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The same exact problems that plagued the music for "The Bible" continue in Son of God, but who cares about that as long as money is to be made off of pious fools and Zimmer collectors who can't tell when an orchestra is fake? When it comes to Christian history, Zimmer's team didn't even make a sincere attempt to address these biblical events with any of the intellectual authenticity or sense of timelessness brought to the table by Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, Elmer Bernstein, Jeff Danna, or John Debney for the topic in the past. This music could have been written about any general fantasy or drama topic, maybe even one on a foreign planet. As written in the review of "The Bible," Zimmer's crew "takes themes and instrumental and vocal treatments from Gladiator, The Prince of Egypt, The Da Vinci Code, Crimson Tide, and Klaus Badelt's The Promise (strangely enough) and pieces them together into a 'greatest hits' collection of standard Zimmer sounds. Gerrard's vocal tones are pure Gladiator, the ostinato crescendos are pure The Da Vinci Code, the marginal instrumental exoticism is pure The Prince of Egypt, and the male chorus is pure Crimson Tide." Along the way, you also get references to The Peacemaker and Brian Tyler's Children of Dune. All of the franchise's themes are horrifically derivative, and they are rendered by the best synthetic imitations of an orchestra and voices that Zimmer could buy for his studio. Cranking up the reverb is a reliable technique to hide the lack of nuance in the performances, and there's certainly more than enough echoing here to make cathedral dwellers happy. Zimmer's team simply doesn't understand that this period in history isn't a video game or military exercise worthy of anthems and overblown tonal majesty. By bloating the environment with the volume and posture of their synthesizers, along with the token usage of voice and specialty instruments of the region, like a duduk, to lend credence to the affair, they're simply playing to the worst stereotypes of Christianity. There is no subtlety or elegance to this music... only power and then more power.

In terms of the music in Son of God specifically, expect very little course correction and, in fact, very little new music at all. Most of this score is simply repeated from "The Bible" wholesale, though the arrangements and sound quality are improved in some tracks, either due to a tweaked mix or the selection of an alternate rendition. One telltale sign of the methodology here is that the ghostwriters are all credited as arrangers in this case, and you can easily get the impression that existing music or related alternate edits were simply dropped into sections of the film where they would fit. If you were annoyed by the insensitive and inauthentic tone of the album for "The Bible," you'll be even more bothered by the product for Son of God. Let's try to forget the two heinously inappropriate remixes at the end of the product that throw contemporary coolness where none is merited or expected. (The lyrics of these two songs are so awful that they're actually pretty funny.) Of the roughly 50 minutes of remaining score material, only 14 minutes of it is unique to this album; the rest come from exact or similar renditions in "The Bible" with the track titles mostly remaining the same. It's likely that these "new" passages are simply unreleased cues from the prior series. The anthem theme is reprised identically in "In the Beginning" with no change to the mix. The faith theme is reprised very similarly in "Faith" and nearly identical in "Rise Up in Faith." The nativity theme still sounds stolen from Tyler's Children of Dune and Badelt's The Promise, and it's reprised in "Roma's Lament" but with Gerrard's voice far more prominent in the mix. The prior score's "The Nativity" is reprised in "Promised King" here as well. The "Hope" theme from the prior score returns as "Peace Be With You." Finally, the "Peacemaker" theme, for lack of a better description for the wailing Gerrard vocals in this piece, are reprised wholesale in "I Am." Unique to this score is the material from The Price of Egypt that returns in "Truth" while cello performances struggle against muted atmospheres in "The Upper Room." The anthem theme is explored a bit further in lesser shades in "Fisher of Men," and the nativity theme is provided with even more The Prince of Egypt instrumentation during "Through His Eyes."

Gone from this score is all the more interesting ethnic and emotionally diverse material that rounded out the previous one, including the percussive locality of the prior score's "Journey," the atmospherics of "Zedekiah's Sons" and "Daniel Prays," and the suspense and action of "The Road to Jerusalem," "Pentecost," and "King David." Also missing is the quiet beauty of "Pray For Us" and "Free Us, Save Us." For those Zimmer enthusiasts whose testicular production goes into overdrive for his power anthems, the rousing, militaristic reprise of the anthem in "Creation Choral" from "The Bible" is also gone, leaving this score with the faith theme as its sendoff rather than more "CheValiers de Sangreal" glory with Crimson Tide erections from the choir. Those cues in "The Bible" actually gave that score some semblance of a typical narrative that addressed all the emotional corners of the topic. Conversely, Son of God, with all of those darker modes excised, plays like a concept album that has nothing to do with any narrative on screen at all. It's glorified concert music for Zimmer to play on stage, and how it applies to this historical moment is irrelevant. Of course, none of this griping is the main reason why listeners should shun Son of God on album. The illustrious makers of the product decided to lace most of the album with quotes from the main characters in the film, and this dialogue is placed over Zimmer music that is not always available without such mindless drivel on the product for "The Bible." The volume and mix of the dialogue don't even match that of the music, the (impassionately) spoken lines thrust too far in the forefront and afforded none of the reverb of the underlying music, causing it to absolutely dominate the soundscape at random intervals as any ambitious proselytizing attempt will strive for. Not only will secular listeners of Zimmer's music be pissed off, but even devout Christians not bothered by such nonsensical blathering who simply want to enjoy the music will be left without recourse. Ultimately, the soundtrack for Son of God is a waste of time, a money grab of re-used material from "The Bible" which, like most exclusive religions that cause mass death around the world, has fatal intellectual flaws. The album for this film is a souvenir for the gullible audiences that actually appreciated the propaganda on screen. For the rest of you well-reasoned thinkers out there, pay it no mind whatsoever.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83 (in 123 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.95 (in 298,424 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars. For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83 (in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.86 (in 23,387 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 57:11