 |
Gregson-
Williams |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine: (Harry Gregson-Williams)
With a troubled production from the start, it should come as no surprise
that
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was widely considered a generic and
pointless venture in its final form. Controversy surrounding the
competence of director Gavin Hood erupted when Richard Donner was
retained by 20th Century Fox to help clean up some of the script's
action sequences, resulting in several re-shoots. Still plagued by a
messy ending, the production suffered from poor press and an
embarrassing leak of a work print of the film. Still, despite the
entry's arguably needless place in this cinematic franchise, the
character of Wolverine from Marvel Comics' "X-Men" is among the most
popular to ever exist on the printed page, and by its positioning at the
outset of the 2009 summer season,
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
cracked the $100 million mark with ease in under two weeks. The primary
complaint regarding the film's execution involved its lack of depth,
operating like a vehicle to haul the audience from one action sequence
to another and disregarding any complexity in dialogue or underlying
reasoning. This trait carries over to Harry Gregson-Williams
understandably formula score for
X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Luckily, among the mass of composers to come from the side of Hans
Zimmer, Gregson-Williams is among the most talented, allowing for even
his formula scores to occasionally transcend the muck expected for films
of this limited intelligence. The history of the music for the
X-Men franchise hasn't been consistent by any means, but it has
managed to avoid the most mundane levels of mediocrity that inhabit the
music for franchise counterparts
Daredevil and
Iron Man.
Michael Kamen's brooding but effective score for the original 2000 film
was brightened by John Ottman's exploration of more upbeat heroism. By
the time John Powell entered the equation for the third entry, the topic
was ready for a fully apocalyptic identity, one served well by Powell's
very dynamic score. The task at hand for Powell's former collaborator
didn't allow for much continuity in the music for
X-Men Origins:
Wolverine, if any at all. The individual characters in the franchise
have never been blessed with a consistent musical identity, and when
combined with the perpetually shifting composition duties,
Gregson-Williams was left with the only sensible avenue of action:
starting from scratch. As such, don't expect to hear any meaningful
connections between this score and its predecessors.
If you value continuity in your franchises, a concept
that was tested significantly with the release of the rebooted
Star
Trek a week after this film, then know that the few nuggets of
familiarity built into the script of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
don't translate into its score. This music is once again a clear attempt
to merge the gothic elements of a broadly rendered orchestra and adult
chorus with the harsh, industrial side of contemporary coolness and
technology. Better than most, Gregson-Williams manages a decent balance
of these elements in his work. There are two-minute sequences that are
impressive in their ability to lay a harmonic choral performance over
pleasant synthetic loops. At the same time, the score does predictably
degenerate into nonsensical ramblings of the latter element, often
taking its slashing metallic side to intolerable levels of scratchy
noise. Sometimes in the orchestra alone and occasionally buried in the
mass of ticking, thumbing, and groaning sounds from
Enemy of the
State are a pair of relatively appealing themes. The first is, not
surprisingly, for Wolverine. Its muscular brass statement in the opening
summary of Logan and his half-brother's lives is better than expected,
staying loyal to the character through the final cue of defiance after
his memory has been lost. More interesting, as you might imagine, is the
romantic subtheme for Logan's love interest, developed extensively in
"Kayla." Although somewhat cold in its distant renderings, a nice touch
of warmth is offered by a piano in that cue. The composer's insertion of
a dying rendition of the idea at the end of "Memories Lost" is likewise
compelling. Otherwise, the application of themes is typically
overwhelmed by distant cries of electric guitars and the standard string
ostinato effects that both Zimmer and Powell have popularized in the
2000's. Often times, as in the performance of the title theme by full
ensemble in the waning moments of "Special Priviledges," the more
interesting and cohesive explorations of the best ideas in
X-Men
Origins: Wolverine are unfortunately abbreviated. The most
irritating modern effect of them all is included at times as well; the
artificial, sudden stops or accentuated backwards edits of a single note
are particularly irritating and, at this point, aged beyond their
usefulness as a shock tool. Overall, Gregson-Williams' score is the kind
of formulaic application of music to a substandard superhero action film
that will most likely be dismissed by those outside of his loyal
collecting group. That's a fair response, though this score is better
than many to grace similarly underachieving films of the era. Approach
with low expectations and you might be rewarded.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Harry Gregson-Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3
(in 40 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.98
(in 55,210 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a list of performers and plenty of photos of actor Hugh Jackman's
freakish vascularity, but no extra information about the score or film.
