Filmtracks: Terminator Genisys (Lorne Balfe)

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Written 9/27/21

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Buy it... if you desire the most lyrical, dramatic, and symphonic score in the franchise of The Terminator, a surprisingly dynamic and yet faithful treatment when at its best.

Avoid it... if you still long for a composer to finally do justice to Brad Fiedel's romantic franchise theme, Lorne Balfe missing a major opportunity to ditch anonymous string ostinatos and develop the famous identity for this film.

Balfe

Terminator Genisys: (Lorne Balfe) If anyone is still looking for what film finally killed the franchise based on the 1984 classic The Terminator, look no further than 2015's Terminator Genisys. While a sixth entry again featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger was due a few years later, it was Terminator Genisys that drew in massive crowds only to generate huge disappointment, so by the time the arguably superior Terminator: Dark Fate rolled around in 2019, audiences had given up. The concept has long been mired in legal issues involving rights, and not even Schwarzenegger and James Cameron stepping in during the 2010's could save its future. For this fifth entry, the franchise attempts to totally reboot the concept after acknowledging the first picture, postulating that a benevolent T-800 terminator is sent back to protect Sarah Conner as a child after a T-1000 is sent back to eliminate her parents. Poor Kyle Reese is sent back to 1984 as scheduled but finds the whole timeline disrupted. Meanwhile, the son of this not-so-ripped version of Sarah, the destined leader John Connor, is assimilated by the evil SkyNet in Borg-like fashion and causes his own temporal disruptions. At this point, all the allure of the original concept is gone, generating only spectacular fight sequences and nostalgic one-liners. The music for the franchise, since the departure of Brad Fiedel, has been completely rudderless, indecisive about the extent to which to continue or even recognize Fiedel's standard from the first two entries. These subsequent films represent one of the most frustrating missed opportunities in the history of cinema, especially considering that the original theme from The Terminator remains one of the most powerful romance identities of all time, even when expressed militaristically. For Terminator Genisys, the production turned to composer Christophe Beck for the assignment, a surprising but invigorating selection. Without ceremony, however, the project dropped Beck a few months into shooting and the studio did what any panicked company would: call Hans Zimmer. The Remote Control Productions machine went into full gear, Zimmer recommending Lorne Balfe for the film while retaining the ceremonial role of "Executive Music Producer" for album-selling purposes. While various credits indicate that Zimmer contributed some programming of synthesizers to Terminator Genisys, the score really belonged to Balfe.

Long an enthusiast of the franchise, Balfe was thrilled to be given the opportunity to reference Fiedel's material as he saw fit. With the help of two of his own ghostwriters, Andrew Kawczynski and Dieter Hartmann, Balfe went to extreme lengths to replicate the metallic sound design that defined both of Fiedel's works, but especially Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This tact is commendable, and for most listeners, it will shine in "Alley Confrontation" and "Fight," the carryover of slurring T-1000 sounds most pronounced. Balfe chose to score the film in the opposite manner as Marco Beltrami and Danny Elfman before him, not only carefully conscious of Fiedel's material but taking a decidedly melodic approach to Terminator Genisys. He supplies an over-abundance of themes to the picture; the majority of his own cues are those that develop these themes outright or adapt them into intelligent action variants. Sadly, there is a distinct difference in quality between the cues handled by Balfe himself and those contributed to by his ghostwriters. The team-written cues are far more often defined by tiresome string ostinatos and percussive banging that have sullied the reputation of the average Remote Control ghostwriter, if not also Zimmer himself. The strength of the score for Terminator Genisys mostly relies upon the Balfe cues that make up his thematic core and opening and concluding sequences for the film. The general sound of the score, despite all the talk and press about Balfe's effort to emulate Fiedel's synthetic tones beyond just the token scenes of the T-800 doing its thing, is extremely organic, conveyed by surprisingly sincere orchestral depth. This work is by far the most symphonically majestic in the history of the franchise, lending it a muscular fantasy mode that alone sets it apart from its siblings. There are obnoxious sequences of thrashing synthetics and looped mayhem, of course, but these cues, while plentiful in the chase scenes, do not ultimately define the whole. Balfe's themes do that honor, and the composer arguably overthinks the concept in how he attributes those ideas. It's amazing to even postulate that a movie in the Terminator franchise has too many themes, but Balfe arguably achieved exactly that in this fifth entry. He has a tendency to write really strong melodies for concept suites but then have difficulty interpolating them into the mass of his work. Unfortunately, that problem persists here, though his ideas do each receive enough air time to suffice even if they don't always satisfy in their development.

