May 21, 2008

• Review: Prince Caspian

  Featuring a less wieldy title, Prince Caspian essentially picks up where the last Narnia film left off.  The Pevensie children find themselves transported to this unusual kingdom but whereas only a year has passed in their lives, some 1300 years has gone by in Narnia and things are not quite what they were.  Returning to score this darker adventure, Harry Gregson-Williams manages to bring all things to bear orchestrally here.  But this is no Lord of the Rings style epic, though much of the film might try to trick us into thinking so.  It is actually the score that does not help the matter in the film, though on its own it is quite fine enough.

  The opening sequence of Prince Caspian’s flight from the castle begins as a somewhat exciting action cue before moving into darker and wonderfully sporadic musical gestures to imitate the mysterious forest.  Though this opening cue feels like a typical Media Ventures-styled action cue, the following “The Kings and Queens of Old” is quite the opposite.  Here, lyrical themes, reflecting those from the first film, appear in a richly-scored regal presentation more like the composer’s work on Kingdom of Heaven.  Throughout the score one thematic idea often weaves into a narrative scene that uncovers some important discovery with great subtlety.  Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the film, which the score does not do much to help, is the playing down of who Aslan symbolically represents (in case you are wondering, he’s not just a post-Resurrection lion).  Though Aslan receives a quite noble theme, that breaks forth some in “Arrival at Aslan’s How,” the music takes on more of a fantasy role intending to also involve us emotionally in recalling what happened there.  Also impressive musically, is the score that accompanies the re-appearance of the White Witch in the quite eerie and dissonant “Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance.”  This particular track features moments that show Gregson-Williams ability as a composer of atonal music that relies on orchestral effects more than the more typical ambient design of other MV protégés.  It is one of the standout tracks on the disc.  Also interesting is “The Duel” which musically underscores the battle between Miraz and King Peter where the music works to heighten the internal motivations of the two characters and the drama that unfolds.  The music accompanying the closing battle scenes works pretty hard and is mostly buried in the finished film, here you get to hear how the themes weave themselves a bit more through the hyperkinetic fabric of the music to great effect.
  
  For the most part, fans of great action scores should find quite a bit to enjoy in this score which has plenty of opportunity build tension heading towards the many battle sequences.  The music for these scenes tends to be grouped in two measure increments with rather simplistic rhythmic syncopations.  Drum machines and extra percussion try to create some offbeat emphasis but it does not work all that well.  The drum machine use in the score in most cases undermines the style of the music and fortunately does not dominate the score.  What is enjoyable though is this darker score with some thematic material that works quite well in a film that is slightly better than its predecessor.  The extensive choral work here, mostly worldess, lends an otherworldliness to the music that recalls Shore’s music for the Lord of the Rings, but here it is simply an overall effect to add more sound to a scene and create some warmth to the music.  In some places, the music almost feels like a Doyle and Shore hybrid, though the music bears all the marks of Gregson-Williams accomplished personal voice.  Equally impressive is the way the composer shapers these rather extended cues and swaths of underscore dramatically.  Each works quite well as its own musical movement and the thematic recurrences help cement the overall listening experience.   

  To make the disc appealing to younger folks, Disney has included the Switchfoot song heard on the end credit roll as well as a song not heard in the film (so why it is here is anyone’s guess).  A song from Regina Spektor begins the series of four misguided song tracks that fortunately are at the end of the score material proper.  As with other Christian themes inherent in the Lewis’ novel, these songs reflect a rather poor understanding of the theology that is otherwise present.  At least in Prince Caspian, the themes can be stripped of their theological underpinning without losing the story, though this at the expense of what made them important to begin with anyway.  The casing is in a standard cardboard foldout with a booklet that is filled with plenty of stills.  This enhanced disc also features links to a photo gallery and the movie trailer when you insert it into your computer drive.

  So far 2008 has featured many fine fantasy adventure scores and each has moments that make it well worth checking out.  Prince Caspian can easily be added to the top of that growing list.

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