Don’t hate the soundtrack…hate the game.
We don’t always pay that close attention to it. For most of us, it sits at the outer edge of the movie viewing experience, but music is an integral part of why you do or do not receive a movie well. All you have to do is look back at some of the classics then look at their soundtracks and you’ll see it. Star Wars, Superman, and The Matrix all have soundtracks that sit in harmony with the films they inhabit, making you laugh, or cry, or scream.
But that isn’t always the case.
Sometimes, no matter how awesome the music, it’s just not enough to lift a film from being mediocre or just plain disappointing. There are a few gems out there where even though the flick was a FAIL its soundtrack was still on this side of WIN.
Otherwise known as #FAILWINNING. Check them out.
5. Tron Legacy
Director:Joseph Kosinski
Writers:Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Composer:Daft Punk
This film comes in at a 3 out of 10 in my book. Soft, hollow, and meandering, Tron Legacy the film paid more attention to setting a post-post-modern dark somber digital mood (complete with the juxtaposition of a post-Oscar glow Jeff Bridges in a too casual performance for the empty void of “The Grid”), than it did to any sort of actual compelling plot. The stakes were low-to-non-existent, and what is supposed to at least pretend to be a rousing adventure ends up being a 2+ hour exercise in “deresolution”.
But one good thing did come out of it. The decision to let the electronica inspired sounds of Daft Punk score the film was a stroke of brilliance. That and whoever came up with the line “bio digital jazz.”
Imagine if Big Trouble in Little China and Halloween era John Carpenter coupled with New Age-y Enya to make a soundtrack. The Tron Legacy score liberally dips into the era from which the sequel was spawned, yet it never feels quite as deliberately cheesy or naive. I’m really disappointed it got left off of the Best Soundtrack from 2011′s Oscars contenders, when really it should have won. Sure The Social Network is a good movie, but I’m still at a loss as to how Trent Reznor’s score is even close to being a game changer or a stand-out.
The Tron Legacy score is a love letter to the past which evokes a sense of its Regan era inception–roots firmly planted in the electronic synthesizers of the early 1980s–however it drives and fuels you with the power of modern sensibilities (i.e., a lot of Bass) making this one something greater than the film which it plays over.
4. The Mummy Returns
Director/Writer:Stephen Sommers
Composer:Alan Silvestri
By all accounts, most people I run into love the first film in the Mummy trilogy but hate the middle one. I can’t even comment on the third because I don’t think there is even a debate to have. Dead on arrival. What the Mummy Returns is, is a fun action adventure that moves constantly from its opening sequence (and the major motion picture debut of “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson), all the way to its on the seat of your pants climactic finish. Its main problem are two things. Most people felt like it was just a blown up repeat of the first film except this time it moved so fast that it barely bothered to have the pretense of making sense in regards to the first film; and the horrid cgi for the Scorpion King at the end was just unforgivable.
The soundtrack manages to salvage some of it however.
This music hits all of the notes that it should, including some key sequences with the bus ride through London and the final escape from the Scorpion King’s temple. This is Hollywood doing what it does best…at least as far as the music is concerned. It’s almost as though it tells the story even better than the story was ever able to manage.
3. Waterworld
Director:Kevin Reynolds & Kevin Costner
Writers:Peter Rader & David Twohy with a little rewrite help from some guy named Joss Whedon
Composer:James Newton Howard
So I have a confession to make. Waterworld is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I fully admit it is far from the pinnacle of cinematic mastery. It tells its story well. It just happens to have been told before when it was called The Road Warrior. When I first saw Waterworld I actually hadn’t seen the Mel Gibson original, so the story elements were fairly new to me in this context. (Don’t ask me, a child of the 80′s how I missed it. Sometimes movies just slip through the cracks.) After seeing the Road Warrior it’s apparent that Waterworld is a note-for-note retelling of the Mel Gibson/George Miller classic. It’s one thing to mimic the world of another film, but it’s another to mimic the world of a film that established a genre.
