Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: (Jongnic
Bontemps) Encouraged by the positive reaction to the authenticity of the
2018 film,
Bumblebee, Paramount struggled to determine if the
"Transformers" franchise should continue with a direct sequel to that
movie or take a somewhat parallel path. The studio ultimately developed
ideas for both and produced a combination of the two, the setting of
2023's
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts still shifted to a time
prior to that of the original 2007 live-action movie but not as loyal as
Bumblebee to the original cartoon series. The filmmakers opted to
add 1980's characters related to the 1986 animated film and the "Beast
Wars" spinoff, pitting these characters against each other on Earth in
1994. One could argue that these movies remain viable only so long as
Peter Cullen lives to voice lead Autobot Optimus Prime, who teams here
with a handful of his regular, car-masquerading cohorts and their
animal-fashioned allies, the Maximals, to defeat forces aligned with the
universe's foremost anti-environmentalist, the planet-eating Unicron. Of
course, there has to be a random selection of dorky humans who get
caught up in the action, none of who get conveniently stepped on by the
massive robots. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of
Transformers:
Rise of the Beasts is its distinctly multi-cultural characters,
story, and crew helmed by director Steven Caple Jr. That infusion of
African-American and Latin personality affects both the film's songs and
original score as they address the 1994 Brooklyn and Peruvian settings.
Caple Jr. pitched Paramount to hire his college buddy and
Creed
II collaborator, Jongnic Bontemps, to write the score for this
seventh "Transformers" movie, but the studio was understandably
skeptical. The African-American composer had built studio technology for
major composers and dabbled in composition on a few feature films, but
he was otherwise a total unknown. A massive enthusiast of the
"Transformers" concept, however, Bontemps wrote ten minutes of original
demo music for an epic "Transformers" sound and recorded it at his own
expense with a 40-piece orchestra in early 2021.
Paramount, which had received popular music from Steve
Jablonsky and Dario Marianelli for the prior "Transformers" live-action
movies, looked at a variety of options though tentatively agreed to hire
Bontemps in the end, but only if he worked on Paramount's lot in a
studio created for him on site. Bontemps admits to the immensity of the
challenge, and with Caple Jr. he ultimately spent two years of
development with a score that yielded several failed attempts, including
a style of sound design for the film that was rejected due to a lack of
human element. Ultimately, the two agreed that the approach taken by
Jablonsky for the first five films was the safest route to take. Because
of the setting and human characters, though, not to mention the
personality of the Autobot Mirage, the composer merged a traditional
orchestra with both expected synthetics and what he calls the "grooves
of Brooklyn" to help audiences better connect with the story and its
robots. He relied on his own hip-hop experience for the 1994 Brooklyn
setting, and employing a Roland 808 drum machine was important for the
scenes placed there. But the setting of Peru for the other half of the
film was trickier, so Bontemps hired a variety of Latin-American
instrumentalists and consultants for that sequence of music,
supplementing ethnic woodwinds with a modified contrabass saxophone and
rubber tire drum set. All of this was layered onto a 74-member orchestra
of brass and strings only, including a 25-piece brass section with no
trumpets. Six percussionists and the composer's highly processed
electronics round out the performance. There is a touch of Ludwig
Göransson influence in the bass thumping effects heard at times.
Less palatable are the synthetic add-ons, actual animal growls at 2:21
into "Switchback Chase" and an elephant noise at 3:49 in that cue
serving more as sound effects than music. A cue like that contains an
excess of annoying digital manipulation, a clear but harsh attempt to
address the mechanical element of the robots. An outright transforming
sound is amusingly distracting at the outset, 0:48, and end of "Volcano
Battle." Such applications are not unexpected in the Jablonsky
tradition, but they do sound cheap. Listeners have heard these
processing techniques throughout the last ten to twenty years, and it no
longer impresses artistically.
One of the more interesting aspects of Bontemps' score for
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is its very dry and surprisingly
treble-heavy recording that saps much of the life out of the score. For
a composition that has a fair amount of overlapping thematic ideas, the
soundscape is shallow and doesn't offer much separation in the layers.
Everything sounds maximized and pushed forward in the mix, with no
nuance to the various lines of musical action. Even the choir applied
for moments of awe and fantasy struggles to spread the music out. In
essence, this technique makes the score sound dumber and more raw than
the composition would actually entail. Some of this rather brutish tone
may owe to the lack of a wind section and trumpets in the orchestra
(thank Hans Zimmer for supporting the myth that such instruments don't
belong in these scores), though the absence of a resounding bass region
for a score in this franchise is surprising. Ultimately, Paramount hired
Steve Jablonsky as a consultant and producer near the end of the scoring
process to assist Bontemps in interpolating connections to his first and
fifth scores in the franchise, even if the general booming sound makes
no genuine appearance at all. The irony in all of this intrigue over the
general sound of the score is that Bontemps actually developed a
remarkable slate of themes for
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
He creates five major new identities, one minor motif, and brings back
two ideas from the franchise's past. There are very few moments in this
work when at least one of these ideas isn't being expressed, and the
composer sure-handedly overlaps them with skill as the work progresses.
