit." Because M83's Anthony Gonzales had no film scoring
experience sufficient for him to complete this process, Kosinski once
again turned to
Tron: Legacy arranger and orchestrator Joseph
Trapanese. It's difficult to say exactly how much influence Trapanese
had on these two scores, given that both of them don't conform to many
industry standards. Trapanese isn't a tremendously experienced composer,
either, his most notable work for television, and perhaps it is no
surprise that the finished product for
Oblivion is
extraordinarily simplistic and defies Kosinski's original intent by
revealing itself to be extremely derivative as well. For all the hype
that was generated at the film's release about the "fresh" direction
taken by Gonzales and Trapanese for this project, any experienced film
music listener will be able to hear substantial and distracting
references to
Tron: Legacy,
Inception (and other Hans
Zimmer works), and vintage Vangelis compositions, among others.
Like the film, the score for
Oblivion suffices
without excelling. It goes through the motions of a hybrid score without
actually innovating. The blend of orchestra and synthetics is as
expected, a slight electronica rhythmic vibe intersecting with the
larger ensemble during action sequences and droning ambience creating a
wishy-washy haze during conversational moments. Somewhat dated drum-pad
or rock percussion punctuates several cues with a sense of coolness
totally out of place in this film. The symphonic players are wasted in
this effort because of the debilitating simplicity of the composition.
Meters are usually static, the two themes are basic and not manipulated
with care, and there is absolutely no nuance in the actual performances,
Trapanese's conducting clearly not inspiring those in front of him. The
mixing of the work (once again courtesy of Remote Control Productions)
is bass-heavy as always, leaving little room for any notable
treble-region elements. String ostinatos are as stale as ever here,
often serving as the only activity underneath very mundane, long-lined
melodic progressions. Occasionally, a harsh edge of synthetic
keyboarding intrudes upon the soundscape in 1980's Vangelis fashion, a
welcome element, actually, given the topic. The score's two themes are
ineffectual, the one featured immediately on piano in "Jack's Dream"
reprised in longer form in "You Can't Save Her." The main identity,
heard first late in "Tech 49" and expanded with
Blade Runner and
Basil Poledouris influences in "Earth 2077," is more interesting. The
sound design portions hint at ingenuity at times, but their presence in
the mix isn't particularly prominent. The action material is extremely
obnoxious in
Oblivion, "Canyon Battle" and its irritating
percussion layer symptomatic of the score's major problem: the
unresolved crescendo. The composers abuse this technique in the score,
ending far too many cues with build-ups to a resolution that never
happens. As such, Gonzales and Trapanese fail to exhibit the ebb and
flow of a score's emotional connections with any sense of organized
precision. That's what happens when composers follow the Zimmer method
of scoring the concept prior to seeing the film, as Gonzales did.
Overall, the score for
Oblivion is nowhere near the spectacle of
Tron: Legacy and, by the slammed percussion at the end of
"Fearful Odds," is somewhat laughable in its stylistic corniness and
compositional incompetence. Some will love the textures because they
don't come from an industry insider, and for those folks, the
140-minute, download-only "deluxe" edition of the album will go well
with their zone-out sessions. For everyone else, the standard 69-minute
version will be more than enough to bore. Both albums come with a song
melodically connected to the score but featuring badly layered vocals
that ruin the singer's appeal. A quest for originality has ironically
yielded the exact opposite.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
The insert includes a list of performers and a note from the director
about the score.
