Filmtracks: Godzilla vs. Kong (Tom Holkenborg)

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Written 5/19/21

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Buy it... if you can disengage your brain long enough to appreciate a kaiju score of the lowest common denominator, Tom Holkenborg closely following the Hans Zimmer playbook with predictable results.

Avoid it... if you expect anything in this score to sound authentic, from the themes to the instruments, for this work plays like an unfinished demo recording from start to finish.

Holkenborg

Godzilla vs. Kong: (Tom Holkenborg) In Japan, there have been countless films depicting the famed Godzilla versus something, with that "something" including every conceivable bizarre creature except for Donald J. Trump. (Give it time.) The 2021 movie Godzilla vs. Kong represents the first of these massive, dedicated kaiju face-offs from Hollywood, serving as a direct sequel to 2017's Kong: Skull Island and 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The hopelessly ridiculous plot of the 2021 follow-up proposes that there is a hollow area within the planet, literally called "Hollow Earth" and not yet claimed by the rich as a tax haven, from which the monstrous beasts in these franchises come from. Meanwhile, evil corporate and military interests are using mysterious technologies unsanctioned by Elon Musk to build and control giant fake monsters. Not only do audiences get to see the oddly proportioned battles between the two titular beasts, but an appearance by the uber-silly Mechagodzilla against both of them is another attraction. Forget for a moment these creatures have almost zero personality, even Kong, and that void of depth extends to the human characters that carry over into this flick. Ultimately, the film is another excuse to show the cause of extensive but likely unsuccessful property insurance claims, as usual. Despite the general stupidity of the concept and its execution, audiences propelled Godzilla vs. Kong to mammoth earnings both in cinemas and via streaming. Director Adam Wingard, who had composed the music for a few of his prior films, had clear misgivings about the connection between his film and those prior in the concept, deciding that the famous musical themes by Akira Ifukube and others for these characters would not be appropriate. "I knew it would be controversial on one hand because the original themes have been kind of revived but, on the other hand, I wanted this to stand on its own legs," Wingard said. "I wanted to embrace the MonsterVerse version of the character." This MonsterVerse started with 2014's Godzilla, and it has to be lamented that each entry since then has featured a different composer's work.

As Wingard admitted, the original Japanese/Toho musical influence on the franchise had already been resurrected brilliantly in the current MonsterVerse by Bear McCreary for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, a classic score that best combines the heritage of the concept with edgy new appeal. Apparently, that didn't impress him. Not helping his decision-making process was an electronica junkie turned Hans Zimmer clone, Tom Holkenborg, who has so thoroughly digested Zimmer's Kool-Aid by this point that he parrots all of the senseless Remote Control mantra about ignoring established musical themes. The real reason men like Zimmer and Holkenborg don't want to take the time to adapt classic themes into their scores (and, yes, it can be done) is because they want to creatively and artistically reinvent the wheel for a new generation, taking credit for succeeding better for a modern audience when, in fact, they're not providing anything more effective than the original. Likewise, one has to wonder if these Remote Control composers, going all the way up to Zimmer himself, are even capable of pulling off a display of masterful adaptation like McCreary accomplished for the 2019 film. Do they not try because they don't think they can do it? It wouldn't have been difficult to adapt material from Henry Jackman's Kong: Skull Island for this entry, but Holkenborg doesn't go there, either. It's lazy and disrespectful to make no attempt at an adaptation of at least Ifukube's main Godzilla theme (the 2014 production of Godzilla was not exempt from this criticism, too), especially with McCreary proving this ridiculous Zimmer mentality invalid. Between Wingard and Holkenborg, much effort was thus put into needlessly creating a new musical universe for the franchise at this juncture, and, not surprisingly, the composer ends up using many of the same stereotypes of monster music without actually repeating the beloved themes or even generating memorable monster music. The whole exercise comes across as rather pointless. Making matters worse is the issue that Holkenborg's recording sounds atrociously woeful, a product that proves that all the money and training of Remote Control, including the best samples in the world, cannot alone save a relative amateur from producing substandard music.