The quality of the new themes ranges significantly, with one knockout
winner and several others, while not particularly memorable, functional
enough to make the connections for viewers of the movie. The new themes
exist for the beast-inspired Maximals, the villainous Terrorcons and
their leader, Scourge, the Autobots, the humans and their relationship
with Mirage in particular, and a secondary motif for the coveted
Transwarp Key that attracts all the attention in the story. That motif
for the Transwarp Key provides the fantasy element of the score in very
small doses, heard on bowl-like effects at 0:16 into "Museum Heist" but
expanding to its primary duties on similar chords at 0:04 into "Hiding
in Plain Sight" on flute and in choral fantasy mode early in "The
Cave."
Among the new major themes Bontemps crafts for
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is one of impressive strength
for the Maximals set of animal-like robots, and this powerful melody
easily produces the best material in the score. Debuting at 0:13 into
"The Maximals" on massive low brass before shifting to strings, this
entire concert arrangement-like cue rotates through various guises of
the theme. It abruptly cuts off the villain material at 2:17 into "A
Long Time Ago" in continued suite-like form but returns at 5:04 with
brave stature. After a prolonged absence, the theme returns at 0:56 into
"Switchback Chase" on brass but dominates with repeated like-minded
renditions at 0:10 and 1:23 into "Saving Elena," adding choir for flair
and shifting to solo cello over those voices for a sad passage in the
middle. From there, the theme often overlaps others, combining quietly
with the Mirage/human theme at 0:49 into "One Last Stand" and featuring
nice development of the pair of identities together later in the cue.
The secondary phrasing of the Maximals theme takes a sharper, heroic
focus near the cue's end. It extends out of the Autobot theme at 1:15
and 2:07 into "The Final Battle Begins" and serves as a string interlude
to that theme at 0:59 into "No Matter the Cost." Remarkably, the
Maximals theme is applied as a brass interlude to Jablonsky Autobot
theme at 0:40 and 1:47 into "Humans and Autobots United." At the
opposite end of the quality spectrum is the music for the Terrorcons and
Scourge. Defined by ample electronic grinding, scraping, and groaning
noises, this identity is a duo consisting of a metallic cry, as opening
"The Maximals," and the only slightly more sophisticated theme proper, a
menacing three-note figure wavering around key. The cry motif and theme
debut at 1:45 into "A Long Time Ago" with annoying dissonance, both
returning at 3:42 while the theme is offered on distorted electric
guitar in awful torment. It closes the cue against fragments of the
Mirage/human theme. This material continues its association with the
Unicron music in "Unicron/Scourge" the theme on electric guitar at 1:13
under the cry effect; the theme stews in much of the rest of the cue
before its big moment with its full progressions (a fourth and final
note) at 3:13. The cry is adapted to a string-like mode early in "Battle
at Ellis Island" but rediscovers its true metallic form at 1:01 before
the theme itself strikes at 1:09 for a few verses and eventually duels
with new Autobot theme.
The persistence of the Terrorcon and Scourge material in
this score is almost too prevalent and at times cartoonish in its
pinpointed references, especially as the work progresses. The rising cry
effect is a bit more subtle in the middle of "Fallen Hero." Thereafter,
though, the cry wails at 1:36 into "The Cave" and 3:07 into "Switchback
Chase," the latter introducing the theme. The cry interrupts the drama
with menace at 2:52 into "The Village," is toned back at 0:38 into
"Saving Elena," and opens "The Final Battle Begins" in layers as the
theme mutters in the background. The theme opens "Unicron Approaches" on
low brass and returns in "Volcano Battle," joined again by the cry.
While this music isn't really that attractive, Bontemps counters it with
perhaps his most unnecessary idea: a new theme for the Autobots.
Especially with Jablonsky's franchise theme for the Autobots returning
at the end, the use of a completely separate identity for the same
characters seems odd. Perhaps the strategy postulates that a prequel
like this hadn't yet "earned" the franchise theme, and yet the
characters are the same, their situation is the same, and they're doing
the same things. But Bontemps went that route anyway, using his original
demo theme for the film as a new Autobots identity. It's not a bad
theme, but don't expect to remember it like you do the Jablonsky
original. It's a bit shallow in the rendering due to its lack of
enhanced bass, and it curiously espouses the characteristics of an
old-school buddy cop show melody on television. The theme debuts with
swagger at 0:10 into "Autobots Enter," that whole cue providing a
summation of the idea. It overlaps the Scourge/Terrorcon material at
1:44 into "Battle at Ellis Island" on noble brass, is elongated but
scaled back in tone during "Fallen Hero," and continues at 1:20 into
"Arriving in Peru" prior to the ethnic performances with brass over
flute and percussion. The Autobot theme rises out of the action at 0:44
into "Switchback Chase," persisting late in the cue, and toils with the
villain themes at 0:47 into "The Final Battle Begins." It turns anthemic
at the end of "Home Team" along with Mirage/human and Maximal fragments,
is heroic at 0:31 and 1:53 into "Volcano Battle" over groaning synthetic
tones, opens "No Matter the Cost" with revised chords and ultra-noble
brass later, grunts in labor at 0:29 into "Till All Are One," follows
the Jablonsky Autobot theme to close out "Humans and Autobots United,"
and overtakes the Mirage/human theme with force at the end of "Here's My
Card."
