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Fiedel's music for the first two films varied from highly effective to highly underachieving. Few viewers criticize the first film's original score, for it represented the era and cult environment of the story well. When the sequel launched directly into the mainstream on a huge budget, however, Fiedel's mundane collection of sound effects and limited elaboration of the first film's themes and motifs caused widespread disappointment that would continue with his subsequent underachievement for True Lies. The score for Terminator 2: Judgement Day offered two or three statements of Fiedel's ironically compelling and lyrical theme, as well as a return of the heart-stopping percussive rhythm that represented the terminators themselves. Otherwise, it was lacking in basic cohesion outside of the textural constructs that remain popular with some listeners even today. Beltrami did not adapt Fiedel's theme into Terminator 3 on the whole, whether by choice, direction, or legality. Nor does he offer the same staggered percussion rhythms that brought the terminators to life in the previous films. Instead, Beltrami starts from scratch for Terminator 3, armed with nearly 100 musicians from the Hollywood Studio Symphony and the singers of the Hollywood Film Chorale. For fans who disliked Fiedel's electronically simplistic approach to the other Terminator scores, the prospect of Beltrami breaking into the mainstream limelight with a massive orchestral score was exciting. But alas, this ranks alongside Eric Serra's Goldeneye as one of the greatest missed franchise opportunities in the Digital Age of film music. The result of Beltrami's effort is an equally mundane underscore that offers new themes and supporting motifs, but little dynamic enthusiasm in performance, instrumentation, or spirit. The narrative of the franchise is not only somewhat disjointed on screen because of the shift in crew, but definitely in the music, which carries a few basic characteristics through the entire run but not much else. Musically, Terminator 3 doesn't frighten or exhilarate the listener, and unfortunately, it seems as though Beltrami fell into the trap of composing music that accompanies the action mood rather than assisting in establishing it.

The part of the equation that defies logic with Terminator 3 is how a score with such lofty goals and over a hundred performers could end up sounding so confined and understated. The lack of power and weight behind the composition and orchestrations by Beltrami, Pete Anthony, and others, is startling. An extremely dry mix doesn't help. After the score begins with a promising choral introduction and a driving percussive statement of awe and terror, the music becomes flat throughout the rest of its length. Despite the quantity of talent involved, the score is repetitive, underdeveloped in its rhythms, and not scary to the least degree. Chase cues, which are grand opportunities to create whopping rhythms of electronic and orchestral power, are accompanied by incoherent rhythms that never establish enough of a presence to get your adrenaline rushing. Emotional interludes for the contemplative scenes are performed at very low volumes, causing problems with consistency on album. Lacking in evocative emotions, the secondary string theme desperately cries out for more of a voice, especially in the almost comatose cello and choir performances in the pivotal "Radio," a cue that was meant to represent the start of the famed resistance. Beltrami's theme for John Connor is curiously devoid of any memorable aspect. Stated briefly in full during action sequences, the theme is given a very troubled off key performance during "JC Theme," a cue that is mind-bogglingly repetitive and patience testing. The "T3" cue offers this theme, as well as the string theme as an interlude, in full, with the orchestra backed by a chorus and Beltrami's own interpretation of the percussive terminator rhythm. Mainstream listeners may find the theme appealing in its simple construction, playing heavily upon familiar minor thirds, though it does repeat itself without particularly intelligent development. But film score fans may be troubled by some obvious similarities between this theme by Beltrami and John Ottman's title theme for Apt Pupil. With an estimated 80% overlap in pace, tone, and note-for-note melody, the nearly identical nature of Beltrami's Terminator 3 theme may be disturbing for film music veterans, and especially so for dumbstruck Ottman collectors. The sparse atmosphere of the recording of this simplistic theme will likely send listeners seeking Ottman's superior alternative.

Although the statement of this primary thematic idea by Beltrami in "T3" may be troublesome, the fact remains that it is easily the most memorable cue from the score regardless of its origins. Its tone certainly fits the menacing nature of this franchise's bleak outlook on the future. On the other hand, however, the bareness and unadorned character of the rest of Beltrami's underscore jostles the title theme further out of place. An emotional constraint and reticence to engage causes several cues to lose their intensity and thus their effectiveness. There is no steely, modern edge to Beltrami's music to match some of Fiedel's better cues (such as "John and Dyson into the Vault" from the second score), and the metallic sound effects employed here exhibit no sense of futuristic style. On album, over forty minutes of the score is generously presented before one interpretation of Fiedel's Terminator themes (which, after being disappointed by Beltrami's score, is like hearing an old friend return with glory). But the two-minute recording of the original Fiedel theme is equally lifeless, despite the larger recording group. Several orchestras around the world have done much better symphonic justice to the idea through the years. The album finishes with two songs, the first by Beltrami and the second by Mia Julia Schettino. This is one of the rare situations in which the songs are considerably better than the score. Their optimistic and upbeat nature doesn't match Beltrami's work whatsoever, producing problems with continuity and raising more befuddlement about the entire production. Why couldn't Beltrami translate the emotionally engaging theme directly from his song into his score? The Mia Julia performance of the second song is equally romantic and easy on the ears. As the album stands, the songs are an awkward glimpse of heart at the end of an album that will otherwise leave you cold and bored. For a film with such a romantic undertone in its unlikely love story, this score gives humanity absolutely no sense of hope whatsoever. Ultimately, the muddled underscore is perplexing in its inability to excite, tantalize, or terrify. Even so, orchestral score fans may find Terminator 3 to be more accessible than Fiedel's previous entry in the saga. The disgruntlement remains, however, for strict Terminator fans who have waited far too long for a new Terminator score that powerfully and forcefully does what it should: kick ass.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Marco Beltrami reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.75 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.8 (in 19,011 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 51:30