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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Rampage (Andrew Lockington)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if your passion for Andrew Lockington's typically solid
fantasy voice can content itself with fifteen minutes of dramatic,
accessibly satisfying music in an otherwise aggravating environment of
glum rhythms and piercing eardrum damage.
Avoid it... if you don't have the heart to hear Lockington succumb to the worst mannerisms of the hyped, Hans Zimmer-led methodology of needlessly manipulating action scores to death.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Rampage: (Andrew Lockington) Despite all the good
intentions of filmmaker Brad Peyton to translate Warner Brothers'
ownership of the classic 1980's video game "Rampage" into a feature
blockbuster, loyalists rejected the unsatisfying plot and the fate of
two of the three famed monsters in the concept. In the video game, the
player could choose one of three monsters with which to annihilate
cities while evading military counterattacks. It was simple fun, and
it's understandable that many players maintain soft spots for all three
creatures. In the 2018 film adaptation of Rampage, the script
provides a nefarious, terrorist (otherwise known as "corporate")
experiment in domination to explain how the three creatures came to
exist and offers a conveniently Dwayne Johnson-like protagonist to lead
the charge against them. This anti-poaching, special forces muscleman
(otherwise known as the liberal crusaders' dream) is a friend of the
albino gorilla, George, that is unwittingly infected with genetic
material falling from space and becomes the massive King Kong-like
destructor of his destiny. Meanwhile, a wolf and crocodile also become
infected by chance and are summoned, like George, to Chicago to party
like there's no tomorrow. The movie would have been far more interesting
if a canister had fallen on Donald J. Trump while he was golfing,
mutating him into a giant orange furball that attacks his own towers;
the international box office for that version of the script would have
been monumental. As it stands, however, Rampage proved itself
just too dumb for even young, post-9/11 audiences seeking senseless
skyscraper flattening and associated mass death. One of the more
humorous retorts to the movie was from German director Uwe Boll, himself
a veteran of video game adaptations, who declared Warner Brothers'
endeavor a detraction to his own, unrelated Rampage films by
declaring the 2018 venture "one of those typical feel-good, popcorn
bullshit movies that the studios use to brainwash America." Despite all
the negativity or indifference about Peyton's misfire, film score
collectors could at least take solace in the director's continued
support of talented Canadian composer Andrew Lockington.
While Lockington's career dates to ample success prior to when Peyton inherited him for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island in 2012, much of the composer's notable production in the six years following was tied closely to film and television projects either directed or produced by Peyton, including the 2015 blockbuster San Andreas and some strong work for the television series "Frontier" starting in 2016. While Lockington has provided competent scores for others during this time, he has yet to completely break through into the mainstream without being attached to Peyton, the notable exception being Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Nevertheless, Lockington, like Peyton, is a child of the Steven Spielberg/John Williams generation of movie magic, and an assignment like Rampage affords him the opportunity to reteam with veteran orchestrator and conductor Nicholas Dodd to produce what listeners continue to hope will build upon the massive fantasy success of his two Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise scores. Not surprisingly, Lockington took his preparation to the extreme for Rampage, travelling with his omnipresent black hat to regions around the world to assemble the sounds he would employ for this score. There are recordings of wild howler monkeys in Costa Rica, stretched and manipulated to sound like grating, metallic sound effects. There's a Ugandan children's choir (actually in America) that was, at times, itself stretched and manipulated to sound like grating, metallic sound effects. There are extensive brass and percussion overlays that are processed to sound like grating, metallic sound effects. And then there were the vintage 1980's video game's own 8-bit monophony sounds translated into a new library to play like grating, metallic sound effects. While Lockington has provided some tough soundscapes in his lesser-known scores, including in the horror realm, this marks the first time electronic manipulation has truly come to define a major work for him. To counter these techniques, he does employ over 100 orchestral musicians, with massive brass and low string sections recorded separately, and the Ugandan singers do provide regularly enunciated innocence for one of the score's themes. Likewise, Polynesian rhythms influenced unusual meters for the recording, a nice plus on the whole. Casually, a film music collector could assume that the wild collection of ingredients in Rampage was set to yield some combination of Max Steiner's King Kong and James Horner's Mighty Joe Young, but this finished product by Lockington proves once and for all that having all the best ingredients (and yes, intentions) doesn't always resonate with audiences when assembled. One of the more interesting criticisms of Lockington from some score aficionados has been a seeming inability by the composer to write memorable themes. There are usually themes present in his work, but their structures aren't always deemed accessible for some reason. Rampage will exacerbate this perception for many. Indeed, there are two extensively referenced themes in this score, but there's so much layering and processing in the mix that it's not surprising for audiences to completely miss them. Even enthusiasts of Dodd's trademark orchestrations will struggle to hear them thrive in more than just two or three later action cues. In the past, Lockington's weaker action scores have been generic in their worst passages; here, he has finally managed to produce music that is damn near unlistenable in many sequences. His exploration of electronic manipulation, likely to address both the video game heritage of the concept and the science