Holkenborg, shedding his Junkie XL moniker, has shown promising progression as a composer over the years prior to Godzilla vs. Kong, which is why this score, along with the likewise underperforming Zack Snyder's Justice League concurrently, is a greater disappointment than just one inferior entry in the Godzilla franchise. Even if you accept Holkenborg's abandonment of the franchise's prior themes as a director prerequisite, the execution of his replacement is so wretchedly conveyed that one has to question his capability to make effective conceptual decisions for this level of solo blockbuster assignment. Rarely do the talents and competence of a composer come under this kind of scrutiny in a review, but Godzilla vs. Kong is a prime example of not just Holkenborg's failure, but Zimmer's for sculpting and releasing him into the industry with methodology that yields a work like this. In the end, Holkenborg's score for Godzilla vs. Kong did not receive a proper recording. In fact, it was never finished. What listeners encounter is one massive demo recording from start to end, the tone of the instrumentation cheaply rendered and the juvenile over-emphasis of notes suggesting no natural performance inflection and incomplete constructs. It's the ultimate auto-tuned score, with no competent orchestrations, no nuance in the movement between notes, and extremely poor separation between the layers of orchestral samples, soloists, and electronics. The words "orchestral samples" are no accident, as this entire score sounds sampled as in the typical demo recording one would expect for a common first draft. Without any natural performance variance, each instrument sounds like it's being keyboarded. There's no indication that an actual orchestra recorded the score for Godzilla vs. Kong, so perhaps we are indeed hearing a glorified synthetic demo. Holkenborg does, in true Zimmer fashion, strive for something meaty to throw into the press release, and for this score that means the "biggest bass amp in the world" and the "biggest drum in the world." Neither actually has any functionally positive impact on the finished product. In fact, while Holkenborg was trying to figure how to get this massive, custom-built drum rolled into his garage and sample the thing, he somehow forgot to devise a way to incorporate any actually convincing jungle instrumentation.

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Holkenborg may argue that Godzilla vs. Kong required an electronic edge appropriate to his techno sensibilities because of the Mechagodzilla aspect of the story, but that doesn't explain why the whole score is so inauthentic. The synthetic layers are abrasive in the work, and without any natural life from an orchestra, the whole affair is harshly mechanical, even when attempting to be softly romantic in the material for Kong and the little girl in the plot. There are no wailing electric guitars in the score, but the composer's attempts at instrumental creativity vary widely in efficacy, some of them simply lost in the process. Holkenborg supplies two themes for the Godzilla side of the story and two for the Kong side, each of the pairs of themes sharing some constructs at times. The highlights of the score definitely exist in the Kong material, though listeners not bothered by the cold shoulder to Ifukube may appreciate the similarly brutal brass-like theme for the beloved nuclear reptile. In searching for Godzilla's theme, Holkenborg seems to have taken inspiration from David Buttolph's main theme from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. The enunciation on low brass seems the same in all these applications, and that brings familiarity as well. The new Godzilla theme experiences no evolution or substantial variance for most of the score, nearly always stomping away even when its volume is a little lower. The official concept suite for this theme (again, a Zimmer technique bleeding through) presents the idea immediately in "Pensacola, Florida (Godzilla Theme)," though be aware that the album version of this suite is far shorter than the one that Holkenborg actually constructed initially. The idea builds throughout "Apex Cybernetics" before its big brass-like explosions at 0:42 into "Tasman Sea," 0:26 into "Hollow Earth," and 0:14 into "Nuclear Blast," each entry getting progressively more distorted electronically until the last cue sounds like terrible keyboarding. This distortion culminates at 0:20 into "Mega," yielding to accelerated phrases later in the cue, continued stomping at 5:57 finally reduced at 6:51 to melancholy string-like lament and replaced by major key Kong material. At 1:09 into "Hong Kong," the theme's pace is slower and overblown, with choral chanting effects distorted as well. Its anthemic choral applications at 5:18 and 7:33 and elsewhere in that cue alternate frequently with the main Kong theme.

