Zimmer's Success Comes Home To Roost
John Green | Brooklyn, NY USA | 04/03/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Modernized soundtracks for fantasy movies often seem like attempts to save a few bucks instead of treating the material like it deserves. Though Hans Zimmer, Paul Haslinger, David Arkenstone and others have joyfully ushered us into the New Age Movie Score Era, and delivered some of my all-time favorite OSTs (like King Arthur), I'll always believe Big Movies demand Big Soundtracks from Big Orchestras.
Ramin Djawadi shows off his Bachelor's Degree from the Hans Zimmer School of Soundtracks: heavy drums, sweeping strings featuring cellos, french horns and tubas, vocal ensemble chants, etc. Unfortunately, this one misses its mark. There's very little here to invoke Ancient Greece, the 'Man vs the Gods' story arc or anything else the movie represents other than ACTION SEQUENCES! CotT is both very disjointed and extremely repetitive. Instead of exploring the themes and motifs they're buried underneath a frenzy of synthesizers, riffs and programmed trax; its like Gladiator got tossed into a blender with Human Growth Hormones. The end result is a schizophrenic slamdance that never really knows which way to turn.
Even the quiet moments are few and far between. Just when things slow down, out go the low strings and flutes and in come the drum tracks. This may explain the lack of a romantic theme and why even the gods themselves have no noticeable cues- nothing's allowed to stand in the way of a pulse-pounding timpani or a good Moog mash.
Some key moments:
The Storm That Brought You To Me: Begins with the now-unavoidable Mediterranean-styled guitar picks before the bass and drum arrive. Add the vocals and it becomes evocative, if over-produced and out of place- probably used for the end credits- but ends up as one of the better tracks. In the same vein as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, this one was obviously created for release as a single.
Perseus: Contains different arrangements the hero's motif- including male vocal chorus, electric cello and violins- exploring his journey. Not surprisingly, this motif is often used to carry the other pieces along.
You Can't Hide From Hades: Starts off by stealing the 'JAWS' theme before it morphs into a heavy bassoon and chorus that introduces the Lord of the Dead.
Scorpiox: Enter the modernized motifs. Riffs merged with lots of keyboards, bass-slapping and programmed drums.
Djinn: Return of the duduk and maybe even a digeridoo mixed with some bottom lifted from Batman Begins.
Written In The Stars: Opens the movie and introduces the 'Olympus' theme. A stirring, majestic motif but it's so minimal and under-developed it's a prime example of the music's overall shortcomings.
Eyes Down: Very frenetic but also very disjointed, a schizophrenic piece of music. The best example of why this score fails to deliver.
Be My Weapon: The whole thing was stolen from some DJ at a rave club. Has little to no variation at all, just goes on and on... and on. At the 5:00 mark there's a choppy transition before the thing completely tanks into something leftover from the nineties. Also the longest track at 10:00. It serves no purpose other than to give Neil Davidge a solo writing credit.
Release The Kraken: Doesn't even get his own theme; just more repeats with some new horns tossed in. The Grand Beastie itself doesn't even make an appearance until the 5:00 mark on a 6:00 track.
It's Almost Human Of You: Solo vocal and strings lead into the denouement. It winds up with a brief, heavy reprise of the Perseus motif, but at this point you're not even paying attention anymore.
Another sticking point is the tracks don't appear in sequential order; you can't get a sense of the movie, and after having seen it the disconnect is even worse. This one should serve as an object lesson for Hollywood: Blockbuster Movie=Blockbuster Score. I doubt even hardcore Zimmer fans will have much to say about this one. Though it's a yeoman effort for Ramin in his first attempt at a full scale soundtrack, it comes up very short and formulaic. Not a keeper at all."
A Good Score
K. Kerr | Southern California | 04/07/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Very simple - The score of the Clash of the Titans is pretty good. I enjoy the mix of instrumental pieces, guitars, and drums. Given the revamp the movie went through, the music goes hand in hand."
Track Listings (23) - Disc #1