FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Transformers: Age of Extinction (Steve Jablonsky/Various)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if the grinding ambient tone of Steve Jablonsky's material for the previous "Transformers" scores is your desire, because that's unfortunately the most significant musical element to survive in this franchise reboot.

Avoid it... if you expect to hear a satisfying continuation of Jablonsky's main anthems from the prior scores, their replacement during a significant portion of this score an unforgivably baffling choice by the composer and director.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Transformers: Age of Extinction: (Steve Jablonsky/Various) Resoundingly poor reviews once again did not deter a public of diminished intelligence from wasting money on the fourth entry in the live-action "Transformers" franchise. With 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction came a pseudo-reboot of the concept on the screen, the previous actors and Michael Bay refusing to return after the original trilogy of films had completed. Lured back to the director's chair for this film (but reportedly not a fifth) was Bay, and the quality of the end result is as unfortunate as anyone might expect. The concept remains much the same despite the reboot, the storyline following basic parameters and characters from the original animated show. Unrealistic and illogical plotlines involving humanity's love/hate relationship with the robots are further explored in Transformers: Age of Extinction, along with the scientific elements that explain the existence of the robots to begin with. It would seem that the franchise will milk suckers of the concept for all it can while there remains a supply of characters to pilfer from the history of the animated show, this time resurrecting Galvatron and the Dinobots for continued warfare. It helps that veteran concept voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are still alive and wagging those tongues; without their contribution, there really remains no meaningful connection to the franchise's roots. One can only predict that this series of films will eventually tumble its way toward a conclusive encounter with the famed planetary-sized transformer, Unicron, in which Earth is consumed, robots shaped like Chevrolet product lines fly off into the great unknown, and nobody has to keep fussing about whiny human collateral. Bay's continued involvement with the franchise reassured composer Steve Jablonsky's reprised role as well, though it was one that eventually tested the stamina and patience of the composer. Largely by Bay's insistence, there were yet more infusions of musical talent from outside sources for Transformers: Age of Extinction, yielding collaborations that Jablonsky contends were career highlights despite his contradictory statements that the creation of this score was a more challenging than its predecessors and made him want to curl up in a ball in the corner of a room.

The collaborators with Jablonsky for the Transformers: Age of Extinction score were highlighted by alternative Indie rock band Imagine Dragons and Sonny John Moore, an electronic dance and sound design producer known more commonly as "Skrillex." Their involvement with the project was not limited to just the song offerings or specific cues within the score; their work represented a true collaboration with Jablonsky in the integral recording of the score itself. Also part of the equation was the usual influence from the Remote Control universe that spawns these scores, with Joseph Trapanese contributing material that sounds, not surprisingly, like carry-overs from Oblivion. Rumors about Hans Zimmer's own personal involvement in Transformers: Age of Extinction abound, but given that all of these people emulate Zimmer's general guidelines and trademarks for film music in this generation, you could conceivably credit Zimmer as a co-writer on all of it. That aspect of emulation is one of two major points to be made about the score for Transformers: Age of Extinction. There is, simply put, very little intellectually new here. Learned film music collectors will hear pieces of Zimmer's works from The Thin Red Line (descending violin counterpoint lines over the main new theme) to Man of Steel (incessantly abrasive, forward mixed percussive slapping) in this score, with most of the foundation owing still to Batman Begins and its successors. Aside from the blatant emulation, the simplicity of this music is astonishingly juvenile, the meters and progressions remarkably childish and allowing only for different instrumental colors to be filled into the existing templates. These scores truly are like a "paint by number" exercise for a child; you start with the skeleton of the picture, formed from the Zimmer library of foundations, and any breathing composer can fill in the pre-chosen colors. In this case, as in many, the colors include one token woodwind performer and the support of the rock band or sound designer. The only interesting new result to emerge from Transformers: Age of Extinction is the effective integration of the Imagine Dragons vocal performances directly into the score, a move that actually makes sense and is surprising to see so sparingly in these high-profile, vaguely (or overtly) Zimmer-related collaborations. Some listeners may balk at the merging of a soundtrack song directly into the score of "Honor to the End," but it actually works quite well.

