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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Soundtrack To The End Of The World, November 17, 2009
This review is from: 2012: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)
If your anything like me, when you first saw the preview for 2012 back in early summer fo 09, your jaw should have hit the floor when you saw that titanic tsunami spilling over the peaks of the mountians. The preview was no longer then 90 seconds, yet it was enough establish that this was going to be a movie of truely epic proportion. As one might expect, an epic movie with an onslaught of epic visuals deserves an equally epic soundtrack. Lucky for us (not to mention the success of this movie), thats exactly what happened.
I do believe that the title of this review pretty much sums up what this score is like. Composers Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander do an excellent job of audibly illustrating the collapse of planet Earth, both the destruction of the land, and the destruction of our humanity. While this movie is admittedly driven by the CGI, there IS a story stuck in there somewhere, and that story is made more enjoyable by the score behind it. In the periods of time between the total annihilation of continents, which calls for tracks like "Spirit of Santa Monica" or "Leaving Las Vegas", there are the quieter moments, away from the destruction. Tracks like "Great Kid", "Wisconson" or "Nanpam Platau" are much slower then most of the tracks on here, and allow more of a reflective tone to set. A Personal favorite of mine is "Adrian's Speech".
The majority of the tracks on the score rely on synth and wind instruments, mostly horns and various forms of flute stuck up in the background. Some of the action scene tracks can get a bit repetative in certain parts, but for the most part they are still an enjoyable listen. The tracks are definitely the most effective when paired with the images they were made for, but it is capable of being a stand alone CD. At the end of the day, the music is beautiful, and whats more, it fits the movie perfectly. Behind frequent feeling of my stomach in my chest, the emotions felt in the movie are reinforced by the music.
If your into big sounding music, or maybe a fan of scores done by Hans Zimmer, then I think you will like this soundtrack, even without having seen the movie. I highly recommend it.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Music Befits The Title, November 16, 2009
This music fits each and every change of situation perfectly and I highly recommend it for those who collect movie sound tracks and use them for other purposes, with permission of course! I would say that the music definitely added suspense, depth and imagination quality to the film. I am buying it and also sharing it with family and friends. It is worth its weight in musical gold.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely disappointing, November 28, 2009
This review is from: 2012: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)
I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what it is that the previous five reviewers were smoking when they gave this score 5 stars, but I want some. The movie was average, but this review is not about the movie, it's about the music, and the music was a failure. I was actually really interested to hear the music as I was a big fan of Kloser's "The Day After Tomorrow" theme. Even after Kloser co-wrote the screenplay for the abysmal "10,000 B.C.", I could say that I approved of his haunting musical score, which nearly (emphasis on 'nearly') saved a disaster of a movie. I've been a follower of director, Roland Emmerich, since "Universal Soldier", and I've nearly always liked the score that accompanied his films. David Arnold did an admirable job with "Stargate", "ID4" and even "Godzilla". John Williams did everything he could ruin "The Patriot", and then Harald Kloser swooped in to save the day with "The Day After Tomorrow" and "10,000 B.C.". Unfortunately, his music for "2012" was a huge step back, and a disappointment from start to finish. There is no discernible theme, and it's all action-music, which is okay while you're watching the movie, but it's not an album when you pop it in the CD player, or scroll to it on your iPod. It's not dinner music, driving music, work-out music, go to sleep by music -- it's not music. It's noise. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Movie scores walk a fine line. It's difficult to score the mood of a film that transposes nicely to an album that can be listened to on its own. Very few composers are able to accomplish this feet in this age of techno-electronics. It seems that movie-music is a dying art dying a slow death. Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard and James Horner seem to be the only artists left capable of accomplishing this task. I thought Harald Kloser would hold his place in line for this distinction, but it seems that "2012" is not about the extinction of mankind so much as it is the extinction of quality music.
Thumbs down.
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