Friday 22 July 2011

Captain America - Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri is (and sorry to Mr Silvestri for sharing) 61. Yes, 61. I remember when he was one of the "young" composers. God, now I feel old. Given that he's now at a time when most people are starting to hope to retire soon, one can't complain that he's slowing his output, with only one 2010 release - The A Team (shame it wasn't a bit more inspiring, if I'm honest) and one for 2011. Captain America is yet another in the seemingly endless stream of comic book adaptations that Hollywood is spewing forth (not to mention the series that have or are soon to be rebooted - Batman, Spider-Man, Superman). After the slight disappointment of Thor (Patrick Doyle) and the considerably disappointment of The Green Lantern (James Newton Howard), Captain America is definitely a distinct improvement, music wise (and the film has been getting fairly decent notices too).

The one thing that Captain America has is a(n) heroic theme. Yes, a theme. Imagine that. A theme for a comic book superhero. It's even actually quite heroic. Having said that, it's rather short - more of a fanfare than a full blown theme - but it's still very credible and quite memorable. That it has a couple of short quasi-concert versions (the final, titular, score track, and, if you buy the iTunes version, a fun marching band version). As you might expect for an origin story (they all seem to be, possibly because so few get beyond that stage), the first half barely features the theme at all, being rather more dark and brooding. In common with Super 8, the first half features perhaps just a few too many short, none too exciting tracks that don't really add much despite a few genuinely effective suspenseful cues.

Once the action proper kicks in halfway through, the tempo rarely lets up and Silvestri's patented action scoring comes to the fore. Perhaps the closest antecedent is The Mummy Returns (and a touch of Van Helsing), although Captain America lacks that score's broad selection of memorable themes. In any event, it's his bustling, epic action that he's employed to generally fine effect over the last decade. It's nice to hear some action music that sounds like it was written with an orchestra in mind rather than on a keyboard and multiplied up. The album rounds out with a retro 40's musical style chorus number composed (unexpectedly) by Alan Menken. It's slightly cheesy, but good fun. One wonders what Menken might have done with the whole film, his underscoring these days is generally top notch. In any event, Silvestri's score is solid with a decent main theme, even if the secondary material is perhaps a little more workmanlike. Solid if not spectacular.

Toss your discus in the general direction of Amazon to buy it.

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