Balfe provides four major new themes and one lesser motif to Terminator Genisys, relegating the franchise melody by Fiedel and its accompanying two rhythmic devices, to a secondary role. He chose to devise a theme for the concept of fate and hope as the overarching identity of the shifting timelines in the story, a "guardian theme" for the T-800 ("Pops") and his relationship with Sarah Conner, a militaristic idea for John Connor turned sour over the course of the film, a new love theme for Sarah and Kyle Reese, and a suspense-driven motif for the Cyberdyne company responsible for all our future ills. The first four of these themes receive suite arrangements that are sometimes rearranged to fit certain scenes, and they are spread throughout the album presentation without good reason. The "fate and hope" theme is the main new identity that opens the album and makes its most impressive mark on the scene involving Reese using the time travel machine to journey to 1984. This theme is astonishingly optimistic for a film in this franchise, its consistently rising figures yearning for a better life. Its three-note phrases also layer in lovely counterpoint, and keen ears may notice that the underlying chord progressions of this identity will serve as a good match for Fiedel's franchise theme if overlaid on them. There are times when Balfe toys directly with the similar three-note phrasing of Fiedel's theme in his "fate and hope" theme, and one can only wish he had allowed the legacy idea to explicitly serve as counterpoint. The middle section of "Fate and Hope," following its dreamy piano introduction with elegant string and choral layers over tasteful percussion, is supplied with greater force in "Reese Going Back," a cue unreleased on album. (There is a nice manipulation of the piano version of the theme for suspense late in that cue as well.) Hints of heroism occupy the theme at 2:02 into "Work Camp," and it struggles underneath rampaging action rhythms at 1:56 into "Still After Us." A highlight of the score comes with this theme on alluring solo cello at 0:42 into "If You Love Me You Die." The idea matures nicely in the final cues, large on strings at 0:57 into "Sacrifice" and its primary, rising three notes finally overlapping with the franchise theme at 2:55 as the T-800's face is dissolved away. (The lack of a second phrase for the franchise theme here is unfortunate, as the chords would have allowed it.) As Cyberdyne's complex explodes at 3:35 into that cue, Balfe unleashes the theme in full brass force. The finale, "What If I Can't?," affirms the theme's potential at 2:08, first from solo piano and then with brass-led redemption leading to the end credits' application of the franchise theme.

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The main "hope and fate" theme for Terminator Genisys bookends the album release nicely, though aside from its absence in the proper position where "Reese Going Back" should be, the album is also missing a brief piano reprise in "Flashback #2" and an important, massive statement with choir in "Sarah & Reese Into TDD," a necessary cue, even if brief, because of its pairing with one of the franchise rhythms. On the same end of the emotional spectrum is the "guardian theme," for which Balfe also writes three-note phrases, albeit with a more somber heart, for the relationship between Sarah and the T-800. Summarized in its late album suite, "Guardianship," this theme is defined by its lower piano expressions and makes its mark at 2:32 into "Come With Me." Pieces of it introduce "Alcove," but Balfe really saves this idea for the final cues, stewing with it at the start of "Sacrifice" and applying its spirit to the melodramatic, bittersweet triumph for the T-800 at 1:44 into that cue. The idea also opens "What If I Can't?" and closes the unreleased "Sarah & Reese Into TDD." Balfe's theme for John Connor is by far the most intelligently developed in Terminator Genisys, debuting with all the appropriate heroism of the character's expected future but literally distorting and disintegrating as the story reveals him to be a zombie antagonist. The "John Connor" suite on album, conveying the idea's solo trumpet nobility and later horn masculinity, is adapted into a really good rendition on screen in its natural introduction during the unreleased "Meet John Connor." It's a fantastic theme for the character, and the story sadly does not allow its heroic variations much airtime. It's applied at 2:24 into "Work Camp" but is already intentionally distorted on trumpet at the start of "I Am More" as the character reveals his new self. The theme is badly manipulated by 3:08 into "If You Love Me You Die" and the middle of the unreleased "Hospital Fight." A slower, melancholy version opens "Family." The final major theme in Terminator Genisys is a series of descending pairs of notes meant to represent Sarah and Kyle as a love theme. Electric strings dominate this melody, summarized in the "Sarah & Kyle" suite and heard in full at 3:15 in that track. In the film, it clarifies on solo strings by the second minute of "Alcove," shifts to resolute sadness at 2:16 into "If You Love Me You Die," and dissolves to chords only at 1:16 into "Family." It develops into a fuller identity early in "What If I Can't?" but returns to its original form at 3:16. In unreleased cues, the idea's resolute form contributes nicely to "1997 or 2017" and is fragmentary in "Sarah's Story."

