PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

The general stylistic approach Young has taken to The Monkey King 2 is mostly expected. He returns to the Slovak National Orchestra and Lucnica Chorus in Bratislava for the bulk of the recorded and then laced the Oriental instrumental soloists on erhu, gongs, koto, pipa, and shamisen into the mix. Here, however, he has largely substituted the operatic vocals of the first score with a harsher collection of processed erhu, cello, and voice, yielding a less elegant ambient tone on the whole and pushing the overall sound in a different textural zone. Young professed to being somewhat stumped about how to out-muscle the first score in its brute force, intentionally presenting more contemplative suites for the sequel. Perhaps he opted not to compete with the first score's immense size on such a consistent basis in this entry because, aside from the fact that the story offers more pensive moments, the filmmakers could easily track music from The Monkey King into the sequel. You still receive some outright rowdiness in this score, including a carryover of the Ghost Rider rock elements into "Bianfu Yaoguai, The Bat Demon." Expect longer sequences of exploration of ambient instrumental tones, with cues more likely to take 30 seconds to fade a final sustain to the end. The replacement of the otherworldly female solo vocals of the prior score with a collection of percussive effects, as offered within the sparse environment in "Yun Hai Xi Guo, The King of Yun Hai Xi Kingdom," is disappointing. The solo voice is even absent in the new "Guanyin Pusa, The Goddess of Mercy" suite despite the straight carryover of that character into the sequel. The ensemble choir is lighter in this work, favoring very high range accompaniment rather than Young's more typical, deeper adult singing. The composer himself supplies some electronically manipulated throat singing effects to two or three cues, a nicely effective tool that is more intriguingly attractive than it is unsettling. The brass writing in The Monkey King 2 is simply exquisite when Young unleashes those players in full force, led by dual horn and flute calls of fright at the opening of "Baigujing, Lady White Bone" that are really unlike much of anything else in recent film scores. On the other hand, the brass performers in Bratislava do butcher a few measures during the heightened rhythmic action, two obvious flubs late in "Bianfu Yaoguai, The Bat Demon" negating a solid mix of the group.

Perhaps the most viable criticism leveled against the original The Monkey King score was its very minimal crossover of themes from one suite to another, and that issue is compounded in the sequel. Young makes very little effort to outwardly develop his themes and lesser motifs from the prior score and instead adapts phrases from those ideas into new themes in The Monkey King 2. You thus find yourself recognizing four or five-note phrases but not wholly evident themes in their entirety. This approach works to supply really basic continuity, but it's also disappointing to hear both Sun Wukong and the Goddess of Mercy afforded all-new themes when neither required a total musical reboot. The Sun Wukong theme, which had been the primary identity in the prior score, only really carries over its underlying rhythmic figures in the opening and closing portions of "Sun Wukong, The Monkey King," the actual melody for the character now taking on an entirely new set of progressions. Intriguingly, you hear only a faint hint of the old Sun Wukong theme at 0:12 into "Bianfu Yaoguai, The Bat Demon." Likewise, in "Guanyin Pusa, The Goddess of Mercy," the other recurring character loses her operatic vocals and theme altogether and receives a lesser alternative. It's still lovely in parts, especially with its cooing choir, but it's simply not as outstanding as the prior identity. Likewise, you instead encounter the earlier theme in an unexpected place, this time at 1:43 into "Bailongma, The White Dragon Horse." The new character themes of The Monkey King 2 are solid but inconsistently conveyed. For instance, the first two minutes of "Baigujing, Lady White Bone" are stunning while the latter three minutes are totally forgettable. Less condensed is the idea for "Tang Sanzang, The Monk," which does offer some beautiful solos and informs the middle portion of "Sun Wukong, The Monkey King," naturally suggesting that necessary bond. Jerry Goldsmith enthusiasts will appreciate (or maybe be horrified by) "Bailongma, The White Dragon Horse," the latter half a rather blatant tribute to the late composer in clearly this score's most extroverted and noble theme. In the first suite, "Jinguzhou, The Golden Hoop," Young establishes many of the common phrasing and instrumental colors that will inform the remaining cues, though his collectors will simply recognize many of these structural elements from Priest, which remains the clear precursor for this franchise's scores. The repetitive, rhythmic nature of the melodic passages is especially derivative of the 2011 fan-favorite.

Like The Monkey King, the sequel score alternates between incredibly powerful ensemble statements of melody and rather quirky sideshows, and those diversions are not quite as engaging this time around. A frenzied cue that is as challenging as it is intellectually stimulating is "Xiyi Yaoguai, The Basilisk Demon," which opens with some of the score's best lower choral mystery material before percussive and string mayhem unfolds with such ferociously grating attitude that the cue becomes nearly intolerable. A rather humorous avenue is taken for "Zhu Bajie, The Pig Demon," opening with light rhythms familiar to the first score's "Subhuti, the Old Master" before plodding along with a rather ugly theme that doesn't produce any harmonic resonance (understandable, given the character). Totally ambient and percussive is "Yun Hai Xi Guo, The King of Yun Hai Xi Kingdom," reprising Young's own distorted vocal effects from "Jinguzhou, The Golden Hoop" and presenting some thunderous bass booms that will test your subwoofers. A soothing respite awaits in "Jingu Bang, The Monkey King's Staff," a choral beauty but a quite restrained one at that. For "Sha Heshang, The Sand Monk," Young takes a while to get rolling, but familiar phrasing takes this character's theme into a satisfyingly rousing fanfare at the end, along with more questionable brass performances. As mentioned before, "Bianfu Yaoguai, The Bat Demon" is this score's equivalent to the raucous, electric guitar-aided "Niu Mo Wang, the Buffalo Demon King" from the predecessor, though it evens out into an almost Hard Rain-like tonal suspense rhythm in its midsection before launching into outright rock percussion (with a very nicely mixed snare pounding away, especially in the last minute) packing hard-ass coolness to the tenth degree. There's almost a James Bond vibe to the very end of this cue. Young closes out the score with a heroic, major-key fanfare conclusion to "Sun Wukong, The Monkey King" that reminds of John Williams in scope, a rarity for Young, who seems more confortable allowing his cues to simply fade into oblivion. Overall, The Monkey King 2 is tremendous fun, but only in parts. While the same could be said of the prior work, this one's highlights are fewer and spread between more ambient material. The lack of clear thematic continuity will become an issue for some listeners, because it's rather nonsensical. Together, these scores represent the very best of Young's career, but the first entry remains a classic while the sequel is simply a very strong but occasionally disappointing sibling. Still, don't be surprised to see The Monkey King 2 on many top-10 lists for 2016, and let's hope Young forges ahead with another impressive score for the concept's third film.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48 (in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 10,920 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 75:31