By Lorne Balfe

Watertower Music, out now

The Pennyworth composer returns to big-screen scoring duties for this two-disc soundtrack album to DC’s newest superhero epic, in which The Rock steps in to save the company’s box office returns as the eponymous comics character.

It’s certainly good value for money, with a whopping 40 tracks over the pair, though to be fair the last two are remixes of the “Black Adam Theme” and “Justice Society Theme” from earlier in the album, by iZNiiK. No, that wasn’t the cat wandering across the keyboard and typing random letters. These tracks are the biggest downside to the soundtrack, so let’s get them out of the way first. There have been successful theme remixes in the past, notably on the three Hans Zimmer Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, for example. Successful ones blend distinctive dance or trance or whichever genre tones and beats while keeping the distinctive original melody and tone and balance the elements. These two tracks don’t get that balance, and just sound like somebody’s playing two tracks at the same time and hoping for the best.

But enough of bonus remixes, what about Balfe’s actual score?

It starts off well enough, with atmosphere and building of tone, before launching into a nice set of epic-sounding action cues and character themes interspersed with emotional and mood moments. In terms of the epic and mood cues, they’re perfectly serviceable, with a good selection of the orchestra doing a good job of bringing us the mood of the moment. These sections are not that memorable, though – you’re not going to have the equivalent of hearing a few notes and thinking “oh yeah, that’s the Ark opening,” or anything like that – but it works and it’s a decent enough listen on its own, even divorced from the context of what’s happening on screen.

This is pretty much also true of the action cues. They’re fast and sweeping, and convey the appropriate feelings of threats and triumphs, but they’re all kind of what you might call today’s typical superhero/CG-action accompaniment. Yes, you can now tell there’s a general style for scoring this type of movie, and what these cues give us is exactly that pleasant but standard style. Again, good, serviceable, nothing wrong with it, but somehow just not quite popping its head up above the battlements to claim true memorable greatness.

Wait, though, as there also themes and leitmotifs, and here the score shines best. Not quite to Elfman Batman or Williams Superman levels,  but equalling what, say, Michael Giacchino did with the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange films.

Black Adam’s theme itself starts like it’s going to be an unremarkable moody kind of theme, but then goes off in some fantastic unexpected directions, really giving the feel of this is The Rock’s music. And then the “JSA Theme” goes and turns that approach up to 11, with another great melody to swirl around us. There’s also an interesting motif that starts in the second track, “Kahndaq” before recurring throughout, which actually sounds a lot like the brief refrain that characterises Khonsu’s avatar in Moon Knight, despite that being a Marvel franchise. Maybe it’s a nod to both characters’ Ancient Egyptian origins… Or just a coincidence.

Speaking of “Kahndaq”, it’s an early highlight of a track, and there are more to come, including the “JSA Theme”, “Hawkman’s Fate”, and of course Dr Fate’s themes. Not forgetting the nods to Shazam’s music from that movie – and perhaps a warning of spoilerific track titles if you haven’t seen the film yet.

Verdict: Ranging from serviceably good to really good, but not hugely memorable, and could have done without the disappointing remix tracks at the end. 8/10

David A McIntee