FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Thunder Force (Fil Eisler)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you appreciate fun, undemanding parody action scores that aren't afraid to blend genres liberally and overstate the silliness of their themes.

Avoid it... if constant battles in tone between orchestral heroics and irreverent metal guitar and percussion leave you with no inclination to extract your preferred mode.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Thunder Force: (Fil Eisler) Comedies involving Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, are the kind of distraction destined to appeal to vast swaths of bored Americans at home collecting unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Never mind the truly awful quality of Thunder Force or that it ranks among the worst of superhero parodies. The movie dominated Netflix streaming stats for weeks on end in early 2021, supplying audiences with the notion that big girls can squeeze into superhero costumes and kick ass just as well as anyone. The plot of the movie proposes that cosmic rays in 1983 bestowed upon some people superpowers and turned them evil or otherwise neurotic. Such wonderful folks are deemed Miscreants. A respectable scientist played by Octavia Spencer invents a way to inject people with a serum that gives them the same kind superpowers, and, most predictably, her pesky and annoying friend, Lydia (McCarthy), accidentally injects herself with this cocktail. Over the following month, the scientist trains her troublesome buddy and the two ultimately venture forth as the still bumbling "Thunder Force" to solve the issue of the Miscreants and their dastardly deeds. In their way are an evil super-babe named Laser and a wicked mayoral candidate nicknamed "The King," whose goal, naturally, is to run the place into the ground. A variety of other ridiculous characters scamper through the narrative, including a targeted Miscreant with crab arms (Jason Bateman, humiliatingly) who Lydia inconveniently falls in love with. It's all silly, tongue-in-cheek shenanigans that culminate in a big bomb going off and a day being saved. Rock guitarist turned film music composer Fil Eisler has become the in-house guy for these Falcone projects, seemingly having fun at his work and showing promise with his music for the previous year's Superintelligence but mostly earning the bulk of his paychecks in the monotony of television series. In recent years, he expanded his horizons with a concerto for violin and orchestra.

The score for Thunder Force requires the kind of wholesale superhero parody tone that the likes of John Debney, Christopher Lennertz, or Theodore Shapiro would have tackled in the past, but this assignment's crossover into the rock and metal realms made Eisler even more comfortable in his role. Since McCarthy's character is a big fan of metal music in the story, the composer infused that style upon a standard orchestral and choral palette for a hybrid score that works well enough for the occasion but doesn't truly tax your brain. In soundtracks like this, you have to expect constant, sudden shifts in tone and momentum, and Eisler's approach offers no exception. Eisler used his connections to hire a number of guitarists, percussionists, and others to form a band that performs the soundtrack's affectionately annoying metal end credits song, "Thunder Force." Two of those performers, guitarist Scott Ian of the band Anthrax and drummer Dave Lombardo of the band Slayer, carry over their contributions to a score that is otherwise largely symphonic. Eisler offers glimpses of true orchestral prowess at times in Thunder Force, though the short cue lengths never allow this score to truly take flight. The orchestrations are reasonably sharp but the recording is lackluster, the guitar, percussion, and brass pushed too far forward in the mix and other performers deemphasized, giving the impression that the score is offensively inelegant in its major cues. The work starts stronger than it finishes, too, with the last third rather tepid and underplaying the climax. Still, Eisler graces Thunder Force with an intelligent set of themes, and these provide enough interest overall. The main idea is revealed immediately with great amusement on noble trumpets and then fuller brass in "Thunder Force Suite." It's reduced to light percussion and strings in "The Stanton Building," briefly mingles with Lydia's material in "6AM Day Two," and realizes full fanfare mode with guitars in "Super Suits." Its statement in "Like Thunder" disappointingly builds up to nothing. A nicely rendered jazz variant on the idea exists in "I Like 'em Thick" and extends to "Boom." (Think about those two cue titles together for a moment.)

The main theme's greatest symphonic and rock glory bursts forth in "In the Public Eye" while faint references late in "Boss Battle" are replaced by a lofty crescendo sending off the heroes at the end of "Thunder Force Out." Lydia herself inspires most of the generic rock and metal music in Thunder Force, her irreverent tones heard in "Lydia Goes Apeshit," "Training Begins," and "Seems Like Overkill," transitioning into action mode in "The Diner Attack." A friendship theme for the two leads proceeds via a piano-led intro with strings in "Angel Wings," is a bit underplayed in "The Special One," culminates in a dramatic highlight of the score in "Thought This One Through," and supplies some ambient pleasantness in the middle of "Thunder Force Out." The villains' material intertwines for both Laser and The King, opening "This Town's Gonna Get What It Deserves" with the score's best rendition of the theme. It's slightly sinister but mostly ineffective and offering no gravity at 2:40 into "Thunder Force Suite." By "Enter Laser," the theme is expanded with rhythmic and rock flair, and "Social Visit" presents it with woodwinds and xylophone to form the score's most sincerely creepy moment. A quietly reserved rendition stews to close out the identity in "It Feels Like I Need to Kill Them." Together, these themes' development is fairly constant in the score, but don't expect any of them outside of the main Thunder Force theme to leave an impression, nor do they smartly engage with each other. Eisler doesn't have the opportunity to truly flesh out the flashy main identity due to the plot's haphazard pace, the opening suite confining the theme's best appeal to just a minute in length. Major differences in volume from track to track on the 56-minute album should have been addressed prior to the presentation's final approval. That product features 32 cues and the end credits song, revealing the fragmented nature of the score. Overall, this parody music is more than competent for a B-rate film like Thunder Force, but although the composition checks all the right boxes, Eisler's execution leaves the listener wondering what's missing. The best music in this genre is massively larger than life, and his recording is too shallow and sparse to compete well with that competition. Expect to roll your eyes more than once.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 56:31

• 1. Thunder Force* (3:42) • 2. Thunder Force Suite (5:26) • 3. This Town's Gonna Get What It Deserves (1:32) • 4. Angel Wings (1:12) • 5. History of the Miscreants (1:15) • 6. Lydia Goes Apeshit (0:35) • 7. What Does This Button Do? (1:43) • 8. Enter Laser (0:58) • 9. Super Person (1:22) • 10. The Stanton Building (1:02) • 11. Training Begins (1:04) • 12. Seems Like Overkill (0:33) • 13. Social Visit (2:37) • 14. 6AM Day Two (1:10) • 15. Cooked (1:02) • 16. Go Time (1:14) • 17. Super Suits (0:33)

• 18. Purple Lambo (1:18) • 19. The Diner Attack (2:59) • 20. The Special One (2:06) • 21. Training Complete (1:04) • 22. Like Thunder (1:14) • 23. I Like 'em Thick (1:12) • 24. Hold It Calamari (0:56) • 25. Boom (2:50) • 26. In the Public Eye (0:51) • 27. It Feels Like I Need to Kill Them (2:09) • 28. Dumpster Fight (0:51) • 29. What Brings You By (0:48) • 30. The Crab (1:38) • 31. Boss Battle (5:30) • 32. Thought This One Through (2:14) • 33. Thunder Force Out (2:26)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There exists no official packaging for this album.

Copyright © 2021-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
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 Thunder Force are Copyright © 2021, Milan Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/20/21 (and not updated significantly since).