within this particular script, has led him directly into the trap set by Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, the founding headquarters of unbearably processed noise masquerading as fashionable blockbuster music. Honestly, most of the score for Rampage sounds indistinguishable from a typical Remote Control flame out, and perhaps the film, in retrospect, would have enjoyed just as much success with none of Lockington's research and the totality of the dependably mind-numbing libraries of Steve Jablonsky, Ramin Djawadi, or Lorne Balfe instead. Peyton counters by stating that the score "blends elements of horror, comedy, action, and adventure while not losing the heart and intimacy that fuels the entire enterprise. Andrew has done a beautiful job of not just blending these elements, but also evolving the ideas, and elevating the music to something that I could never have initially imagined when we started this process." That's splendid support from the director, but these men somewhere forgot the key Spielberg/Williams ingredient: distinctive connectivity to the audience. Where Lockington does marginally succeed for Rampage is in the dichotomy he nourishes between the downright nasty action sequences and the comparatively heartfelt cues for the relationship between Johnson's lead and George the gorilla. His two themes are also relatively attractive, if not enunciated to satisfaction so that their evolution can be fully appreciated. The film's primary identity is an anthem worthy of the Remote Control collective, its intelligent 11/8 meter countered by tired ostinatos over a juvenile set of chord progressions that begs for comparisons to Jablonsky's Transformers identities. (Lockington should know better than to start on key and climb immediately to a delayed minor-third chord in these circumstances. Trevor Rabin already juiced that one.) This theme, representing the ballsy concept as a whole, is summarized in the trailing title cue, "Rampage," where it does finally experience some smart and cohesive symphonic force in the latter half. It takes a long time for Lockington to reach that point with his main theme, however, its initial full performance occurring at 0:06 into "Gorillas" before being joined by ebullient, ethnic counterpoint from the choir at 0:22. That counterpoint line is faintly reprised without the voices as a motif of its own at 0:03 into "Paavo" before returning to a reverent, full rendition of the main theme at 0:44 that isn't heard with such clarity again until the "Rampage" arrangement. A subtle exploration of the etnic portion of the idea is quietly expressed at 0:10 into "Lab." This theme takes a back seat to Lockington's other idea until the end of "Cornfield," when, at 2:57, it enjoys Jablonsky Transformers treatment without shame. At 0:45 into "Team," the main theme returns on cellos and Lockington finally unleashes it at 0:43 into "Grenades" with positively pounding percussion akin to Zimmer's Backdraft. After stewing around with the progressions in "Requiem," the composer reprises a final heroic rendition of the theme at 2:43. More frequently referenced by the composer is his comparatively dramatic theme for the bond between human and gorilla leads, identifiable by its slowly descending bass chords in each instance. You hear this theme's underlying chords initially at 3:51 into "Space" and the melody itself for the first time at 0:55 into "Calm." The progressions of the theme return alone at 4:08 into "CRISPR," strings intentionally slurring the notes together, a technique joined by ostinatos and choir during the progression's appearance at 5:07 into "C17." The "Cornfield" cue toils with the underlying chords of Lockington's dramatic character theme for Rampage as the choir flirts with the actual melody in various guises. Hints of the descending lines occupy the end of "Chicago" and an emotional moment at 1:48 into "Team," though a brief action variant bursts out at 2:15 into "George" as a foreshadowing of the full development at 1:22 into "Showdown." The theme achieves catharsis at 0:31 into "Requiem" before occupying "Saved" after the 0:42 mark. It serves its purpose but certainly doesn't hold the emotional weight that one would expect. There are other singular, tonal moments of interest in the score worth mentioning, beginning with a propulsive action variant at 1:04 into "Kate" that features some strong French horn counterpoint. The middle of the "Antennae" cue contains a potential villains' theme or, at the very least, an effective suspense mechanism. A massive fanfare at 0:55 into "Showdown" is sadly orphaned. These points of interest, along with the thematic development, may not salvage the score for listeners turned off by the truly wretched processed layers. While a cue like "Space" might not offend much in its manipulations of the children's choir, later action cues are sometimes obliterated by grinding, pitch-defying effects. Some of these are undoubtedly the sampled wild howler monkeys, but one can't really distinguish them individually. Starting in "Wyoming," otherwise solid orchestrations are eaten alive by processed distortions. Lockington builds up to deafening crescendos in several battle cues, often allowing a varying, completely unnecessary trailing effect in the bass ("C17," "Quarry," "Team," "Grenades") that sounds like a failing piece of mechanical equipment. The long, Dunkirk-inspired crescendo of torture concluding "Energyne" is beyond dispiriting. Even the otherwise attractive "Requiem" cue contains two interludes of stuttering, pitch-challenged effects that nearly ruin the moment. That cue also has one of several odd cuts in the various overlays; at 2:14, the electronic effects at the forefront suddenly end and are replaced jarringly by an otherwise organic, melodic passage. Overall, a trained ear can pick out keen thematic development and immense underlying orchestrations at times in Rampage, but this is not the right kind of score to demand trained ears. This music is not going to connect with many listeners because of its muddy melodic enunciation and sometimes ridiculously overthought manipulations. Still, enthusiasts could take heart in lossless download options and a belated international CD release. Just try not to wince upon hearing such a talented composer crank out generic, Remote Control aggravation. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 72:48
NOTES & QUOTES:
The initial digital releases of this album contain no packaging.
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