Even though the trailers looked rather cool,
this is one film that I am just ho-hum about seeing. I've heard a lot of
mixed reviews of it, and I'm just not interested enough to plunk down four
dollars unless I'm just bored out of my head and I happen to drive past a
theater that is showing it. More than likely, I'll catch it when it comes on
television or when (and if) a DVD release out. And even then it's going to be
one of days when I just want to watch something.
James Newton Howard's score to this film is an
enigma to me. Everything I love about film scores is in here: huge
orchestra, heavy/chaotic action music, great choral pieces, and those nifty
little "jungle sound" instruments that are so prevalent in these
genres. I like parts of this score a lot, but overall I found it to be
rather bland, though I can't just put my finger on the reason. The themes
are good and Howard utilizes them to great effect, but they could've been
better, and some of the action cues dive into the horror style of scoring (The
Carnotaur Attack). Raptors/Stand Together is one of the best cues in
this category since it is highly similar to John Williams' score to
The
Lost World: Jurrasic Park. Actually, the quieter, thematic stuff is
where this score really prevails, but for some reason it just seems to play
along in the background most of the time. There were only a few times when
the music became gripping enough to catch my attention.
The killer is that some of the tracks are are
absolutely terrific. The Egg Travels contains that wonderful little
sequence from the trailer and is easily on of the best cues on the whole CD.
The African tribal-styled chorus bits are really fun and they always appear
in a joyous tone. The orchestra is big and Howard scored some really
nice flourishes for it (the best ones being in, of course, The Egg
Travels). The main theme gets a generous amount of playtime in the more
subdued (almost to the point of pastoral) tracks and it is always a real
treat when it pops up. I guess the main problem with this score is that it
should've been more epic than it came across as being.
Howard fans will probably enjoy this a lot. I'll
have to admit that, overall, I really do like this score, it just has some flaws
that cause it to fall short of a being a true masterpiece. For those of you who would
like to check it out, I'd recommend that you sample a few tracks first, or
even check it out in the film itself. It has quite a lot to offer, but
sadly, just not enough. ****
