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Review of X-Men: The Last Stand (John Powell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you enjoy over-the-top superhero scores with ambitious
thematic development, frantic pacing, and extremely dense action.
Avoid it... if you consider heavily layered and occasionally brutal orchestral action scores obnoxious in their sheer noise levels.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
X-Men: The Last Stand: (John Powell) In what has
been reported to be the final film inspired by Marvel's comic series of
mutants on Earth, X-Men: The Last Stand depicts a final
confrontation between mutants and humanity caused by renegade powers and
claims of a "cure" for the mutants. With the stakes raised to epic
proportions, the franchise's third film installment blew past box office
earnings records for the first weekend of a release. One undoubtedly
inflated aspect of X-Men: The Last Stand is its score by John
Powell, a composer following the same success as former collaborator and
friend Harry Gregson-Williams in solo, mainstream blockbuster
composition. The X-Men franchise has suffered the unfortunate
fate of rotating between filmmakers for each of its entries, causing an
inevitable switch in musical identity for each picture. The third film
brings a third composer and distinct style; the late Michael Kamen's
score is still considered by many to have best captured the dark and
brooding atmosphere of the comics, while John Ottman's effort for the
second picture gave the mutants their first readily useful theme. In
John Powell's position, a composer has to make the difficult choice
about what elements, if any, should be salvaged from the previous
scores; some artists refuse to even listen to previous scores in a
franchise while others intelligently reprise previous motifs or write
news ones that maintain significant enough similarities to the previous
scores to continue the same identification for audiences. Examples of
both attitudes of approach happened through the years with the
Batman franchise, for instance (Hans Zimmer and Elliot
Goldenthal, respectively). Powell's choices for X-Men: The Last
Stand were limited, for Kamen's score didn't offer much of a
thematic identity to work with. But on the surface, while Powell's title
theme for the third film is unique in its own structure, it does share
similarities with Ottman's title theme for X2, perhaps
intentionally... perhaps not. Whether or not you prefer your sequels to
all maintain a musical identity, the music for the X-Men films
has done remarkably well without an overarching theme or other motif,
with both Ottman's X2 and Powell's X-Men: The Last Stand
serving as fine stand-alone scores. Many fans will argue, with good
merits, that Powell's score is the strongest of the three.
At the very least, whether you decide for or against Powell's score, its sheer complexity will impress you. Almost every moment of the score is overblown in its underlying emotion. Roaring action pieces defy your ears with their frenetic pacing and orchestration, tragic interludes pour on the harmonic resonance with unashamed beauty, and thematic statements abound with easy, in-your-face identification. While the explosive action cues will attract many listeners, the development and use of the three themes are the real treat of the score. Powell's title theme is immediately introduced with whimsy by strings in "20 Years Ago" and is launched into your expected super-hero form in "Bathroom Titles." A fast-moving bed of somewhat stereotypical snare and timpani yield to the highly layered brass theme over what could be a record-setting use of gongs and cymbal rolls, rattles, and crashes. This theme would occupy most of the playtime in the first half of the score, during which Powell provides some of its more interesting variations in volumes that your ears will appreciate. The secondary theme of X-Men: The Last Stand, and perhaps its highlight, is introduced with great care in "Whirlpool of Love," and this rhythmically elegant theme for the "Phoenix" character would eventually overshadow the rest of the score in its full performances (over the same percussion as the main title theme) in "Dark Phoenix's Tragedy" and "Phoenix Rises." A third theme, one of remembrance and hope stands out from the rest of the score in "The Funeral" and the opening of "The Last Stand." Its sorrowful, deliberate strings are a 180-degree turn from the remainder of the score, though effective in their own right. Each of these three thematic elements will remind you of other film scores, and perhaps not negatively, but the similarities may bother some listeners. Powell's title theme uses pacing and percussion techniques that borrow some of the contemporary "coolness" of Danny Elfman's hero themes (and Spiderman most notably). The slightly ethnic structure and instrumentation of the Phoenix theme will recall the Mummy franchise. And the theme of sorrow for strings seems most heavily influenced by John Barry's trademark string layers and Jerry Goldsmith's "Trees" theme from Medicine Man. Other motifs exist in X-Men: The Last Stand, too, including one introduced in the third cue and reprised in the final suite; if you listen with enough intent, you can hear that Powell's usage of thematic ideas in the score is extremely intricate. The score's only significant detraction is caused by Powell's apparent attempt to weave all of these ideas into an incredibly complex tapestry that often involves layers upon layers of both harmonic and dissonant sounds at once. The action pieces in the latter half of the score are impressive in scope, but tiring to the ears after a while. Whether or not you can readily enjoy these cues likely depends on how carefully you attempt to identify each line of performance in the whole. If, for instance, you decide to follow the activities of the four flute players, you could go mad trying to keep up with their nearly chaotic activities, fluttering about wildly like pesky insects above each action piece. The various percussive elements seem to suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder at times, with layers of drums, an anvil, the ever-present cymbals/gong, and the array of light metallic percussion all making your head whirl with independent, seemingly random performances. If you instead step back from the score and tune out the individual lines as a method of being sucked into its overall product, then X-Men: The Last Stand could be a more enjoyable listening experience. It's a score more ambitious in rendering than any in Powell's career, with a dozen orchestrators and arrangers, a huge ensemble, and a choir, and Powell seemed intent on utilizing every last player whenever he could. He seems to do well balancing that fine line between rowdy action music and mere noise, with the score tending towards the former in most cues. But there will be justified listeners who will hear nothing more than incongruent rhythms and disjointed performances within sections, and they'll disregard X-Men: The Last Stand as the product of a composer attempting too hard to inject power into an already impressive concept. Fantastic in its thematic development, relentless pacing, and complex orchestration, this score sounds like its franchise predecessors on steroids. Someone should have tested John Powell for Orchestra Growth Hormone after writing this one. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 61:27
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a note from the director about the score,
as well as a list of performers and extensive photography from the film.
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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 X-Men: The Last Stand are Copyright © 2006, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/9/06 (and not updated significantly since). |
