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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Rambo: Last Blood (Brian Tyler)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you desire extensions of Brian Tyler's original
themes from Rambo, this underachieving sequel score referencing
them frequently.
Avoid it... if you expect the legacy of Jerry Goldsmith to endure in this franchise, Tyler's applications of Goldsmith's themes disappointing and the new action and suspense material substandard at best.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Rambo: Last Blood: (Brian Tyler) John Rambo was
once a character known to make grown men weep, his tale of abandonment
and sorrow enduring against the backdrop of unheralded military service.
By the fifth film in his franchise, 2019's Rambo: Last Blood,
Rambo was reduced to a vengeful killing machine with little empathy
remaining for his incendiary actions, his methods of slaughtering the
world's villains appropriate for only gore-fests and parodies. Having
retired to his family ranch in Arizona, his peaceful life is shattered
when the granddaughter of one of his ranch hands is abducted on a
family-finding trip to Mexico. Rambo, not surprisingly, journeys there
to find her but only encounters tragedy, unleashing his inner demons as
he single-handedly thrashes a cartel both in Mexico and back at his
ranch, where his underground tunnels give him the upper hand. It's a
horrifically depressing and violent picture, with protagonists dying and
depictions of body mutilation beyond acceptance. David Morrell, the
creator of the Rambo character and author of the "First Blood" novel,
stated that he was now embarrassed to have his name associated with the
franchise. Critics agreed, citing the grotesque decapitation and
heart-ripping scenes as unnecessary. The conclusion of the film apes the
classic Western Shane in a way that doesn't clarify whether Rambo
even survives the film's battles. Nonetheless, the movie managed to
break even financially and Sylvester Stallone, who was largely
responsible for the story of this mess, continued to ponder yet another
sequel. The prior film, Rambo in 2008, brought composer Brian
Tyler into the concept, and he delicately walked a tightrope of honoring
Jerry Goldsmith's music for the previous three entries and balancing his
own evolving action mode. The tone of the fourth film's story allowed
Tyler to touch upon some beautiful dramatic elements along the way,
yielding a few tonal highlights reminiscent of his best works of earlier
in the 2000's. With Rambo: Last Blood, Tyler turns another few
pages in the musical saga, shifting even further from Goldsmith's core
and relying heavily on his generic action mannerisms and the two
original themes from his Rambo score. The result is as
underwhelming as the film.
Much of the frustration to be encountered in the music for Rambo: Last Blood owes to the loss of the ballsy nobility and heartbreaking lyricism that Goldsmith brought to the character. Tyler has replacements for these emotional appeals, but they are as mundane as they are unnecessary. The composer is among the more thoughtful in the industry, and yet this score fails to extend a musical narrative that makes any sense, a rare instance in which Tyler's music baffles and annoys. Some listeners may consider the score lazy, a few of its cues reprising Rambo wholesale and very little added to the mix to make this entry unique. Tyler applies an occasional Latin influence with acoustic guitar, but the usage is surprisingly rare. The solo female or boy soprano voice for lament carries over intact for the death scene in "Homeward Bound" and in "They Will Come Back." The attractive "Dusk" is simply a restatement of most of "Battle Adagio" from Rambo but cutting out a good portion of the cue in its latter half. The score exercises an excess of totally generic Tyler action ("Blood and Fire" and "The Tunnels") and totally generic Tyler suspense ("Outnumbered" and "We Will Find Him") that remain sufficient but unengaging, especially on album. There is orchestral force often supplied, and it espouses the same Remote Control-inspired sound heard in Rambo, with few specialty instruments. Interestingly, there is little obnoxious interference from synthetic elements, which is a relief. There are also no appreciable new themes dedicated to this film, an oddity that forces reliance upon both of Tyler's main identities from Rambo even if they don't make sense. What the composer calls his "stoic" theme for Rambo is confirmed as the new main theme of the franchise, but also reprised frequently is the village theme from the prior film, which suggests that the idea is more of a general representation of humanitarian lament. Tyler does offer a new theme for the relationship between Rambo and his adopted granddaughter, Gabriela (misspelled in the track listings), but it does not achieve significant warmth or memorability. Along with these ideas are returning Goldsmith themes from the first two films, including a cameo for the Rambo: First Blood Part II action theme and an enhanced role for the military service motif on trumpets. Tyler's "stoic" theme for the titular character is a near-constant in Rambo: Last Blood, opening the suite-like "Rambo: Last Blood" and returning later in the cue with choral and percussive backing. It does experience a fair amount of deconstruction in several cues, including at 