Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,672
Written 9/1/09
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Buy it... if you are easily swept up in the robust, hyperactive
environment of John Debney's typically strong, but ultimately somewhat
anonymous children's adventure music.
Avoid it... if wild wails of the ondes martenot, electric guitar
rhythms, cooing choirs over harmonic orchestral crescendos, and highly
derivative themes are a recipe for your eye-rolling indifference.
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| Debney |
Aliens in the Attic: (John Debney) Given some of
these scripts that get green-lit by studios trying to make a quick buck,
it's amazing that adults are even involved in the process. Take the
plotlines of Men in Black, Home Alone, Gremlins,
and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, whip up four aliens animated like
leftovers from Small Soldiers, and you get Aliens in the
Attic, for which Twentieth Century Fox has no intellectual excuse.
Maybe if the nasty little aliens were inhabiting the attic above the
White House during the Reagan administration, perhaps there would be
some redemption for viewers, but instead all you really get in return
for your cinema dollar is a hormonal Ashley Tisdale prancing around in a
bikini here. This will be enough for some, of course, but not those who
take pride in advanced thought. Perhaps this is why the Motion Picture
Association of America, which taunts filmmakers and studios with its
silly rating system, recently solicited more NC-17 productions out of
the studio system. At any rate, in Aliens in the Attic, a group
of quirky kids end up in a creepy Michigan mansion on a vacation and
discover that the attic is the staging ground for an alien invasion, and
unless the kids do something about it, the baseball season may as well
be cancelled and humanity stripped of any dignity that it still has in
the age of unlimited Internet porn. So consistent is this film that
projectiles are shot at the crotches of young men and the parents in the
story are hopeless gits, failing to notice for much of the film that
their spawn is engaged in a life or death battle. Heck, you'd think that
wailing of the theremine-sounding ondes martenot from John Debney's
score would be a clear clue that there are problems far beyond the usual
teenage insecurities in this picture. Debney is completely at home in
productions as ridiculously stupid as Aliens in the Attic, a
compliment to a composer who has obviously found his niche but also a
concern for listeners eager to hear him tackle more high profile dramas
that happen not to involve the gruesome crucifixion of a maligned
savior. It is remarkable to hear Debney so consistently provide top
notch children's music that over-achieves for films like Aliens in
the Attic, merging bombastic orchestral might with synthetic
coolness that sometimes incorporates some unique instrumental element
into the mix. Along for the adventure this time is the ondes martenot,
but if you're expecting to hear the smooth, romantic echoes of Elmer
Bernstein's obsession with the instrument, then prepare yourself for a
sudden, high-pitched slap upside the head.
Debney's production for these kinds of assignments
regularly solicits three to four star ratings. Its creativity doesn't
allow for anything under three, but only in its most cohesive form does
it ever stretch out into four-star territory.
Aliens in the Attic
is, as usual, stuck squarely in between these markers, explosive and
entertaining in its individual bursts of energy but lacking easy
organization on a larger level. The entirety of this score is enjoyable
when appreciated in the context of its genre. Debney knows how to push
all the right parody buttons and play to expectations with glee,
bloating familiar sounds out of proportion for comedic purposes in a
dumb film. In these regards, the quality of
Aliens in the Attic
is similar to that of
My Favorite Martian, but the relative
anonymity of his thematic constructs doom the 2009 score to the realm of
the merely average. The primary theme is conveyed over a cool soft rock,
electric and acoustic guitar rhythm in "Aliens in the Attic (Main
Title)," and by the time you hear the idea translated into
super-sensitive variations in "Sparks Wave" at the end, you'll be
rolling your eyes at the borrowed elements from the main theme of
Poltergeist and the Vulcan theme from
Star Trek II: The Wrath
of Khan. The aliens have their own funny little march introduced in
full in "Aliens in the Attic" that, when given the eerie accompaniment
of the ondes martenot, will recall memories of the reality-bending tone
of
Batman Forever. When the minds in
Aliens in the Attic
are controlled by the aliens, Debney goes into full wacky mode, as in
"Remote Control Ricky," which sounds like a sick combination of Danny
Elfman's
Pee Wee material and Rachel Portman's cuteness in
The
Road to Wellville. The only other cue that really stands apart is
the faux Japanese battle with electronica in "Kung Fu Fight." Otherwise,
the highlights of Debney's score are concentrated in either the wailing
ondes martenot cues (who would ever have thought that the instrument
could successfully convey a theme over light rock rhythms? Give Debney
credit for that one) or the grandiose, fantasy-worthy harmony that
sometimes sustains itself longer than a token crescendo in the final ten
cues. The organization of Debney's recording for
Aliens in the
Attic necessitated a high number of short cues, which is typical for
the genre, and along with this format come all of the problems inherent
in flow and consistency. There is probably an outstanding ten-minute
suite to be collected from all of this material, and while the entire
package is affable enough to brighten nearly anyone's mood, it's rather
vacant in the department of substance.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 56 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 49,960 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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