| Iron Monkey |
| Composed by James L. Venable |
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Produced by James L. Venable and Ford A. Thaxton Release Date: 2001 |
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With the award winning success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it wasn’t long before Hollywood studios began looking into ways of riding the coattails of that film and cashing in on the genre. The latest of these is Iron Monkey, and while the film may be Asian, the score is not. While Tan Dun’s score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remained intact for its domestic U.S. release, Richard Yuen’s score to Iron Monkey was replaced with new music by James Venable. Even though such practices are common, one has to wonder why such decisions are made. Perhaps the original score was far too Asian sounding for most Western audiences, or maybe the powers that be wanted the music to reflect a different tone or feeling that was originally scored for the film. Whatever the reason, Yuen’s work fell by the wayside and the CD release of the film contains Venable’s new music. From the very beginning, Venable’s score sounds like a more Westernized version of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Interestingly enough, this style is only implemented in the sections that have the Asian ethnic sound to them. Whereas Dun generally scored the action sequences with the full orchestra complement, Venable instead concentrates on percussion-heavy sequences that are reminiscent of Danny Elfman’s work on Planet of the Apes. These pieces are generally well done and are interesting in their own right, but given that Venable pretty much scores most of the action sequences almost exactly the same, and given the similarity with Elfman’s score, it can get a little disheartening at times. The other noticeable difference from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is Venable’s thematic work in the score. It’s not too subtly orchestrated, and in the end it’s pretty standard, but it does bring a nice feel of cohesion to the score, something that was missing from Dun’s score. Overall however, it is still nothing more than a typical action score that has some interesting moments but is missing that little extra something that makes a score really special. Iron Monkey is a solid piece of work from Venable, and I’m sure fans of the film will find it a fun CD to listen to, but unless you’re a general fan of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or just Asian-styled scores in general, or you’re just looking for some more percussion-driven music like Planet of the Apes there is really not much else to recommend this on. *** |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 50:13 | |
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