The story behind the soundtrack is actually pretty interesting. Originally Mark Isham had been hired to create the score, and create the score he had done. But his music didn’t quite fit the tone that the filmmaker’s wanted so it was jettisoned at the eleventh hour. James Newton Howard was then brought in and was able to crank out a composition that by all rights should have only just been servicable. But perhaps because he didn’t have as much time to think about it, he created something that was straightforward yet worked, with one or two really great themes which are basically repeated over and over.
At the end of the day, the film didn’t quite flop but by no means was it a critical darling. However, if you ever happen across it again, give the score a good listen while you watch the action taking place. You might be pleasantly surprised.
2. Lost in Space
Director:Stephen Hopkins
Writer:Akiva Goldsmith
Composer:Bruce Broughton
Lost in Space the movie is a great example of almost getting there, but not quite making it across the finish line. It had everything going for it. The re-casting of beloved characters was pitch perfect. They got the right tone, moving it from the 60′s into the late 90′s with a bit of edge, but not too much, and it took all of the core concepts of what made the original so lovable and blasted off from there.
And that’s also where it goes wrong.
The main problem with the film is the third act. It just doesn’t quite come together. In keeping with the original device of the show (most episodes taking place on some strange planet where crazy shenanigans abound) Lost in Space the movie became stuck in a narrative dead-end. After spending a good 60 minutes flying across the universe, we are forced to sit and watch a bunch of talking heads during what should be the most entertaining portion of the film.
The other problem is that stupid must-sell-toys alien pet. But I just don’t have the energy to go into that.
The score on the other hand is all #WINNING. Like most of the soundtracks on the list, it seems to tell the story of the Jupiter 2 much better than what’s shown on screen. A slow, sleepy, and hopeful tease gives way to the introduction of the duplicitous Dr. Smith. After the triumphant launch of the space craft we then enter the peril of the derelict ship. The soundtrack even manages to hit the intended right emotional chords that the movie misses in its final scenes where a gruff Will Robinson confronts both his father and the past. And as ridiculous as the final sequence is, the music hits all the right beats with unapologetic planet busting gusto. (By the way… SPOILERS: if you’re upset that the ship flies through the planet but don’t bat an eye when it flies through the sun…well…you might just need to get over it.)
1. Tron (1982)
Director/Writer:Steven Lisberger
Composer:Wendy Carlos
The greatest thing about the Tron franchise is that somehow they’ve managed to mess it up TWICE. Now don’t get me wrong. I love this movie and have, over the years, watched it just this side of a thousand-million times. The tendency of today’s viewer is to judge the relatively primitive special effects and dismiss the film on those merits alone which I think is a grave mistake. There’s a lot to love about it, but sadly, there’s plenty more to dismiss it for than just the blocky animation.
At its core Tron is an almost great film that doesn’t quite satisfy. Both the original and sequel ultimately fail, but Tron the first actually excels where Tron Legacy train wrecks. There is a clear motivation for Flynn in the first film. Something that we can connect with. There is something at stake for him not only in the real world but also the computer world. And the universe in which he travels through has much more clear rules with which Flynn has to live and fight by. And this is where it also goes off the rails. It fails when the story arbitrarily breaks those rules for story expediency, crams in an illogical romantic plot, and names the movie after not its main character.
But then there’s the music.
There are other scores out there that may have involved more coordination and conducting of instruments and the professionals that play them, but Wendy Carlos’ soundtrack borders on revolutionary nonetheless. Wendy Carlos was able to utilize the, then, brand-new tools of her time and create a shining example of what to do rather than what not to do with them. It’s almost as if she bypassed the experiment phase of trial-and-error, and popped out a masterpiece that has managed to stand the test of time, even though it’s clearly born in the decade of big hair and bravado. And ironically having set the bar so high, it hasn’t quite been reached until…well see #5.
Honorable Mention
Because this sequence never gets old.
Ever.