While these four themes from Balfe for Terminator Genisys are functional, the new theme for Sarah and Kyle represents a terrible strategic decision by the composer. These characters already had a love theme in the form of the franchise identity, and the score would have been extremely well served if Balfe had applied it where he did his own. There has never been as easy of an opportunity to utilize that theme in an appropriate place in these later franchise scores. Instead, Fiedel's famous theme is badly marginalized in the score, opening the film at 0:10 into "Better Days" with faint string reminders of only the theme's first few phrases. The first minute of this cue was perfect for a more direct, lyrical, and powerful statement of the theme, a significantly poor spotting decision by Balfe and the filmmakers. A lightly synthetic version of the theme with slightly altered progressions and harmonics recurs at 0:33 into "It's Really Me." Three phrases of the theme from celli echo in the unreleased "T-1000 on the Prowl." Otherwise, the score withholds the theme until the obligatory end credits statement in "Terminated" that is a direct tribute to Fiedel's equivalent from the second score. This rendition is very well handled, even down to the original oboe lines, and beats Beltrami's attempt at the same tribute to stand as the best post-2000 recording of the arrangement. Faring far better in Terminator Genisys are Fiedel's two iconic rhythmic devices of metallic clanging, the original four-note thumping from 1984 and the better known five-note rhythm from 1991. Balfe and his team reference these two rhythms liberally in the score, sometimes masked in action and at other times at the forefront. Fiedel's work influences at 2:49 into "Work Camp" and is surrounded by the established T-1000 slurring effects at 2:18 into "Still After Us" and 2:27 into "Judgement Day." On album, the first film's static 4-note rhythm emerges to the forefront at 1:05 into "Sacrifice" but, in reality, most of the applications were left off the product. In unreleased cues, that four-note rhythm from first film occupies "1984" and "Griffith Park," the latter shifting to the five-note rhythm when the older terminator reveals himself. That longer motif returns briefly in "Meet Pops" and is afforded its crescendo format from the end credits during "Helicopter Chase." Oddly, the most obvious placement for one of these rhythms was missed by Balfe in another spotting error; the title card of the film uses none of these retro devices and instead applies a generic stinger. There's no excuse for not providing one of the rhythms here; it's like failing to state the James Bond theme during the usual gun barrel sequence in that franchise.

As a minor element, Balfe's final new motif for Terminator Genisys represents Cyberdyne and all the suspense associated with it. A descending pair of notes, the idea takes time to stew and churn in "Cyberdyne" and returns in cello chords only at 1:26 into "Fight." Listeners won't hear much of this theme on album, for its major performances are absent. These include "Hospital Room," "Cyberdyne Lobby," and the ominous credits scene, "System Online." Altogether, there's nothing flagrantly wrong about how Balfe applies these themes, though the new love theme is a truly bizarre choice when he had one of the best such themes of all time to access. There are too many new themes, however, the love theme and guardian theme complicating a narrative that could not state these ideas well in action sequences. The stereotypical, churning ostinatos and grinding Fiedel-inspired chase cues are adequate but tired and miss countless chances to express one of the themes in battle mode or in counterpoint to one another. There's no such complexity attempted in Terminator Genisys, though "Sacrifice" is a really good cue that strives for such appeal. The general lyricism of the dramatic portions of the score do compensate on album, a wholesome twenty minutes of highly engaging, tonal material ready for a suite of accessible music unlike anything before in the Terminator franchise. The John Connor theme in its heroic incarnation is a hidden gem reminiscent of a soldier tune that Brian Tyler would write when trying to emulate Jerry Goldsmith. But the relative lack of Fiedel's main theme is a major frustration; it's not as effective here as in Tom Holkenborg's Terminator: Dark Fate. The album experience for Terminator Genisys is good but not spectacular. A terrible crossfade at 2:53 into "If You Love Me You Die," as the love theme to shifts to a suspense rhythm, is an inexcusable mastering error. Balfe's habit of substituting the film arrangement of important cues with his concept suites hurts this album, as the film versions of the "fate and hope" theme for the Reese trip back to 1984 and the John Connor theme for his own introduction needed to be featured in the proper place in the presentation. The composer should consider placing his concept suites at the start or end of his albums as well. The score was widely distributed digitally, but a very limited commercial pressing on CD became a top collectible within just a few months. Fans took heart in the leaking of 90 minutes of the score, including the pertinent missing cues, and these longer bootlegs circulated widely. In any of its forms, the score's recording is generally dynamic, the synthetic strings, trumpets, and other soloists featured well against the ensemble. Expect to be pleasantly surprised despite nagging spotting issues. **** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83 (in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.86 (in 23,478 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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