Orchestrated by Steve Bartek, Edgardo Simone, David Slonaker, Mark McKenzie, Jeff Atmajian, Pete Anthony, and Robert Elhai

Conducted by Pete Anthony

Produced by Danny Elfman

Release Date: June 17, 2003

               Decca Records
 

     With the Marvel Comics franchise running full steam these days, it's a little disappointing that the scores for these films aren't any better than they are. This is especially true given the names behind the music. Who would ever have thought that the day would come when the community would bemoan the fact that Danny Elfman would be handling another superhero film? With the announcement that he would score Spider-Man (naturally because of Sam Raimi being in charge of that one), fans anxiously awaited what they hoped would be a harkening back to the glory days of his two Batman scores. Alas, Spider-Man was a mixed bag, and with X2: X-Men United and Daredevil being lackluster as well, it seemed up to Mychael Danna to save the day with his score to Ang Lee's stint with The Incredible Hulk

     But such was not to be. With all the uproar that various leaks from the production caused, Danna found himself replaced late in post-production by Danny Elfman. Such a move itself caused some controversy as many were looking forward to someone like Danna who could provide a new insight into the whole superhero mystic. But now that all is said and done, we are presented with an album that has the words "Music by Danny Elfman" plastered on the front. But it's not that Hulk is a total disappointment. Danny Elfman has been a talented composer since day one and Spider-Man contained plenty of his quirky compositions that we all know and love. Of course, with the film one might think that it calls for a grandiose, even epic, scoring approach, but when taken as the film that Ang Lee actually created, it's sometimes hard to argue with what ended up musically.

     Far from the rip-roarin', meanie-greenie action fest that some might have been expecting, Ang Lee's take on the Hulk is more akin to a Greek tragedy. Sure there are action sequences, but even those are pushed aside in the first third of the film, instead giving way to more emotional issues concerning high-brow philosophical concepts. Such a film does not lend itself to the kind of score that fans were hoping to get with Hulk, but what Elfman provides does work in that respect. The Main Titles start out appropriate enough, with the string work that Elfman is known for along with the electronic bass from Spider-Man. It's also here that we get the first sampling of the musical "Asian sensibilities" that Elfman stylizes the score with in a way that imbues a mystical air. Prologue continues on in the same vein, while introducing the wonderful voice of Natacha Atlas who provides more of that mystic quality and is generally used to great effect. Captured throws the listener into the ethic compositions heavily for the first time, making use of a wailing Atlas and driving percussion. The horns that take over mid-cue are some of the best brass work I've heard from Elfman in a long time, going a long way to making this one of the top cues of the score.

     But with all the hits, Hulk scores just as many misses. There are plenty of tracks that just glide along without being too noticeable. Even the action cues are lackluster, consisting of strings and the electronic backbeat without any thematic work. Many of the more quieter moments are scored with filler (and the occasional Asian-style outburst), where thematic usage is painfully omitted.