November 14, 2014

  • Transformers: Age of Extinction

    For many fans, Michael Bay’s live-action Transformer films are a serious guilty pleasure.  The update to this toy-selling 1980s merchandising series has so far managed three fairly successful feature outings since 2007.  This fourth one finds the Autobots trying to avoid a bounty hunter with Optimus Prime needing to find help from a mechanic and his daughter.  Steve Jablonsky returned to provide the musical backdrop in this latest adventure that also features background vocals from Imagine Dragons.  Though it appeared after the film's release, this new limited edition CD from La-La Land should satisfy fans of the series quite a bit.

    “Decision” opens the disc with an ostinato pattern that becomes the foundation for a gradually layering of low strings, and eventually busy Zimmer-like churning upper strings as a thematic line eventually emerges very effectively from the darkness feeling more determined and hopeful.  The Imagine Dragons vocals add a slight adjustment to the more familiar female vocalizing one hears these days and comes in first in “Best Thing That Ever Happened” and in the penultimate track “Leave Planet Earth Alone”.  Later a lyric will be added to this idea (“Honor to the End”).  There are also more electronic and ambient ideas used to create a metal/orchestral underscore along with some drumming ideas (“I’m an Autobot”, “Cemetery Wind”, “Galvatron is Online”).  These ideas are also varied alongside those of the earlier ostinato pattern music in some of the more subdued tracks (“Transformium”).  The busy string underlays with lyric lines (a rather nice one in “Optimus Is Alive”) fall under the Remote Control scoring approach and offer the contrasts to the electronic and design moments in the score.  There are also some intense and exciting action highlights that throw in a great deal of interesting counter syncopations in the drumming and electronic ideas that are also shaped well dynamically avoiding a constant sound barrage  (“Punch Hold Slide Repeat”).  The thematic threads that run through the score help make the different action segments work rather well as Jablonsky does find a few ways to help make each one a bit unique as he varies where themes enter (“That’s a Big Magnet”).  It makes bigger musical sequences like” Dinobot Charge” work well with the long heroic thematic statement serving as an anchor against his ostinati and push and pull of different drumming segments.

    Jablonsky does a great job here crafting an exciting score with plenty of action tropes that are raised up a notch by the drumming ideas rather than just straight up electronics.  The orchestral approach is an extension of the Remote Control action style much of the time but thematic ideas allow for the greater interest once the score is underway.  Some would say that for the most part this is a fairly “generic” score that recalls the way music is used in many action films (think Nolan’s Batman trilogy here).  Others will enjoy the propulsive action sequences that make use of live drumming, thematic threads, and blend of more modern rock ideas along the way.  It is one of Jablonsky’s better scores, certainly with good exciting music, and fans will find very little to disappoint.