REVIEW: Avengers: Original Motion Picture Score
Music by Alan Silvestri
Review by Timothy Austin
The
most anticipated superhero film since "The Dark Knight" has already
commenced its slaughter of the Boxoffice, with international numbers
exceeding the 200 Million mark. "Avengers" is a long awaited team up of
Marvel comics' most popular superheroes, most of whom had their own
signature film debuts leading up to this huge team up in "Avengers".
But
while "Captain America", "Thor" and most significantly "Iron Man" had
thunderous success at the Boxoffice with their own individual films,
surprisingly "The Hulk" failed to find a core audience on film with many
fans selecting the original 70s "Hulk" show as the more superior
interpretation of the green superhero with a bad temper. However,
despite the set backs of the two Hulk movies, Marvel has a mega
commercial success on their hands with the "Avengers". The plot finds
all the heroes partnering to halt the World extermination plans of
Norse-god Loki, who was exiled in the "Thor" film (2011). With an all
star cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. returning as Iron Man, Samuel
L. Jackson as fan favorite Nick Fury and Scarlet Johansson as Black
Widow, "Avengers" is the boxoffice gold fans have been waiting for and
the first superhero team up of this nature to be attempted on film.
The
music scores for the various Marvel films have been diverse with a
range of popular film composers tackling music for Iron Man, Hulk, Thor
and Captain America. Iron Man has not enjoyed the best reviews for its
music with score reviewers deeming both "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" as
having mediocre music, while "Thor" and "Captain America" have enjoyed
rave reviews for their powerhouse scores. For "Avengers", Marvel and
distributor Disney turned once again to "Captain America" composer Alan
Silvestri for the original music and as expected much of what Silvestri
created for "Captain" returns in "Avengers".
The score is a
mixed bag and I doubt whether it will live up to the expectations of
soundtrack collectors and score fans who may be expecting the broad
themes of scores like John Williams' "Superman" or the innovative
atmosphere of Zimmer's "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". Silvestri
who is best known for his classic music from the "Back to the Future"
film series expands greatly on the bravado music he created for "Captain
America" with a bold, but forgettable theme for the "Avengers". His
music here is very militaristic and resembles most of what he wrote for
the first G.I Joe Film with constant snare drums, pounding timpani and
urgent staccato strings.
What disappointed me immediately was
the lack of an opening titles montage which has become standard for
Marvel films. Danny Elfman's opening music for "Spiderman" is instantly
recognizable even to causal moviegoers while the opening music to the
first three X-Men films is some of the best in the genre especially John
Otman's "X2" montage music. Silvestri opens the album with "Arrival"
and for those moviegoers who relished every frame of the movie this sort
of approach is fine, but for veteran score fans the track may seem
trivial, even anonymous, since it possesses only a few strains of the
main theme; the rest is brooding orchestral music that could have been
written for any military influenced film. That may be the overarching
problem with this score; Silvestri simply fails to give the Avengers
their own unique sound the way Michael Kamen gave the X-Men a modern,
electronic-heavy sound that is memorable even today.
"Avengers"
contains the sort of music that can be placed in any modern action film
with tracks like "Doors Open From Both Sides" and "Tunnel Chase"
containing standard orchestral drama with the usual jarring metallic
sounds accentuating the constant orchestral "swells" and huge waves of
horn heavy action music. There exists several themes but none that
specifically identifies a particular hero; instead the composer creates a
huge bravado theme that appears when all the heroes are working in
unison which we hear again at the end of "Tunnel Chase". This brings me
to another disappointment; while the theme is gigantic in sound and
execution, it is not particularly memorable and this is surprising since
Silvestri is noted for creating catchy themes for films like James
Cameron's "Abyss" which remains his most underrated masterpiece, as well
as "Back to the Future", which contains a theme that is now referenced
in thousands of advertisements and is considered a classic. However, do
not expect the "Avengers" theme to receive many references since it's
the sort of theme that belongs more in a Saturday morning cartoon than a
film of this magnitude. What makes matters worse is that the theme
appears in full form only in a few tracks which include the final cues
"One Way Trip", "A Promise" and the end credits suite "The Avengers".
What may have definitely improved the overall score would have been more
references to the main theme or at least references to another catchy
theme for one of the heroes.
What Silvestri does get right is
the pace and atmosphere of the film especially in tracks like
"Helicarrier" which incorporates giant brass statements, "swooshing",
romantic strings and huge horn belting which again sounds almost
identical to his music from "Captain America" with many shades of "G.I.
Joe". The composer also incorporates electronic percussion beats in the
line of the James Bond spy thrillers for sequences involving the agency
S.H.I.E.L.D and its agents Black Window and Hawkeye. The "Hulk"
receives his share of references not with a specific theme but with
harsh metallic "thumps" reminiscent of James Horner's use of an anvil in
his classic action scores such as"Willow". Indeed, there are few comic
book fans that will argue with the sound of the "Avengers" score since
Silvestri definitely delivers on the heroic, Americana sound. However,
after Summer 2012, few will even remember the theme for the "Avengers"
since there is really nothing redeeming about the quality of the main
theme or nothing memorable about the entire body of the score which
lacks set pieces.
The tracks simply blend into each other
without anything particularly noteworthy happening and for a movie with
this many action pieces and twists it's hard to believe that Silvestri
failed to create any awe-inspiring musical moments. Key to the score's
lack of "awe" may be the lack of a choir. In the final moments of the
score, as heard in "Performance Issues" there is a snippet of choral
voices which may simply be a synthesizer, but the remaining final cues
fail to make an impression simply because they possess routine action
music rather than the pulsating, choir-heavy climax we are accustomed
to in comic book films. Indeed, a huge choir seems painfully missing
from the final moments of the "Avengers" given the gigantic action
happening on screen.
Overall, the "Avengers" score is not a
disappointment but a missed opportunity for the composer to deliver a
fully satisfying score. Silvestri delivered a more enjoyable soundtrack
for "Captain America" and with "Avengers" he truly had the opportunity
to bring together all the amazing musical opportunities for each of the
Marvel heroes. This would have been the score to truly place Silvestri
in line with house-hold name franchise composers such as Hans Zimmer,
Williams and Horner. Instead, we get a serviceable score devoid of its
own unique identity or brand. Danny Elfman's music for the original
"Spiderman" series and scores from the X-Men trilogy possess more
superior music; even Marvel's newest X-Men entry, "X-Men: First Class"
has a more modern and sophisticated edge with a catchy main theme few
can stop humming after the end credits. This is what we needed in
"Avengers", a theme and sound that is exclusive to the beloved Marvel
heroes. As a fan of comic book movie soundtracks I was truly
anticipating a score of more sophistication. Sadly, what Silvestri has
delivered is large scale music destined to be lost among 2012's most
bland offerings.
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