Compared to Beltrami's prior to action efforts of 2013, A Good Day to Die Hard and World War Z, The Wolverine will test your tolerance for orchestral abrasiveness. Each of these three scores has progressively moved away from tonal action accessibility towards an environment in The Wolverine that is downright unpleasant in its demeanor. Undoubtedly, the turmoil in the titular character merits a fair dose of this dissonant, in-your-face attitude, but it somewhat degrades any humanity remaining in him. This is, simply put, a very harshly rendered score, one that serves Logan/Wolverine with only one dimension while doing the same for the Japanese elements, which are represented by an equally stereotypical musical presence. The orchestra is joined by Taiko drums, ethnic woodwinds, and koto to this end, their presence battled literally by the awkward tones of a harmonica, of all things, in the soundscape. The fight sequences are handled with percussion rhythms backed by a continued orchestral haze of dissonance and these passages are nearly unlistenable. There are carryover glimpses of instrumental intelligence from World War Z, but not many, "Sword of Vengeance" an exception. The softer portions of the score are sadly non-descript, especially early on, when solo strings have difficulty generating any warmth for the character's troubles. In fact, there is practically no warmth or humanity to be found anywhere in this score, very few respites allowed by Beltrami on the otherwise bleak canvas. Dramatic flair is rare in The Wolverine, the highlight of the score's few awe-inspiring moments coming in the tonality of brief portions in "The Hidden Passages." This cue builds of off three-note phrases of dramatic origin in "Abduction," this motif existing as the score's only thematic development until the final cues. The easing of tensions in "Goodbye Mariko" is too little, too late to save this score from being a mind numbing experience on the whole, though don't discount the seeming nod to Gregson-Williams in "Where To?" This score will be challenging for listeners to appreciate outside of context, roughly five minutes of material expressing engaging action tones or melodic development, not enough to compensate for what is heard elsewhere on the laborious, nearly hour-long album. As if to concede its gains, the album ends with a meandering atmospheric cue, "Whole Step Haiku," that completely deflates whatever satisfaction the listener was rewarded with in "Where To?" It's difficult to recommend the X-Men Origins: Wolverine score over this one, because it wasn't a stellar work itself, but Beltrami fails to really adopt any kind of superior narrative approach, forcing ambient brutality upon us rather than continued growth for the character. Be prepared for a depressingly futile battle of cultural stereotypes if you choose to explore Beltrami's take.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download