Aside from the collaboration for Transformers: Age of Extinction, the main point of intrigue of the score is the mutual decision by Bay and Jablonsky to abandon the original trilogy's themes and start from scratch. What possesses people to make such stupid artistic choices? Clearly this is the same franchise as before and the themes, no matter your opinion of them, deserve to persist. Fortunately, the two men realized their mistake partway through the process and inserted the protagonists' prior material in brief snippets during "Have Faith Prime" and "The Legend Exists." Even franchises as devoid of intellect as this one deserve thematic continuity, and Jablonsky's new heroic theme, heard best during "Decision" and "Leave Planet Earth Alone," is completely redundant with the prior power anthems for these robots. The new theme for the bounty hunter "Lockdown" is an absolute mess (try humming that one in the shower for entertainment) and the romantic theme for the female character ("Best Thing That Ever Happened") is generic and underdeveloped. These "Transformers" scores are best when they embrace the dumb simplicity of their themes to the point that they become listenable soft rock/new age material, as in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There is little of that in Transformers: Age of Extinction, aside from the easy duo of "Decision" and "Best Thing That Ever Happened" to start the full album presentation, because Jablonsky and crew are more content to pound away with the Man of Steel percussion during otherwise tolerable anthemic cues. When they dial back the percussion layer, as in "Dinobot Charge," which includes, conversely, a choral layer instead, the results are noticeably better. It remains truly unfortunate that Jablonsky hasn't proven able to capture an industrial instrumental feeling (a la Paul Haslinger) to represent these mechanized characters without resorting to dissonant electronic layers and brute percussive force that strays into dreaded Battleship territory. Despite the asinine nature of the films, these scores have revealed themselves as a tremendous wasted opportunity for instrumental creativity. The score for Transformers: Age of Extinction was somewhat delayed in its album release, prompting Jablonsky to release an extended play of four demo-like tracks prior to the laboriously obnoxious 78-minute full album. The EP tracks, while they do isolate the main themes, are not rendered in satisfactory fashion. The CD version of the full album (the digital version was pulled after 15,000 commercial downloads because of re-use fee limits) was limited to 3,000 copies by La-La Land Records and is far too long for the quality of this score. There has to be a better fate for this franchise than this.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

Extended Play Album:
Total Time: 19:33

• 1. Hunted (5:57) • 2. Tessa (5:45) • 3. Autobots Reunite (2:57) • 4. Lockdown (4:54)

---

Full Download and CD Album:
Total Time: 77:40

• 1. Decision (4:20) • 2. Best Thing That Ever Happened (2:06) • 3. I'm an Autobot (5:06) • 4. Optimus is Alive (2:17) • 5. Cemetery Wind (5:53) • 6. His Name is Shane and He Drives (5:17) • 7. Hacking the Drone (2:05) • 8. Transformium (3:24) • 9. Galvatron is Online (1:56) • 10. Your Creators Want You Back (3:26) • 11. The Final Knight (4:07) • 12. Punch Hold Slide Repeat (2:12)

• 13. The Presence of Megatron (2:51) • 14. Galvatron is Active (4:13) • 15. Have Faith Prime (1:29) • 16. Hong Kong Chase (1:43) • 17. The Legend Exists (1:16) • 18. Dinobot Charge (6:37) • 19. That's a Big Magnet (2:51) • 20. Drive Backwards (2:05) • 21. Honor to the End (5:18) • 22. Leave Planet Earth Alone (3:47) • 23. The Knight Ship (3:21)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert of the CD includes a list of performers and a note from the composer. The cover art is the same for all versions of the album.

Copyright © 2014-2024, 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 Transformers: Age of Extinction are Copyright © 2014, Paramount (Digital EP), Paramount (Digital Full), La-La Land Records (CD) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/20/14 (and not updated significantly since).