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| Haslinger |
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: (Paul Haslinger)
The war between vampires and werewolves in the
Underworld
franchise has produced a loyal following and impressive associated
revenue, regardless of its largely meaningless and vacuous plotline. The
franchise was originally meant to be a trilogy, and 2009's
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans represents the third installment
despite being a prequel. It is essentially one giant background story,
explaining the division between vampires and the newly developing Lycans
and the reasons for their centuries-long war. The primary reason, of
course, is a hot babe. In this case, it's the daughter of returning
actor Bill Nighy's vampire leader, Viktor, and the target of her
affections is Michael Sheen returning as the Lycan Lucian. Their
intertwined relationship is one of tortured alliances, and when Viktor
discovers the love between his vampire daughter and Lycan slave, he has
his daughter killed and the war is on. Unfortunately missing from the
majority of
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is lead actress Kate
Beckinsale from the previous two films, though her appeal (and leather
costume, seemingly) is replaced by the necessarily similarly built Rhona
Mitra as Viktor's daughter. Once more defying poor critical response,
the franchise earned enough in this entry to launch development of a
fourth film. One of the selling points for
Rise of the Lycans is
the return of industrial metal composer Paul Haslinger to the franchise.
His score for the original
Underworld in 2003 wasn't the kind of
thing destined to attract much attention from the dedicated film score
collecting community, but it featured a combination of extremely ballsy
industrial rhythms and a forcefully gothic sense of romance in its
deeply morbid explorations. The love theme of that score, "Eternity and
a Day," was embraced so well that it was even used alongside Marco
Beltrami's music for
Underworld Evolution in 2006. Beltrami,
although bringing a more traditionally refined sense of orchestration to
the table, ended up producing a score that was less coordinated (and
certainly less memorable) than Haslinger's, and fans clamoring to
receive the "Eternity and a Day" theme from that film's soundtrack were
left with the original movie's score album as the only source (though
even that wasn't the film version). Hearing Haslinger return to the
franchise was cause for cautious optimism, but despite the extension of
his familiar sound back into the concept, his work for
Rise of the
Lycans is far less inspiring than what he provided before.
Listeners actively seeking connections between the
music in
Rise of the Lycans and that of the original will find
nuggets left by Haslinger in a few places. His uses similar
progressions, instrumental tones, and processing techniques that will
all be familiar. The only outward thematic connections come in the first
two tracks of the
Rise of the Lycans album, the first reprising
the descending chords from "Keep Watch Over the Night" in its opening
minute. The latter is "Lucian and Sonja's Love Theme," and this cue
utilizes the same idea but in its more recognizable, low piano thuds.
Elsewhere, there are brief bursts of rhythm that will recall
Underworld, but nothing with the ferocious power of "Deathdealers
Deploy" or "Metamorphosis." Outside of these references,
Rise of the
Lycans is a missed opportunity despite some maturation in the
application of faux orchestral tones to Haslinger's style over the
previous decade. The highlight of this prequel score is clearly its
first minute, a rendition of the first score's closing theme against a
compelling processed string motif that churns with a sense of
sophistication not really heard before in the franchise. Throughout this
score, you encounter interesting insertions of lines of musical action
emulating an orchestra or choir, culminating in "Per Aspera Ad Astra," a
cue that would have been genuinely interesting to hear performed by a
large ensemble. The revolving rhythm in this cue becomes the default
identity of
Rise of the Lycans and utilizes voices and tolling
chime samples to appropriately entail a gothic, period quality (as
"period" as Haslinger can be, perhaps). The use of vocal effects is
actually quite adept in the score, not simply in the traditionally sung
accents, but especially in the wails and cries that emulate howls at the
moon in the proper key. Unfortunately, the positives end there, for
Haslinger populates the majority of
Rise of the Lycans with
non-descript atmospheric noise. The keyboarding of the quiet cues, as in
"The Most Precious Thing to My Heart," fails to really connect,
suffering from manipulation of the mix that renders the performances
annoying. The surprisingly few outright action cues lack the cohesive
rhythmic form of Haslinger's previous
Underworld music, some of
them so badly processed and layered with slashing, grinding effects in
an atonal way that they become totally insufferable. Such music existed
in the previous score, but it didn't define the majority as it does
here. In short,
Rise of the Lycans is nowhere near as interesting
of a score as
Underworld, and as nice as it is to hear Haslinger
at the musical helm of the franchise once again, the results are sadly
disappointing.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
