Avatar | ||
 | Composer: James Horner Label: Atlantic Records Release Date: 2009-12-15 Producer: Simon Rhodes and James Horner Conductor: James Horner Buy this soundtrack:   | 17 Ratings |
 Track Listing | |||||||||||||||||||
| 01 "You don't dream in cryo...." (6:09) 02 Jake enters his avatar world (5:24) 03 Pure spirits of the forest (8:49) 04 The bioluminescence of the night (3:37) 05 Becoming one of "The People" Becoming one with Leytiri (7:43) 06 Climbing up "Iknimaya - The Path to Heaven" (3:18) 07 Jake's first flight (4:50) 08 Scorched Earth (3:32) 09 Quaritch (5:01) 10 The destruction of Hometree (6:47) 11 Shutting down Grace's lab (2:47) 12 Gathering all the Na'vi clans for battle (5:14) 13 War (11:21) 14 I See You (4:20) Total Length: 1:18:52 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Reviewed by Scott - Grade: D If you took the most boring works of Horner's career, mashed them together and sprinkled the sounds of a Circue Du Soleil show on top, you would make Avatar; an extremely hard to digest soundtrack.As many of you know, I have been anticipating James Horner's Avatar score for some time. While I am not a Horner fanatic, I do enjoy a lot of his scores, and Krull/Star Trek II are pretty much my favorites. So when I got Avatar and played it through, you might be able to sense the kind of disappointment I had. I won't even talk about the opening track to this score. It had no idea which way it was going. There was nothing, no leitmotif established and definitely nothing spectacular or awe inspiring that I had hoped. The opening track is garbage. It seriously sounds like a demo tape that a high school kid whipped together to try and impress a studio exec, an ecclectic mix of sophmoric sounding beats, hums, whirs, with some snare drum sets, popping left and right stereo vibes (WHY DID HE DO THAT?) and it ends with a repetitive almost Media Ventures style whimper. For Jake Enters His Avatar World, I swear I hear Titanic at the beginning...all I can envision is DiCaprio seeing the grand ship for the first time. We then head into a plucking strum of strings that just go on and on forever with some deeper cellos kicking in. This no doubt is building momentum for the wonderous adventure that is about to unfold. It actually escalates nicely with his trademark large strings and actually brings back the plucking with a soft choir...until WHAT THE HELL? A voice gives us a loud CHOOHAA sound and there we are. Now an Avatar. For the remaining half of this track, it is low drone frequencies with trailing strings reminescient of Braveheart...even a bamboo flute or tin whistle are heard. And here we go again with the CHOOHAA's and jungle style percussion that kicks in with pan flutes. I felt like I was lisetning to a Circue Du Soleil score...almost like Ka (but Ka is better). Then the eccelectic mix kicks in again, almost an upbeat Braveheart with piano cues and Titanic mixed back in. From about 3:45 until 4:29 is about the best part I have heard so far, but I cannot escape the IMAX / Cirque / Discovery Channel special feel to it. Pure Spirits of the Forest tries to enchant us once again with that mystical special Pandora world feel, but I now think I am stuck inside a Mind's Eye video. The mix of digital sounds and strings is so boring and bland, I don't even know what to write about, so I will stop. That is pretty amazing since this track is 8:50 in length. Oh, did I mention it has a King Kong by Howard feel to it? Soft, slow, long sad strings...in the end, you know, when Kong dies. The other thing I will note is that at around 4:45 a piano type instrument begins playing and it sounds EXACTLY like a setting that is on my son's keyboard as an almost boingy digital instrument. A heavy military influence takes over but it is repetitive banging and boring. We get another CHOOHAA and the last two minutes are of a moaning guy with just a long repetitive drone with this moaning guy and some low percussion and strings. I feel nothing at this point. Where the hell is the theme? After 8:50 of pure hell, I am treated to The BioLuminescence of the Night. A whistle or flute continues to repeat itself (doesn't sound natural) and the strings just endlessly drone on. Abruptly at 1:56 we again get the sense we are watching Titanic with some clanking bells and what sound like steel drums. We get that electronic sounding string section as well that was prominent in Titanic. I really wanted to like Becoming one of the "People"...but it simply continued the boring journey in this repetitive jungle. The single choir boy is a nice touch but in reality this is Titanic with percussion added. At this point, I've figured it out. There is a theme. 