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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Suicide Squad (Steven Price)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you approve of the dark Hans Zimmer and Tom Holkenborg
style of writing for the DC Comics cinematic universe but seek a more
flamboyantly stylish rendering of that general sound.
Avoid it... if you demand functional substance behind the style in your blockbuster hero scores, Suicide Squad living up to Steven Price's established keen sense of sonic texture but fumbling the potential of its themes and motifs.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Suicide Squad: (Steven Price) Somewhere between the
explosive financial success of the DC Comics super-villain spin-off
Suicide Squad and the election of Donald J. Trump as the
President of the United States came the proof in 2016 that people
apparently don't care about measured substance as long as the angry
glitz factor in their lives is cranked to the max. The "extended DC
universe" of films inspired originally by filmmaker Zack Snyder was
affirmed by the immense returns for Suicide Squad despite
widespread critical disdain and clear storytelling weaknesses, literally
countless cinematic ventures involving individual characters of the
universe slated to appear in their own films later in the 2010's . In
Suicide Squad, a number of villains in the universe are newly
introduced to audiences as they are assembled by the usual shadowy
government entities to fight together against some common threat to
humanity. In return for their services, which, in this case, involve
chasing down the archeologist-turned-sorceress trying to punish mankind
for some personal offense, their prison sentences will be reduced. As
expected, backstories are slim on depth and allegiances are tested
constantly. The only really intriguing point of interest in the story is
the odd love affair between the Joker and Harley Quinn; otherwise, the
script was pretty universally bashed. Director David Ayer returned to
composer Steven Price for the score for Suicide Squad having
enjoyed some perceived success together on 2014's Fury, Price's
only other feature film score since his inexplicable Academy Award win
for 2013's Gravity. Price's ascent to the mainstream after years
toiling on the crews for many major composers is the stuff of dreams,
though the quality of his music has not, at least in his first three
efforts of note, matched the hype. In the case of Suicide Squad,
he dives into the ultra-messy world of comic book adaptation scores that
has been a severely hit and miss prospect over the previous decade.
Clearly, his aim was to lean towards the darker, arguably more
fashionable brooding of the Hans Zimmer and Tom Holkenborg vision of the
realm, a tact that meshes with the style of his scores for Fury
and Gravity without significant alteration. Unfortunately for
Price, studio efforts to salvage the film led to extensive late edits
that included the dropping of many of his cues in favor of the style of
rock songs that propelled the more popular song soundtrack for the
picture.
The most obvious impression that Price's work for Suicide Squad will leave with you is a confirmation that the man prioritizes the sonic textures of his palette over strong structural development of a musical narrative. He has all the right tools, instruments, and voices available to him in this score, and he throws them at you with relentless, sometimes senseless zeal, generating a score that has the sound of a winner but never the heart of one. The electronic manipulations in this score aren't as obnoxious as in his prior major efforts, but they are replaced with pounding drum kit explosions that are mixed too far to the forefront. Solo and ensemble voices, along with duduk, piano, cello, and other instrumental colors, are, conversely, pushed to the back of the mix, negating their potential compelling impact. The only exception is the cello, which addresses the melodramatic undertones of the character origins at times with vaguely romantic appeal. Grating electronic layers of dissonance are less prevalent here, thankfully, and the bubbling tones of the synths are actually pretty nicely handled throughout some of the conversational cues. The orchestral ensemble is still restrained to the usual Zimmer-inspired string ostinatos and low brass emphasis in most places, regurgitating predictable rhythmic devices when the need for anticipation and momentum is demanded. Like Price's other works, Suicide Squad can be interesting to digest when it is more contemplative, the Joker and Quinn subtheme in particular ("Arkham Asylum," "Harley and Joker") the easy highlight of the score in its tortured drama and use of voice and percussion. On the other hand, the majority of the work seems rather aimless, the motifs for all the characters extremely simple and likely reminiscent of past scores for avid film collectors. Other than the aforementioned, painful love theme, the character motifs in Suicide Squad are substandard and, worse yet, barely recognizable for the casual listener. Even the main theme and its underlying rhythm are somewhat silly in their constructs, Price pulling heavily from Jerry Goldsmith's Rambo: First Blood Part II for the main theme heard in five or six cues. He commits the terrible sin of writing a primary theme that isn't as memorable as its more obvious introductory rhythmic riff; that rhythm, which only utilizes two notes, is where the ass-kicking of the score truly comes into play (think back to the drum kits), and Price at times utilizes the rhythm without the main theme. Expect some mainstream listeners to misidentify the riff as the actual main theme for the film. Together, one would think that the main rhythm and theme for Suicide Squad could realize their significant potential quite easily, but their primary arrangement in "Task Force X," among other places, fails to really convey them with any impressive symbiosis aside from the outburst late in "The Squad." In fact, the main theme may be difficult for some listeners to grasp at all in the opening track on album, the idea revealing itself better in the latter half of the work. While a majority of the score meanders without much purpose after its initial few cues of interest, Price does adhere to one of Zimmer's early 1990's trademarks as opposed to those of the 2000's and beyond, and that's the morbid dramatic tonality that keeps much of the music basically accessible. A cue like "Are We Friends or Are We Foes?" is, structurally, a juvenile and rather stupid construct, but the tonal dedication to key makes the cue, in its rock, orchestral, and choral coloration, basically entertaining at the very least. The only distraction in this adherence comes with some likely incidental similarities to Zimmer's The Peacemaker. The last few cues in the score fail to reach any meaningful catharsis, "Are We Friends or Are We Foes?" seeming like the better natural ending to the album experience. Instead, the final few tracks do draw out the meter for a little added emphasis on the dramatic, but there's no sense of resolution from any of it. In the end, it's not surprising to see the intellectuals of the film music world continue to criticize Price for concentrating on style rather than substance, and that's a very valid point when considering the unrealized potential that you can hear in Suicide Squad. It would not have been too difficult to rearrange this score into a really awesome product, especially when it came to handling its mix. Price does need to refine his ability to enunciate and develop his motifs to better ends, because that functionality of the music is clearly an area of improvement he needs to explore. All of that said, though, the stylish rendering of his music here, along with the valid attempt to combine rock and orchestral elements, will alone make the score more attractive to many soundtrack collectors than the totally depressing muck generated by Zimmer and Holkenborg for equivalent films of the era. As a listening experience, Suicide Squad is much superior to Gravity and Fury despite its flaws. The generous score-only album contains music that was replaced by songs in the film and, while lacking in narrative, does remain consistent for better or worse. It's hard to make the case that Price shouldn't be encouraged to score another of these comic book films, if only to work on improving his structural issues to match his clear knack for style and texture. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 72:33
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers but 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 Suicide Squad are Copyright © 2016, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/3/16 (and not updated significantly since). |