The secondary thematic material for Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong is revealed to be an identity for the Apex Cybernetics and Mechagodzilla lines of the plot. It starts well with fake woodwinds ascending in figures that imitate the suspense portions of John Williams' Jurassic Park. The idea extends the Godzilla theme's structures into a rhythmic, even more electronic formation. The more subdued woodwind-like figures are more interesting, though, as heard at the outsets of "Apex Cybernetics," "Just Now," and "Lunch," and late in "The Royal Axe." Meanwhile, Kong's two themes in Godzilla vs. Kong are more appealing in their progressions. The main one for the giant ape is heard at the outset of "Skull Island (Kong Theme)," and the idea's simplistic movements through the octaves make it a decent representation of the character. By the time it shifts to the major key late in the film, one has to wonder if this theme would have made a better all-new identity for Batman in Zack Snyder's Justice League (assuming one was needed, which it wasn't) than for Kong, though both are descending when their characters really deserve ascending structures. The main fanfare for Kong is restrained in the middle portions of the score but is revealed again in majestically large but distorted tones at 0:59 into "The Throne." The battle cues of "Mega" and "Hong Kong" are where this theme flourishes, intermingled with the Godzilla theme in the action after moments of bravado at 0:59 and 3:17 into "Mega." Dramatic string-like layers at 3:19 into "Hong Kong" lead to accelerated treatment on keyboards and string-like sounds at 5:36 before a heroic variation, which continues alternating with Godzilla's theme, prevails at 7:51. The secondary theme for Kong is the highlight of Godzilla vs. Kong, addressing the character's connection to Skull Island, his heritage, and with the little girl of the plot. Its debut at 2:33 into "Skull Island (Kong Theme)" includes a gorgeous flute-like performance, and this accessible tone is extended at 0:54 into "A New Language." A massively busy but brief moment for the theme at 0:50 into "Through There" is followed by development throughout "Antarctica." It becomes bizarrely synthetic with Aquaman-like choir at 2:40 into "Hollow Earth" and is fragmented in the action at 0:17 into "The Royal Axe" and thereafter. Its short but dramatic moment at 3:08 into "Hong Kong" allows the idea to overlap with the primary Kong theme; at 6:22, its softness on string-like tones shift well to the main Kong theme's phrasing.

Any sensitivity that briefly emerges from the secondary Kong theme in Godzilla vs. Kong is short-lived, however, because like everything else in the score, an abrasive rendering awaits at every turn. There are positives in the score that need acknowledged, and the beauty of this secondary theme is one of them. Also to be noted is Holkenborg's handling of the main Kong theme as it develops into a major key hero's identity later in the picture. Likewise, the rapid alternation between the Kong and Godzilla themes in the final battle sequence is commendable, though the composer seems incapable of intelligently layering the two themes on top of each other when they team together. These highlights are more than countered by a slew of fatal flaws with the score, however, and the unattractive passages provided by Holkenborg for an intended brutality element are sometimes totally unlistenable, almost laughably so. The sequence starting at 5:13 into "Mega" is among the most ridiculous moments in film music to have emerged in the prior ten years. Between the pounding stupidity on percussion and a rising pitch effect that accelerates like some doomed industrial mechanical failure, the effect is so awful that it's hilarious, almost a poor-man's stuttering imitation of a Blaster Beam. The tribute to Paul Haslinger industrial thrashing at times is eye-rolling, the latter half of "Nuclear Blast" combining with Holkenborg's own rambling techno rhythms to an extremely obnoxious end. The 68 minutes of music presented on the album for Godzilla vs. Kong is more than enough to satisfy the listener, especially if he or she has just come off of the mind-numbing four hours of Zack Snyder's Justice League. Note that the opening credits music is missing from the album for whatever reason. The whole experience with Godzilla vs. Kong's soundtrack is miserably disappointing despite a few fleeting, decent ideas from Holkenborg. There are highlights in Kong's material, helping the score avoid the lowest ratings. But this demo-like music exposes a composer trying too hard to achieve a unique result and not yet making the right decisions to succeed. The McCrearys and Andrew Lockingtons of the world have proven themselves with this type of music. Hopefully, Holkenborg will advance through these ranks as well. It's not the intent of these reviews to simply bust the ass of a composer or his mentor, but when you fail to this degree at this level, questions about competency and methodology must be asked. Holkenborg has tremendous potential and room to grow as a film composer, and Godzilla vs. Kong was a monster-sized missed opportunity for him to do so. ** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Tom Holkenborg reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.16 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.49 (in 6,139 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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