3 notes. At 2:34 you get 3 notes. Here is the kicker. It is the same 3 notes from Titanic, but the 3rd note is in a different key. WHY OH WHY HORNER??? Did Cameron make you do this? Familiarity for the audience? So with this new found Titanic theme located, I tried to ensure I listened for it for the remainder of the score. Ah, there it is, in Scorched Earth. Yes, one two three one two three. But let's change the pace, throw in some tubas a crying boy and some trumpets for good measure. One, two, three. Let's try the main theme in percussion itself. BOOM BOOM BOOM, one, two, three, CHOOHAA CHOOHAA. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up! Nice, let's throw in the Willow four note horn as well...da-da-dee-da. There is absolutely NO continuity to any of this music and I have no idea why it is being used in such an epic film. Did they wait until the last minute? Did Cameron just assume that Horner would show up in the same form as Titanic (I liked Titanic). In Quaritch, let's try a slow drawn out version of the three note theme and end it with a CHOOHAA. There, that's the ticket....NOT! The Destruction of Hometree has a nice choir section that is powerful and was chanting nicely, but I kid you not the Willow horn is prevalent in the background and plays about 10 times for the last minute of the track. I normally don't mind Horner ripping off himself, but this is so out of place. Shutting Down Grace's Lab sounds like a Circque Du Soleil show and not even a good one at that. I was waiting for some kick ass military percussion to enter the fray and any track titled War had to deliver the goods. Immerse me into percussion almost immediately, snare drums, rhythmic strings, heart pounding drums and mesmerizing horns and trumpets. Do we get that? Yes. Is it memorable? No. If I was a video game developer and got this score, I would be ecstatic. If I was director of a film that took 11 years of my life to make? I'd be pissed. De-Oo-De-Oo Boom Boom Boom Boom De-Oo-De-Oo Boom Boom. I am not making this up people! It has the tempo of Mars Bringer of War but that is probably the only highlight. The horns are shiziophrenic and have no idea where they are going. Compare that to the use of horns in Drag Me to Hell a complete masterpiece of musical storytelling. Sorry for the weird and strange review, but frankly, I had no idea where to begin with it and decided to stream it real time as I listened to it again (...oh the pain!). At times Avatar is loud and sounds clear and crisp, but that doesn't help salvage the horrific effort. I See You by Leona Lewis is a feeble attempt at creating the same type of magic as Titanic's My Heart Will Go On. While Lewis does a phenomenal job with the lyrics and her voice is stellar, the music is crap. In fact, it doesn't even tie into the theme of the film, which I think hurts it tremendously (not that there was a theme to begin with). I can only hope that Cameron has chopped up this score to fit the movie, and it may in fact work very well with the film, but frankly, I am more disappointed than when the Watchmen score came out, and that is saying a lot. So in parting, if you are a die hard fan of Horner and must have this score, then go for it. Don't say I didn't warn you. If you have Titanic, Willow, Braveheart, and a Circue Du Soleil Score (any of them), just listen to them all in one day and you will have experienced Avatar. While it sounds like that would make for a really incredible score, it doesn't. If that is what Horner (or Cameron) intended, it failed miserably. With such a rich world and characters that Avatar has to offer, I am in shock that he can make a sinking ship (read Titanic) sound freakin incredible, yet fail so miserably with Avatar. Sorry James(es), I like most of your work, but this one is a dud. Let's hope the film itself is better. Update: This review is getting a lot of feedback both positive and negative. For the critics of my analysis, I ask you to compare "Becoming One of the People..." - Avatar (@1:12) to "Love Dance" - Cirque Du Soleil's Ka (@2:30). Coinzidenza? I will admit that the Leona Lewis song is slowly growing on me the more I listen to it. Update 2: Avatar did not win the Golden Globe for best score nor best song. Let's hope the Oscars agree. Phew...that was close. More Movie Soundtracks
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