2:02 into "The Ranch," where overlapping lines offer the theme's underlying chords on top for a while. It recurs in that suite-like performance at 0:21 into "Dusk," at 1:26 into "Unmistakable," in an action variant to open "Vengeance Eternal" and in quiet anguish at 0:53 in that cue, and deep in suspense at 2:26 into "Fatalism." At 0:43 into "Destination," this main theme assumes its true action stance, aggressive over slapping percussion. It starts the film's extended opening in "Rescue at Night" and is interspersed with generic action later in the cue. A fuller, more satisfying action mode awaits the theme at 2:12 into "Concussed." It shifts to lament on lower strings at 0:22 into "Love Unconditional," a nice trumpet solo too brief. After a faint presence in the first half of "Because of You," the idea explodes into brass revenge mode at 2:22. It is defiant against tumultuous suspense at 1:50 into "We Will Find Him" and fragmented in the action frenzy at 0:15 into "The Tunnels" before a performance at 0:23 into "Preparing for War" that is redundant with the opening arrangement on the album. The lovely village theme, continued for lamentation in this film, is offered in familiar tones at 1:09 into "Dusk" but is reduced nicely to solo piano and woodwind at 0:59 into "Sorrow." A good interplay between violins and cellos carries the theme at 1:22 into "Homeward Bound," and its soft, tentative traits extend from 4:14 into "John and Gabrielle" to close out that cue. A solo piano fragment extends the idea at 0:50 into "Concussed," and the film concludes with several performances of its beauty in "Sunset," building to choral sadness that stands as a lesser version of "Dusk." A secondary interlude to this theme caused Rambo to remind of Tyler's Children of Dune, and the same female vocal rendition is reprised at 0:37 into "Dusk." The underlying chords for that sequence return on their own at 0:45 into "Sorrow." There is an inherent exoticism to the village theme that suited the prior film well, and it's a bit bizarre to hear it repurposed for Rambo's sense of compassion more generally. Despite its surprising placements in this film, the theme remains welcome on album. The only substantively new theme in Rambo: Last Blood is an extremely vague, ascending idea seemingly representing the Gabriela character, heard first on album from subdued strings at 1:00 into "Homeward Bound." The theme's suite arrangement follows in "John and Gabrielle," a pensive cue with some Latin flair in the middle. Its applications are sparse, however, struggling to assert itself in the latter half of "Love Unconditional." After returning at 0:19 into "U-Turn," the phrasing informs the rest of the cue, even if darker in Latin shades. Its chords solely survive by the start of "Sunset." Tyler introduces a menacing motif at 2:15 into "Unmistakable" (three notes up and three notes down on brass) that would have served as a good villains' identity, but that idea only returns in fragments in the middle of "Fatalism" and the end of "Destination." These new ideas are totally inept, and their inefficiency in defining the film is compounded by a lack of satisfaction with the statements of Goldsmith's themes, which are handled poorly in the score. The military service motif makes frequent cameos, which is nice, opening and closing "Dusk," a quick respite from action at 2:44 into "Destination," brief at 0:07 into "U-Turn," a longer version at 0:05 into "Higher Aspirations," and concluding the score at 2:06 into "Sunset." A wonderful and singular highlight is the Rambo: First Blood Part II action theme at 1:19 into "Preparing for War," a reprise of the suite arrangement's performance at 1:16 into "Rambo: Last Blood." Those two cues and "The Ranch" also end with an aggressive version of the "sneaking" motif from Goldsmith's first score, though this idea is sadly absent when Rambo is actually sneaking around in this story. Finally, there's the "long road" theme that defined First Blood, and whereas Tyler gave it decent treatment in Rambo, it is reduced here to just a solo trumpet performance at 0:30 into "The Ranch." There is absolutely no excuse for this theme to be absent from "Sunset" as Rambo rides off on his horse; it is the franchise identity and would have made a perfect bookend to the character's narrative arc. The lack of Goldsmith's presence in Rambo: Last Blood is tragic, and John Rambo simply cannot credibly exist on screen without the "long road" theme. On album, Tyler once again jumbles up the tracks so the film narrative is lost. While primarily a digital release, a CD with the same contents was pressed in the Japanese market. Expect the product to supply less fulfillment compared to Rambo, either of the similar "Preparing for War" or "Rambo: Last Blood" tracks representing the best new material and the rest aping the prior score or leaving you bored and disengaged. A long road, indeed. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
All Albums:
Total Time: 75:09
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for the 2019 digital album. The insert of the
2020 CD contains a fold-out poster with notes about the film and score in Japanese.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Rambo: Last Blood are Copyright © 2019, 2020, Lakeshore Records (Digital), Rambling Records (Japan) (CD) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/6/21 (and not updated significantly since). |
