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| Ottman |
Non-Stop: (John Ottman/Edwin Wendler) Still ripe
for the plucking is the airplane terrorist genre of action/horror
movies, 2014's
Non-Stop overcoming a muted critical response to
earn solid returns at the box office. The story leaves much to be
desired from those tired of stereotypes, predictable plot twists, and
implausible execution, casting Liam Neeson as a troubled but noble air
marshal who finds himself in the middle of a terrorist manipulation of
his flight across the Atlantic. The pilot and passengers begin dying
mysteriously when demands sent by text messages to the air marshal are
unheeded, a premise with promise that is diluted once bombs, cocaine,
and other unlikely elements of dubious origin begin hijacking the plot.
Needless to say, Neeson's character kicks butt, and that's the entire
purpose for the existence of this film (aside from making people even
more squeamish about flying; the film's release coincided with the
bizarre disappearance of a real-life Malaysian airliner). The production
of
Non-Stop was just as conventional, its music playing a very
minor role in the overall equation. Composer John Ottman was hired for
the project but quickly found himself battling conflicting schedules
with the editing of
X-Men: Days of Future Past, a passion and
franchise obviously of higher importance. Ottman had, whether for the
ease of scheduling or for contractual reasons, shared composing credit
with his assistants in the past, and for
Non-Stop, he contacted
Edwin Wendler, who had done arrangement and orchestration work for
lesser-known Ottman projects of the prior few years. Wendler himself
had, over the same period, begun to establish his own compositional
career, though without any credits as well known as
Non-Stop.
While a composer like Hans Zimmer makes news by collaborating with a
whole slew of artists, Ottman seems to prefer working one-on-one with a
single collaborator. In the case of Wendler and
Non-Stop, this
relationship played out like a mentor and ghostwriter, Ottman guiding
and approving every cue of a 96-minute score even though all but a few
of those minutes were primarily the toil of Wendler, who got
surprisingly minimal credit for that effort. Such circumstances can
involve contractual credit obligations (Ottman's
Unknown comes to
mind), but it's still disappointing to see Wendler's name receive so
little notice for this mass of production on a major film.
Ottman and Wendler spotted
Non-Stop together and
the more veteran composer supplied the primary theme and a number of
textural elements he had decided upon for the score. Detailed feedback
from Ottman was provided on every cue as Wendler worked through the
project. Unfortunately, a film like
Non-Stop doesn't really
require much ingenuity in its formulaic approach to the topic, and the
music is a purely atmospheric player on this field. The only area in
which this score could really excel is in the department of synthetic
tones and loops, and the composers fail to really provide anything new
of interest in this area. The groaning, grinding, and clicking sounds
are all quite mundane and lacking any sonic resemblance to the
environment of an airplane. This score would have functioned just as
well on a hijacked ship or train. There are some odd reflections of
Basil Poledouris' textures in "8000 Feet" (not to mention some string
suspense techniques from Jerry Goldsmith), but otherwise the mass of
generic music that hinges upon the synthetic realm will pass unnoticed
in the score. The orchestral contribution isn't much more inspired, a
budget European orchestra employed to provide what ultimately seems to
be about 50% of the mix. One of the clear disappointments of
Non-Stop is Wendler and Ottman's decision to bypass rhythmically
and tonally solid orchestral powerhouse action writing for the climactic
scenes, instead relying upon the electronics to supply continued basics
of sufficient volume. The main exception is "F*** It," which beefs up
the symphonic presence towards John Powell chasing levels. Only in this
cue and the thematic material at the start will Ottman collectors hear
snippets of writing that really resemble what listeners expect from his
style. The first four cues on the album presentation for
Non-Stop
deliver the bulk of the melodic material to be enjoyed, the "Epilogue"
cue at the end only a meager shadow of the main theme. The title cue
does feature the score's theme with barely enough rhythmic style to
infuse some slight dose of pizzazz into the work, but it's not enough.
These cues essentially convey the troubles of the Neeson character and
are generally subdued, albeit more pleasant than what follows. Ottman
fans will seek to pull the moderately entertaining "Non-Stop" track and
disregard the rest as functional but unremarkable. Ultimately, a
workmanlike score such as
Non-Stop does not hold up well on album
(the 53-minute presentation does labor to sustain interest), especially
with the main theme dissolving without impact in the suspense cues, the
synthetic ambience generic, and the orchestra's contributions
unsubstantial.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.17
(in 35 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.05
(in 21,449 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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