The theme for the humans and Mirage receives the most
variance of any new idea in the score, its four-note cycle guiding "What
Are You" proof that its resolution notes are merely optional. This
material is where Bontemps supplies the most hip-hop influence, albeit
somewhat muted, in the early passages of the score. Hints are littered
into the Maximal theme at 3:18 into "A Long Time Ago," transitioning to
a harsh brass tone at 5:25 against the Maximal theme again. It barely
informs the softly cool ambience of "More Than Meets the Eye," emerges
in pieces at the start of "Mirage" (yielding to a simple melody on brass
above), becomes a skittish action motif in the middle of "Museum Heist,"
and takes on even more hip-hop elements in "Chris Meets Mirage" while
trying to stay subtle. The theme guides the rhythms in the middle of
"Hiding in Plain Sight" before a crescendo at the end, intermingles with
the fantasy material early in "The Cave" while adopting a heroic choral
mode, and nicely balances hip hop and Peruvian elements in the first
half of "The Village" before taking a more dramatic stance on strings in
the middle of that cue, including a seemingly obligatory solo cello
passage. It builds inspiration at 0:46 into "One Last Stand," merges
with the Maximal theme at 2:07 into "The Final Battle Begins" for hip
action, provides quiet string resolution in a variation during "Home
Team," adjoins the Jablonsky material at 0:58 into "Humans and Autobots
United," and develops nicely in the middle of "Here's My Card" with
smooth vocal backing. The Jablonsky franchise theme sounds like a forced
insertion even though Bontemps stacks his new themes directly against
it. It's hinted early in the frantic action of "Switchback Chase" (and
possibly the rhythmic formation at the cue's end), charges forth
suddenly in the second half of "Till All Are One," displacing the new
Autobot theme, and opens "Humans and Autobots United" in familiar tones
with chugging strings and choir. Even better is the composer's
resurrection of Vince DiCola's theme for Unicron from the 1986 movie
(co-written by James Newton Howard, no less), adding a new rhythmic
formation to it. The first four notes from DiCola are always referenced,
the fifth one sometimes present. Instead of reprising DiCola's
octave-hopping bass rhythm, though, he provides an accompanying
synthetic rhythmic motif at 0:40 and 2:17 into "Unicron/Scourge." This
rhythm slowly appears at the outset of "A Long Time Ago" while the
descending DiCola theme returns to breathy synths at 0:40. It becomes
huge at 1:18 over the rhythm with percussion, that cyclical motif
returning under other villain material later in the cue.
Further into
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,
the breathy synths from DiCola's 1986 score reprise their familiar role
for the Unicron theme at 0:08 into "Unicron/Scourge," the idea gaining
size as expected at 0:46. The theme is heard on organ-like tones at 0:24
into "Unicron Approaches," where it is nicely and dramatically
re-harmonized, and the fifth note from the original DiCola progression
is added to complete the theme. The rhythm alone reappears at 1:36 into
"The Final Battle Begins," and listeners hoping for fleeting references
to DiCola's octave-hoping bass rhythm for Unicron may just hear it on
brass at 2:44 into "The Final Battle Begins" as well. The inclusion of
this DiCola identity, especially in a form so easily recognizable from
the 1986 score, is truly this score's biggest treat, even if its role in
the work is rather minimal and its performances are often accompanied by
the frequently unlistenable Terrorcon and Scourge intrusions. On the
whole,
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is a curious entry that
can't seem to decide what type of score it wants to be. Marianelli
clearly sought a new path for
Bumblebee, and it worked. Bontemps
took two years to develop various iterations of this music, and he
couldn't seem to determine how much of Jablonsky's music to openly
emulate, and judging from Jablonsky's hiring by the studio late in this
process to help things along, it's not hard to figure that the studio
was challenged with this question as well. (Someone probably raised the
prospect of asking Jablonsky to write replacement music.) When you
consider this work as a mainstream blockbuster debut, you have to
commend Bontemps for his thoughtfulness and immense thematic complexity,
regardless of your opinion about the quality or necessity of those
themes. There's much to like hidden in parts of this score, but in sum
it's a workmanlike result with surprisingly few highlights. The
synthetic manipulation and sound effects are a substantial detriment
that is almost demanded by this concept, though its outsized role here
for the villains disqualifies some cues apart from the film. The
65-minute score-only album is out of film order but doesn't overstay its
welcome. Lingering dissatisfaction with the extremely flat recording mix
leaves perhaps the most lasting impression, the players providing all
the expected tones but the whole sounding unrefined and blunt in its
layering. A subsequent vinyl option offered five additional tracks. A
"Music That Inspired the Score" album in 2024 is extremely raw,
abrasive, and unnecessary, though it does offer a glimpse of unused
Prime and Unicron material. As a promotional tool, this score will serve
Bontemps well, though, and any quibble with the spotting and mixing
doesn't reflect poorly on some of the impressive aspects of this music.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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There exists no official packaging for either of the Milan Records albums.
