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Review of Jurassic World (Michael Giacchino)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you trust Michael Giacchino to deliver a technically
masterful emulation of John Williams' original music for the concept in
this impressive and loyal sequel score.
Avoid it... if you expect Giacchino to truly capture the emotional resonance of Jurassic Park, an arguably impossible task in the inevitable world of comparisons.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Jurassic World: (Michael Giacchino) Shortly after
the artistic disappointment of Jurassic Park III in 2001, Steven
Spielberg sought to return glory to the franchise he started in 1993
with the original classic, Jurassic Park. 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, Jurassic Park
IV was set on a back burner for several years. When it emerged in
2015 as Jurassic World, 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 Jurassic Park
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 Jurassic Park 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 Jurassic
Park in Jurassic World is stunning, clearly indicating that
the idea of a "reboot" was not the intention. Overcoming only middling
reviews, Jurassic World 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 Jurassic
Park, despite a decent but not comparable sequel from the maestro
for The Lost World: Jurassic Park a few years later, is
considered legendary. Although Williams was still actively writing in
2015, he was deeply involved with Star Wars: The Force Awakens
and the assignment for Jurassic World 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 defined 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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 76:47
* composed by Mick Giacchino
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and notes about the score from both the composer and director.
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