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For listeners hoping to encounter continuity in Red 2, Silvestri doesn't carry over Beck's solid main theme, but he does adhere to many of the same basic styles and retro sleaze attitude at times. He employs a sizable orchestra, but it's smothered by the synthetics and percussion, his industrial tone striving at times for raw, Paul Haslinger spirit. For the vintage connections, an electric bass, acoustic and electric guitar, Hammond organ, and drum kit provide elements of coolness. Ethnically, there's a vague duduk influence in opening cue, but that's about it. The use of electronic manipulation amid staccato movement is highly abrasive in some cues and unusual for the composer, the techniques sounding like a stylistic blend of David Arnold's Die Another Day and John Powell's The Bourne Identity. On the retro side, the 1980's-styled comedy in "Marvin at Work," "Dressed to Kill," and "Bomb Sunset" is sufficient. Despite all this potential for rocking awesomeness, not to mention constant looped movement through most of it, so much of this score is just plain dull, the structural ideas never developed in any direction. For Silvestri enthusiasts, the music resurrects the quality of Cat's Eye, Identity, and Shattered, though there are glimpses of the composer's typical style that survive, including the striking double-taps of the snare in "Paris Chase" and a singular moment of traditional action without much interference near the end of "London Chase." Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Red 2 is that Silvestri did coin several motifs but fails to enunciate them clearly enough to make a difference, the muddy narrative foreshadowing the unnecessary melodic meandering of Welcome to Marwen. There's a combination of rhythm and two phrases that constitute a main theme, and this is the only lasting identity in the work. From there, Silvestri confuses with his applications of motifs for intrigue and the overall journey of the characters, the latter also seemingly attached to the villain. There are additional singular ideas thrown at the canvas throughout, ranging from seeming character representations to a vague military motif for one of the groups of adversaries in the tale.

Ultimately, though, most listeners will only notice the main theme of Red 2. It doesn't make any attempt to pull even hints from Beck's primary identity, though Silvestri does potentially emulate some of its descending phrasing in other passages in the sequel. With an aggressive, underlying, John Powell-inspired rhythm on various loops and droning on key, the actual theme consists of an admittedly catchy three-note fanfare burst around key followed by a seven-note string phrase also weaving around key. There was much potential in this tandem, but neither portion of the theme evolves with any satisfaction in the score, making it an exercise in memorability by simple repetition. The rhythm dominates all of "Main Title" while the three-note opening debuts at 0:18 a few times from the ensemble. The full, seven-note theme follows at 0:37, and the two are paired thereafter, but whatever cool sophistication that this whole cue could have exuded is diminished by the annoying manipulation to the soundscape for the rhythm. That pace-setter struggles to get started in "Safe House" but has success late in "Speaking of Sarah." A variant of the melody is briefly explored twice at the end of "Han" while the rhythm stutters slightly in the first half of "To Paris." The theme's three-note fanfare opens "Paris Chase," yielding to the rhythm without manipulation, and the seven-note figure returns a few times in "To London." Both the fanfare and string phrase erupt at 2:02 into "To Moscow," and the former becomes dramatized early in "Hole in the Wall" before the longer phrase is adapted as well. The main theme figures at the start of "Catacombs" in full form for both parts of the theme, but the rhythm alone stumbles through start of "Entering the Embassy" prior to the fanfare blurting in the cue's middle; the same rhythmic hints continue for the sneaking around in "Plumbing." The entire theme returns at 0:36 into "London Chase" under the journey theme as counterpoint, and the rhythm propels "Bomb Sunset," but that finale cue otherwise offers no wrap-up for the theme itself. On the CD edition of the soundtrack, a synthetic version of the opening track in "Main Title (Synth Demo)" ironically sounds just as effectively annoying as the final rendering. At least this placement allows the album to provide closure to the idea, which was missing in the score itself.

Among the secondary motifs, Silvestri's nebulous intrigue motif uses basic ascending figures for a sense of mystery. They debut against the muted but abrasive rhythms in "Safe House," are barely heard at the slow start to "Victoria Calls," achieve a little more volume early in "To Paris," and factor early in "To London" on strings. This motif then opens "To Moscow" with abrasive, Bourne-like personality, dances through "Sarah the Guard" with some lightly vintage caper personality, and meanders in the background of "Catacombs" before a stately phrase late. It contributes to the light drama in the first half of "London Chase," becomes a muscular action motif early in "Dasvidaniya," and joins the main theme's rhythm at the start of "Bomb Sunset." The journey theme for suspense is an even tougher nut to crack, very slight on brass above the final main theme performances of "Main Title." It contributes at the outset of "To Paris," takes a different form throughout "To London," proceeds during the first minute of "To Moscow," dabbles in the latter halves of "Catacombs" and "Entering the Embassy," and formally overlays the main theme once again in "London Chase." Even less cohesive motifs include one for the corrupt military forces in the story, a vaguely noble, ascending idea, almost like a Marvel holdover with its slapping snare drum. Silvestri places this one on brass at 0:13 into "Pentagon" before throwing singular phrases at the listener for the rest of the cue, and the idea is reprised faintly at 2:01 into "Hangar Fight." The rhythmic motif for the Han assassin is quite distinct, a harsher, metallic rhythm in "Han," "Han Plane Gone," and "To Moscow" continuing with even more explosive power in "Hangar Fight," where it becomes extremely obnoxious. Finally, there's the obligatory, soothing character theme on guitars to open "I Need You Frank," but this idea doesn't offer much sincerity (probably by design), and thus isn't very convincing as a sensitive end for the "Bomb Sunset" finale. Overall, Silvestri had the right idea for Red 2, but the lack of Beck's main theme and really poor execution of the new identities makes this work highly dispiriting. It's an extremely challenging listening experience regardless of your opinion about post-production manipulation, the mercilessly long album presentation offering few engaging moments. The limited CD provides the one bonus demo track that was not included on the digital product. Silvestri thankfully did not explore this mode further in the next decade.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written for the Film:  **
• Music as Heard on Album:  *
• Overall:  *

Bias Check:

For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.21 (in 68 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.16 (in 43,717 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.