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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Skyline (Matthew Margeson)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek a guilty pleasure that competently borrows
many of the basic ingredients and structures from the scores for
Transformers, Independence Day, and Alien
Resurrection.
Avoid it... if intellectual curiosity is your aim, for Matthew Margeson's major debut score makes no demands of you on its disappointingly jumbled album presentation.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Skyline: (Matthew Margeson) You have to laugh at
veteran visual effects supervisors who become directors of
science-fiction thrillers and think that their goods deserve a
theatrical release instead of the more comfortable fit for them on
television. Unfortunately, in the case of Colin and Greg Strause,
audience gullibility has proven them right; despite absolutely dismal
reviews for their two best known endeavors, Aliens vs. Predator -
Requiem and Skyline, their work manages to suffice at the box
office and encourage some distributor to send such trash to thousands of
American theatres. The Brothers Strause, as they call themselves, intend
for 2010's Skyline to be the first in a franchise devoted to the
concept, bankrolling the productions themselves and waiting for that
inevitable distributor. That would explain the film's extremely sour
ending, leaving room for yet more of this alien invasion tale to
continue stealing elements from other concepts in the future. In a
nutshell, Skyline tells of mysterious alien ships that hover
above Los Angeles, shine an alluring blue beam of light to hypnotize
humans, and then vacuum them into their vessels so that their brains can
be removed and used as batteries. The military responds, of course, but
these sequences are only an excuse for gratuitous action effects. As in
Independence Day, the solution to the problem will have to be
unconventional. Like that 1996 precedent, of course, Skyline is
filled with shallow character narratives that utilize their individuals
as pawns that can be squished, blown up, or had their brains removed
without a second thought. It shouldn't be too surprising, therefore,
that the soundtrack for Skyline also looks back at
Independence Day as a point of reference. It was initially
reported that Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem composer Brian Tyler
was set to score Skyline, though ultimately the production had to
turn to an obscure Hans Zimmer team clone and record the orchestral
portion of the score with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. All of
this was likely done for budgetary reasons, a significant disappointment
for those hoping for Tyler to whip up some apocalyptic symphonic force
for the occasion. Instead, the assignment proved to be the debut on the
major feature stage for 30-year-old Remote Control assistant Matthew
Margeson, whose career had included arrangements and additional music
for a variety of Zimmer studio collaborations going back a couple of
years. In other words, Margeson is one of those many faceless
ghostwriters to toil in the depths of the Zimmer clone factory before
finally get his big break on a laughable project that couldn't afford
better.
The resulting music from Margeson for Skyline is precisely, therefore, what you'd expect to hear being churned out of the famous production house these days, but with the twist of having some clear inspiration from David Arnold. In the most basic sense, one could say that this music has all the basic ingredients and mannerisms of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers scores, but tries hard in moments of frenetic action and momentous awe to emulate the more impressively organic nature of Independence Day, an appropriate blend given the film's equal pull from both sources. In every way, Margeson competently executes his assignment, providing a score that would probably impress many if the film had been relegated to a television debut as it should have been. It uses a mixture of orchestral bravado and synthetic sampling in ways that show him to have completed his homework at Remote Control. The formula is followed with precision, from the string ostinatos to deep piano thuds, ensemble hits, lots of minor third progressions, simplistically satisfying themes, seemingly sampled voices, obnoxious alien-sounding effects, and even an Iron Man-inspired rock adaptation of the theme for the end credits sequence showing stills of promised human ass-kicking vengeance ("Damage Control"). On the positive side, the guilty pleasure moments of harmonically lovely sorrow ("Abduction" and "Ship Down") and faster variants with snare rhythms and brass heroism galore ("The Cavalry" and "Final Battle") are easy to digest and, in the latter case, exhibit the Arnold similarities. Also somewhat palatable are moments of contemplation, as in "Loss of a Friend," though these cues do nothing to rectify the film's problem with character depth and empathy. The suspense and horror portions of Skyline, on the other hand, are largely unlistenable, mostly due to the fact that their generic constructs are often overlayed with extremely challenging synthetic effects that are meant to sound alien but instead simply make you search your house to determine what major appliance is failing. Sound effects very much like this existed in John Frizzell's Alien Resurrection and are nearly impossible to appreciate as part of the music on an album experience. Other detriments to the album presentation of Skyline include a few distracting performance errors (the brass flub at 1:52 into "The Cavalry" is most unfortunate) and a non-chronological ordering of tracks on the 52-minute album that ruins the narrative flow of the composition. What's odd about the ordering of the product is that Margeson didn't even pull a Brian Tyler technique and concentrate all the best material at the start. In the end, Skyline is basic, serviceable music for a low-budget film and will appeal to those who soak up the Transformers scores in the absence of intellectual curiosity.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 52:25
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Skyline are Copyright © 2010, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/22/10 (and not updated significantly since). Question for the aliens: Would Stephen Hawking's brain supply more battery power than Sarah Palin's? |
