in 2001, Steven
Spielberg sought to return glory to the franchise he started in 1993
with the original classic,
. Throughout the 2000's,
he toiled with numerous versions of the fourth installment's script,
concocting stories building out of the existing concept's universe and,
at alternating times, involving original actors Sam Neill, Jeff
Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Richard Attenborough. After development
stalled and director Joe Johnston left the scene, not to mention the
death of creator and author Michael Crichton in 2008,
was set on a back burner for several years. When it emerged in
2015 as
, it had morphed into a direct sequel of
the original film and retained only one secondary character, though
references to the same dinosaurs and locations from
were significantly referenced. The new story postulates that the same
company responsible for resurrecting dinosaurs on a Costa Rican island
and attempting to make a theme park out of it eventually swept aside the
"incident" that comprised
and, after two decades,
successfully commercialized and rebranded it as "Jurassic World."
Inevitably, though, they engineer a new dinosaur species that ruins the
scheme, causing tourists to once again become prey. The formula of the
film is somewhat rehashed, a visiting duo of youngsters and an animal
hunter/trainer battling the organization's bad decisions in their fight
for survival. The number of in-jokes and cross-references to
is stunning, clearly indicating that
the idea of a "reboot" was not the intention. Overcoming only middling
reviews,
was a monstrous financial success and
dominated the summer 2015 season at theatres, affection for the concept
obviously still lingering. Handling the music for the sequel was no
doubt a tricky prospect. John Williams' original music for
a few years later, is
considered legendary. Although Williams was still actively writing in
2015, he was deeply involved with
went to the only logical
alternative, Michael Giacchino.
Giacchino's big break in this entire scenario dated back
to 1998, when he wrote the first major orchestral score for a video game
and earned the trust of Spielberg in the process. After the "The Lost
World: Jurassic Park" game came the "Medal of Honor" series of games,
and the 30-year-old composer quickly became known as a master of
emulating the style of Williams. Fast forward fifteen years and
Giacchino is among the elite of Hollywood composers, proving in 2015
alone that he is one of the few still writing the music formerly in the
domain of Williams and James Horner, often with accolades from
like-minded, nostalgic movie-goers. You can clearly discern that
Giacchino approached
Jurassic World with extreme care, the
complexity of his tribute to Williams difficult to fully ascertain after
just a few appreciations of the sequel score. In the most obvious
aspects of the score, Giacchino states that there had been discussions
about where to drop in placements of the Williams themes in wholesale
fashion. And you do receive such treatments. But the most interesting
aspect of
Jurassic World is Giacchino's far more complicated
utilization of Williams' chords, tone, orchestrations, and stylistic
flourishes. The new themes for
Jurassic World do contain
Giacchino mannerisms, but they are largely refined by the choices
Williams made about the concept in 1992, from the harp and piano
harmonies for familial relations to the growling of woodwinds for
suspicious dinosaur behavior. Williams' decision to tie many of his
motifs to four-note figures is embraced openly by Giacchino, for
instance, and many of the trademark chords and progressions that exist
throughout
Jurassic Park are played with extensively in
Jurassic World, sometimes in barely noticeable but certainly
intentional ways. There is more Williams technique to be heard in this
score than Giacchino's own, especially when you compare it to the
concurrent
Tomorrowland, which was quite adept at congealing the
younger composer's unique voice. If anything, the recording quality and
spread of bongo drums and other usual Giacchino players are the most
identifiable elements to the composer. Even the choral layer is handled
in ways that Williams would have employed in the original, building out
of both the awesome fantasy component and the ominous, deeper
counterpart first used by Williams to address the origins of the DNA in
Jurassic Park. Giacchino's original themes aren't devoid of
references to fragments of Williams' originals, the first three notes of
the main Jurassic Park theme at times opening but always finishing
Giacchino's primary new identity.
