Giacchino officially graduated from the realm of epic video game scores (Medal of Honor & sequels) and diverse television scores (Alias and Lost) into the world of high stakes film scores with the highly successful The Incredibles a few years ago. In Giacchino's favor for Mission: Impossible III is his uncanny intelligence at adapting themes and styles from other works (he is aware of his musical surroundings moreso than many other composers these days who allow their egos to shut out music relevant to their current projects), and the result is finally a Mission: Impossible score that really makes strong use of Schifrin's original ideas. Giacchino's liberal statements of Schifrin's inspiration in Mission: Impossible III is a refreshing development that Elfman barely touched upon and Zimmer fumbled. His execution of the theme is successful because Giacchino assembles the 1970's instrumentation, from the percussion to the woodwinds, necessary for an authentic interpolation of that theme. And, taking that idea a step further, Giacchino incorporates that instrumentation into several cues in the score. Some of these are all-out expansions of Schifrin's material, such as the hip "See You in the Sewer" cue that even throws in Schifrin's "Plot" theme for good measure. Another aspect of Mission: Impossible III that Giacchino has moving in his favor is his ability to pace his music with a consistent sense of urgency. His rhythms are almost never stale, and much of this score moves with the same intent that propelled his Medal of Honor music. There are a few action pieces, including "Factory Rescue," that sprint with the same John Williams'-style string chopping that Giacchino utilized so well in those video games. The large ensemble is nimble in its performances, though some more complex variations on Schifrin's title theme may not suit fans of the original series' music.

The strangest aspect of Giacchino's Mission: Impossible III, and its potential downfall for many listeners to its lengthy album, is its ability to sustain the action (as required by the film) without really creating any sort of identity for itself. For all of its smart usage of theme, instrumentation, and pacing, Giacchino has created a score that passes with the same anonymity as Elfman's original, though much more easily listenable. The action material changes direction and style so often that it alone cannot sustain the album. The ensemble explodes, stops, changes ethnic style, meanders in lower ranges for a while, explodes again, throws a few false crescendos at you, and stops again... and then you get a token statement of Schifrin material. This process repeats over and over again, sometimes atonal, sometimes a bit easier on the ears, but in the end, the only common element is the fact that it continues to change at a swift pace. Even the impressive "Schifrin and Variations" suite of adaptations on Schifrin's theme moves between ideas at a staggering pace. Any one of the hinted adaptations would have made for a great extended performance, and the same could be said about many of Giacchino's extensive action cues within the score itself. There's something ironic about the possibility that Zimmer's "Injection" cue, perfect for a John Woo environment but as far from Schifrin's style as possible, remains the most memorable cue in the trilogy on album. Why are these scores so hard to get right? Using Abrams' equation in his notes, maybe it's the fault of the films' terrible stories. On the whole, Giacchino's score is the best of the three, but you get the impression that the flaws in his frantic and wild pacing mirror the flaws of the film itself, thus making it a marginalized success.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download