Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0888072308565 Format: Soundtrack Label: Concord Manufacturer: Concord Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Concord Release Date: 2008-05-19 Running Time: 77 Studio: Concord
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Yet Another Superb Film Score from Williams Comment: Composer John Williams does an elegant job revisiting his classic "Indiana Jones" themes from the original trilogy, along with some well-written new music for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". It was a most wonderful surprise hearing "Marion's Theme" from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" again. But I was quite impressed with the surreal "Call of the Crystal" with its almost otherworldly three note motif and "Irina's Theme", which is yet another superb example of "sinister" film music along the lines of a softer, but no less menacing "Imperial March" from the original "Star Wars" trilogy. While I won't rate this fine score as among John Williams' very best (e. g. "Schindler's List" and "Angela's Ashes" among others), it is still among his finest, and one worth listening to again and again. Customer Rating: Summary: Not quite up to scratch Comment: Like the film it accompanies, John Williams' score is an undeniably good piece of work, but isn't quite in the same league as the first 3. There's nothing that really stands out as memorable and it just kind of passes you by. It's much more minimalistic than the old scores as well and reuses several themes from the past films, which just feels abit lazy. When the action does kick in it's quite exciting, but overall it's just mereley 'okay'. Customer Rating: Summary: Indy is back with a vengance Comment: I was waiting for this soundtrack to arrive as I am a big Indiana Jones fan. I found it was as good as the others but as I bought this before seeing the film it was hard to visulise where the themes fitted in to the film. John Williams always seems to do Justice to all the films he has scored my most enjoyable was the The Empire Strikes Back. I would say that in time this could be as good as his others. I also liked the way that John has kept a reference to the other three films. Customer Rating: Summary: Sounds just like Indy - only a new one for a new era Comment: Film music is a tricky thing these days. As just about every score composed seems to get an album release, so I think a lot of film music collectors forget that scores are written exclusively to support a film's narrative and emotional structure, and not to be released on CD - that's just a bonus. With this in mind it's unfair to complain about cues that you can't whistle to as you leave the cinema - if you're interested in catchy tunes, go buy pop or classical. Otherwise, remember what the cue was composed to do and keep that context in mind. Jerry Goldsmith once told me at one of his scoring sessions that some people collected albums "like bottle caps" - the art and craft of film scoring is much more complex than that; this is why we have original scores for enthusiasts, and Geoff Love et al versions for everyone else. The Indiana Jones scores are classics of this art, and now a new addition has arrived. Will it become a similarly regarded addition? I don't think so, but it certainly doesn't spoil the soundtrack canon any more than this belated sequel does for the movies. It's just different. Aside from the Raiders theme, and a couple of comic cross references (i.e. the Arab swordsman theme cropping up in Temple of Doom; the Ark theme referenced in Last Crusade), when you listen to the original trilogy of scores there is very little to mark them as a set. Stylistically, all feature action and tension music, but each also has its own unique stamp. Aside from the march, Indiana Jones does not have an overriding distinctive musical voice - compare the Well of Souls (Raiders), Pankot Palace (Temple of Doom) and Canyon of the Crescent Moon (Crusade) cues, to see just how far Williams is prepared to remove himself from such narrow trappings to get the right sound for a scene or location. John Williams, consummate professional as he is, like all great film composers tends to approach each film as a unique body, rather than rehashing the same chords and motifs over and over (James Horner, we salute you). The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a good score, though admittedly it does suffer in comparison to the previous three. Williams' adaptation of cues from the original Raiders may draw some fire as much as a similar approach did for his Return of the Jedi score's lifting of chunks from Star Wars, but this is very apt given that this is the first sequel to have a recurring central character (Marion) other than Indiana Jones (Sallah and Marcus Brody were peripheral, and neither ever got their own theme). Marion's theme, second only to Han and Leia's for a Williams love theme, is a no-brainer. The use of the Ark theme for Hanger 51 (the warehouse full of crates from the end of Raiders) is kind of apt, except that in the film it appears way before said holy relic makes its little cameo! However, none of the prominent references to the Holy Grail theme, used to reminisce Henry Jones Snr, make it onto this album. Crystal Skull certainly doesn't lack new thematic material, it's just that the themes for this film are more subtle than before (and in fine Williams tradition - and no doubt with concert use in mind - he has been good enough to present album-specific versions alongside their use in the score). The theme for Russian Agent Spalko is shadowy and seductive, as is the character, though in cues like the Jungle Chase it occasionally rips out and shows it has the legs to survive a more energetic interpretation. There is also a brassy, fanfarish motif for the Russian military that is quite effective, if less distinctive than the Nazi motif of Last Crusade. To mark them as a somewhat slapstick threat, Williams also delves into Fiddler on the Roof territory once more for a little light-hearted Cossack music. Mutt's theme is high in energy and rhythm, perfect for a character that exists to bring youthful exuberance and spontaneity to the story (it has much more in common with the Lost Boys music from Hook than the Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra from Last Crusade). The eerie Crystal Skull motif is the masterstroke though, a creeping, wailing deliberate pastiche of the 1950s science fiction scores found in the multitude of films Speilberg and Lucas set out to homage in this fourth outing for Henry Jones Jnr. - as apt here as the robust 1930s-sounding brass was for Raiders when they created that film in the image of pre-war adventure serials. A generous running time is a bonus, but of all the many minutes of music here, it is at the very end of the closing titles that Williams unleashes his crowd pleaser - a brand new variation on the Raiders march that effectively passes the sequels torch from Indy to Mutt (it gets a brief feature in the film, but I won't spoil how)! Customer Rating: Summary: Doesn't really sound like Indy Comment: My main problem with this score is that it doesn't sound like Indiana Jones. It's been 19 years since Williams last composed for the series and in this time a significant change occurred in his writing. The music became heavier and more mature. When I listen to "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", it seems to me like Williams is trying really hard to remember how he used to write back in the days but it just comes across as forced. The most apparent example of this is "The Adventures of Mutt". This is a kind of new "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra". It tries to be funny and light but it just doesn't have the spark and wit of its predecessor. And it lacks the distinctive sound of an Indiana Jones music, which has always differed from any of the other compositions of Williams. There are bits of new "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" in here and even something that reminded me of "Home Alone", but the specific "Indyness" is nowhere to be heard. There's not a single new memorable theme. "Irina's Theme" is quite good and very effective in action sequences, but it's not the kind of easy melody that you would catch during the film and whistle on your way out of the cinema. Every Indy score before had one standout action cue: "Desert Chase" in "Raiders", "Slave Children's Crusade" in "Temple of Doom" and "Belly of the Steel Beast" in "Last Crusade". This became a kind of a staple for the series. Well, not any more apparently as there's none such cue in "Kingdom". "The Jungle Chase" comes close to that, but it never really properly gets going. The second part of the album is filled with moody, brooding music that very quickly becomes boring as it just wanders about and never really goes anywhere. Boring! On an Indiana Jones soundtrack! To top all that, there's a kind of Mexican-Peruvian music in "The Journey to Akator", which is simply ridiculous and sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the album. To sum it up, judged on it's own it's an ok, competent score from Williams, but surely not a classic. Judged as an Indiana Jones soundtrack, this is a huge disappointment. If you want a classic Indy score, go and search for any of the previous three. More Reviews