With the vocabulary of
Jurassic World almost
completely based upon Williams' model for
Jurassic Park, you can
easily determine the equivalent approaches by Giacchino to similar
circumstances. While he may not have used the same family theme (which
makes sense, given that this new film features a different family), the
composer wrote one that is, for all intents and purposes, the same, even
down to the precise orchestrations. And while the four-note velociraptor
theme is restrained to only a few semi-obscured performances early in
"Clearly His First Rodeo," its major equivalent here is a four-note
suspense variant for the "Indominus Rex" dinosaur. The raptors' chase
rhythm from the original is heard late in "The Dimorphodon Shuffle." The
four-note introductory theme for the concept on creepy horns, reprised
in Giacchino's complete rendition of the Jurassic Park theme in "Welcome
to Jurassic World," is extended to a performance at 2:37 into
"Gyrosphere of Influence." Likewise, Williams' stomping rhythmic hits
for the height of battle are reprised in the middle of "Costa Rican
Standoff." There is some overlap in duties between the prior two main
identities from Williams (the main theme and the park's fanfare) and
Giacchino's new theme for the newly opened "Jurassic World." One could
argue that a new theme in this circumstance wasn't really necessary, but
Giacchino's idea is nevertheless attractive enough to merit praise,
highlighted in extended treatment in "As the Jurassic World Turns" and
culminating in equal glory at the end of "Nine to Survival Job." With
its progressions reflecting the main Jurassic Park theme in several
places, including its final, timpani-pounding moments, it's somewhat odd
that this new theme was developed at all. In "As the Jurassic World
Turns," the idea simply yields entirely to the original park's fanfare
theme, and here Giacchino makes little attempt to adapt it outside of
its placement as an obligatory wholesale nod. The fanfare is heard
briefly at the crescendo concluding "Costa Rican Standoff" and is
otherwise less engrained in the new score. Along with the new themes for
the park, family, and villainous dinosaur, you also receive a fresh idea
for the Sam Neill replacement character, this time handled by Chris
Pratt. Introduced in somewhat humorous shades in "Owen You Nothing,"
this idea takes flight in "Chasing the Dragons," arguably Giacchino's
most impressive rhythmic cue in the score (involving the motorcycle and
velociraptor chase scene that Spielberg had been obsessed with shooting
for years) that once again owes a bit to the scherzos of Williams' past.
The all-out action material in this score is surprisingly limited in
duration.
As one would expect with any authentic adaptation of a
classic like
Jurassic Park, there are curiosities along the way.
Some of them are likely coincidental, such as the odd statement of Jerry
Goldsmith's "Star Trek" friendship motif at 0:10 in "Growl and Make Up."
Others will amuse the learned film music collector, such as Giacchino's
reference of his own "The Lost World" video game score's raptor motif at
1:39 into "Raptor Your Heart Out." But why abandon Williams' raptor
motif once they start testing allegiances? Or, for that matter, why not
twist Williams' raptor motif into the major key? Likewise, why drop the
triumphant motif for the T-Rex used by Williams in both his scores for
the franchise? Hearing a snippet of Williams' main theme for
The Lost
World at 1:52 into "Our Rex is Bigger Than Yours" may be the
consolation prize. Missing entirely is Williams' rambling four-note
panic motif in
Jurassic World, a true disappointment given that
the concept of panic doesn't really change from scenario to scenario.
The handling of the major insertions of Williams' themes isn't as well
integrated as wished, either. The "Welcome to Jurassic World" and "As
the Jurassic World Turns" reprises seem forced, as if they are token
concert arrangement fodder to simply please listeners the easy way. Far
more impressive is Giacchino's bookending of his own Jurassic World
theme with Williams' park theme in "The Park is Closed." Ultimately, a
cue like "Jurassic World Suite" meanders through material that is
sufficiently loyal to be termed effective but not really capturing the
spirit of the original. Thus, you encounter the argument that nothing
can compete with
Jurassic Park, and that's probably true. As
fantastic as Giacchino's 2015 has proven, it will never surpass
Williams' duo of
Jurassic Park and
Schindler's List in
1993. For pure listening enjoyment and originality, both
Jupiter
Ascending and
Tomorrowland are more entertaining works
because they are standalone successes. For
Jurassic World,
Giacchino's job was far tougher and yielded a technically superior
effort compared to those other works. But expectations play a role in
our perceptions, and there will be a nagging feeling of loss in
Jurassic World that all of the composer's intelligent technical
emulation cannot overcome. As an album,
Jurassic World is
certainly better than
Jurassic Park III by Don Davis,
intellectually impressive but not emotionally transcendent in its whole.
Its four bonus-like tracks at the end add little value to the product,
and some listeners will balk at the tracks' cross-fades. You still have
to admire Giacchino for his ability to tackle the expectations game with
tact and enthusiasm; this one was simply a battle he could not win.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check: |
For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 33 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 17,170 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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