Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Soundtrack
By Michael Giacchino Sony Masterworks, out now Surprisingly, this is Giacchino’s first movie score in slightly more than a year, the last being Star Trek: Into Darkness. It’s certainly an […]
By Michael Giacchino
Sony Masterworks, out now
Surprisingly, this is Giacchino’s first movie score in slightly more than a year, the last being Star Trek: Into Darkness. It’s certainly an accomplished score, and does the job that it ought to, but something is oddly lacking in it.
As an action score, it works fine. The epic sections are epic, the action passages are driven, and the more emotional and dramatic scenes are suitably covered. However, it all seems rather by-the-numbers, and almost soulless. There are few proper themes or leitmotifs, and none that really linger in the ear. It also feels somewhat derivative, though that may just be down to it not really producing anything memorably new of its own.
In some ways, it actually harkens back to Giacchino’s videogame score days, which isn’t really a bad thing (his score for Medal Of Honor Frontline is one of the best scores he’s done, and one of the best videogame scores), but in other ways it actually feels a lot like Murray Gold’s more recent Dr Who scores. Which is ironic when you consider how influenced by other soundtrack composers Gold tends to be.
Verdict: This isn’t a bad album, but it’s not Giacchino’s best, and it just doesn’t bring anything noteworthy, new, or memorable to the ear. The track-title puns, however, are quite excruciating! 6/10
David A. McIntee
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