Sacha Gervasi, writer for The Terminal, tries his hand at directing in Hitchcock.  The bio-pic features Anthony Hopkins as Hitch with Helen Mirren as his wife.  While it all sounds so promising, the film, which uses the filming of Psycho as its backstory, is filled with inaccuracies.  It is not surprising, however, that Danny Elfman was chosen to score the film.  No composer today has managed to update the sound world of Bernard Herrmann more than Elfman.

The opening “Logos” are a mix of Herrmann and Edward Scissorhands.  Elfman’s “theme,” which begins the second track, is quite good.  It is a mix of Vertigo’s romanticism with Psycho’s tension.  “The Premiere” recalls his Batman music a bit as it plays out and the whole style feels like a throwback to his 1990s work.  While it is rather fascinating to hear Elfman manipulate his primary thematic material, more fun is to hear the many Herrmann references in both the orchestration and harmonic ideas at times.  These alternate sometimes rather quickly with Elfman’s own recognizable sound.  At the heart of the score though is this tension trying to figure out whether this is a comedy or drama.  The release’s central tracks emphasize more of this unsettling “horror” music without straying too far from the sound.  The primary theme does find ways to assert itself throughout the score and Elfman likes to take parts of that theme and break it down for variation.  It helps integrate the score as a whole which is a good feat given the many brief musical tracks on display here.  “Explosion” presents some of the most interesting music here with a central section of mallet percussion that is very striking.  “Selling Psycho” has some of that cool jazzy color which Elfman explored in his MIB scores.  It all somehow works here, but suggests the difficulty in finding the right tone of this film. 

It is a bit unusual that Sony would release such a short physical CD of this material.  But Elfman fans will likely enjoy hearing his take on new Herrmann-esque sounds.  The disc closes with an arrangement of Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette” which Hitchcock used as his TV signature theme .  There are also two end credit tracks.

It took Barry Sonnenfeld twice as long to return to the world of Men in Black than the time between the first film and its sequel.  The third time out, Will Smith’s Agent J must travel back in time to prevent a couple of disasters caused by an escaped convict, Boris. The film is one of those glossy well-made efforts that creates a good diversion at the theater, though some may argue its quality as a film.  Danny Elfman returns to this score a decade later with the sort of experience and deftness at scoring that makes the present score seem effortless.  It works quite well in its narrative setting and it is certainly helped by one of the composer’s most memorable themes.

As to the score itself, it is a great deal like the first two films.  The MIB theme appears plenty of times to remind you of what you are watching in case you forgot.  The lyrical Kay music makes an appearance.  And there are plenty of action sequences that are quite like that Elfman employed in the first two films.  Electric guitar is a bit more prominent in the present score but there is not much done musically to reflect a shift to the earlier period of the story.  Women’s
choral vocals appear in select spots on cue.  The problem perhaps is that the MIB theme itself has such a great groove
that there is little else that can be done to it—though one wonders what might have happened if it had been given a little Bond-like brass treatment.  With all that said, the highlight, as has been the case for films that have allowed, is the opening main title sequence.  In about five minutes, Elfman moves through setting up the opening of the film, and then introducing his MIB
theme transitioning straight into the narrative sequence that blends through the opening moments.  After that, the
rest is simply a fun groovy action-adventure score—and fans may actually prefer popping this score into their players than revisiting the earlier two.  The underscore that begins with “Under the Bridge” and moves through “The Mission Begins” is some great action music that allows Elfman to exercise a little dramatic give and take as the primary thematic material shifts in tempo with plenty of cliché gestures to add to the tension.  “Mission Accomplished” also does a good job of offering more of the touching Kay music.  A key change for the melody moves us into “A Close One” that gives way to the primary MIB theme to bring us to a conclusion—very much like the first film.  The final track is a “revisited” version of the main titles with the “la-la” female chorus and a bit more guitar improvisation against the rhythmic motif of the main theme.  The track feels like an “alternate” version bonus which sort of just ends.

The issue then with MIB³ is not that it is a “bad” score.  In fact, if this was the first appearance of any of the material used in the film, it would be a totally different story. However, what the new release does in some ways is give a good overview
of the earlier scores with the added metal-like guitar edge.  Elfman feels like he is on auto-pilot, but with a good theme like this one, that is not always a bad thing.