So far, it has been a great
year for sequel scores. Alan Silvestri proved that he was more than a
worthy to follow-up Jerry Goldsmith with his excellent score to
The Mummy Returns and now Don Davis is
strutting his stuff in former John Williams territory.
At first I was a little
hesitant when I first heard that another Jurassic Park film was in
the works. Surely two movies were more than enough, and while
The Lost World was somewhat good, it
still did not perform as well with audiences as the first one did. And
really, in what new direction could the franchise go and still be a good
movie? So far, the trailers coming out for
the film are pretty good, and it may be just the shot in the arm that the
series need. Still, it remains to be seen how good the movie will be. And
just how does the franchise fare without the great John Williams
behind the baton?
I'm sure that Williams
didn't really have anything personal against scoring the sequel, but with
Spielberg's A.I. coming out so soon, it would have been one or the
other, and since that film marks the 20th collaboration between the famed
director and composer, Williams really had no choice. Thus, Williams
advised the powers-that-be to choose Don Davis as his replacement. Initially, rumors abounded on the Internet that James Horner would
be chosen, with some even accepting it as gospel. While the rumors were
met with some initial excitement, Davis was clearly an inspired choice.
While I felt confident in Davis' abilities, others, whose only previous
experience was with his work on The Matrix, felt that he was
absolutely wrong for the assignment. After this however, I'm sure that
such feelings will be put to rest.
The CD cover immediately
proclaims "Original Themes by John Williams." In a move that I wish more
sequel scores would make, Davis incorporates most of Williams original
major themes from his first two scores into this one. Thankfully, it's not
simply a re-tooling of the previous scores as Ken Thorne did with Williams
original material for
Superman II and
III, instead the themes are interwoven with Davis' freely
composed cues. There are a few instances where the the transition is a
little rough, but most of the time the result is perfect. Davis even takes
the main theme even further by backing it up with a choir in
Brachiosaurus on the Bank. The themes get quite a lot of interesting
variations and it really seems that Davis had a lot of fun in
incorporating them into his music. There are a few themes that Davis wrote
specifically for this score and they blend in quite well and are quite
enjoyable.
While Davis has described
this score as being darker than the The Lost
World, it actually balances out a lot better between the frantic
action cues and the more quieter moments. While some of the action tracks
are almost to the point of being horrifyingly violent, more so than
anything from The Lost World, there
are also some beautiful cues on here as well. Even more interesting are
the moments when Davis blends the two together, a lush beautiful theme
coming from the string section with the brass continuing their ominous
chords. It is some really great stuff. The action cues are generally good,
but some moments are stiff in places, and they occasionally take on a
disjointed feel.
The tracks do not look to be
in chorological order, much like the last two score releases, but this is
probably what gives the music the balance it has, and the sequencing is
quite good. In addition to composing, orchestrating, and conducting his
own music, Davis proves he can produce his own CDs with expertise as well.
The running time is quite good for a score performed by a studio orchestra
(though thankfully, new rules are coming into effect that will lower those
pesky re-use fees), though the enhanced CD "feature" is little more than a
gimmick and if portions of the score were dropped off for its inclusion
then it will not sit very well with the fans. In addition, the last track
on the CD is a song performed by Randy Newman. It's a fun little piece of
fluff and certainly not as mundane as the song on the end of
The Mummy Returns CD.
Frankly, I just sit here in
awe. This is quite an excellent score, and Davis has composed a terrific
follow-up to John Williams' previous masterpieces. Highly recommended.
*****
