Though Michael Kamen's score to The
X-Men turned out to be a major disappointment, John Williams proves
that he is still one of the best composers out there with a fabulous score
for this Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich film. Now I'll be the first to admit
that I'm a little upset that David Arnold didn't try to grab this project.
After all, many of us Arnold fans feel that this is just the sort of thing
that he needs to branch out towards. Still, one can barely argue that
Williams wouldn't be a great choice for this film. And he delivers a
terrific score, I would've just loved to hear what Arnold could've delivered
(his score to Independence Day was stirringly patriotic).
The CD gets off to a terrific start with the
excellent main theme. This score is highly thematic and a majority of the
themes and motifs are present here. It's reminiscent of Hymn to the
Fallen, except it is more lively in performance, and of course it has
that more "1776" feel. The violin solo (expertly performed by Mark
O'Connor) works really well without sounding like Schindler's
List, though the best part of the main title is the fife and drum
section. It is just a fun section even though it is quite short. Though
the track has a running time of almost seven minutes, it is so captivating
that it doesn't seem anywhere near that long. The score continually builds
on the themes presented at the outset throughout until the ending reprise
(which is not just a cut & paste job thankfully), though
sometimes Williams relies on rather bland underscore instead of the thematic
material.
Basically the feeling I got from this score was
what Williams wanted to do with Saving Private Ryan, but didn't get
the chance to. That's not to say that it's derivative or anything
Horner-like, more to the point of being in the same style. There are many
moments which feel like they are from different scores, with notable entries
being The Phantom Menace and Jurassic Park/The
Lost World, but I take this as more of Williams new sound than anything
else. The score is, overall, pretty fresh and original. The action cues are
especially interesting and some of them sound like nothing I've heard Williams do before.
This "revolutionary" score is a
great blessing to an otherwise bland summer movie season so far, and no
self-respecting fan of the great composer needs to be without a copy. Highly
recommended. ****1/2
