Customer Reviews

RoboCop 2 (Original Score)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Leonard Rosenman attempted to do the seemingly impossible for RoboCop 2: Creating a soundtrack superior to that of Basil Poledouris' original score for RoboCop. Unfortunately, he missed the mark. The soundtrack alone is a good listen, but mixed with the film, it doesn't seem to do the cyborg cop justice.

Overall, Leonard Rosenman's score does a decent job and is worth a look.

But hey, Leonard Rosenman is still an excellent musician. Get this soundtrack, it's a must for RoboFans!

Only a few tracks are worth listening to. The rest is just indistinct noise and filler sounds. The Robocop Overture (Track 1) is amazing. A jolly and highly memorable tune that will delight and excite. It's not the brooding cyborg cues Basil Poledouris created but a cheery hero type tune. Worth buying the CD just for this track definitely.

Robo Cruiser (Track 4) begins with much the same music and then suddenly ends just as it gets good. A shame. Robo and Caine Chase (Track 8) is slightly exciting but that, unfortunately, is where the good of this CD runs out. The remaining tracks fail to do much apart from matching the action on screen without being melodic or thematic or emotional.

Leonard Rosenman includes a description of each track in the liner notes and explains what he intended with each segment of music. It really is up to you to judge whether he succeeded or failed but I say he could have done a lot better.

I understand that, for a film that was simultaneously dark, lighthearted and violent, it must be VERY hard to score Robocop 2. Rosenman made a wonderful theme with the Robocop Overture. Why he never exploited that and took advantage of it is beyond my understanding. It's a shame. But pick this one up cheap for the 3 decent tracks.

Don't pay too much attention to the other reviews : Rosenman was a great composer, far greater than Poledouris will ever be ... The only reason why Robocop's score is prefered has to do with his harmonic simplicity and use of synthetizer and drums ... The score of Robocop 2, with its rich orchestration (including voices), suffers only of a too short CD edition. If you like Rosenman, if you like good symphonic music, don't miss that one !

I do have to agree that Robocop 2 has a definite Star Trek IV feel, but that's like comparing Horner scores - yeah, they're all the same too. It's just the artist's style. In any case, Robocop was done by Basil Poledouris anyway, not Rosenman. Better to criticize when you have your facts right.

Leonard Rosenman's score for Robocop 2 fails to use the established Robocop theme or any of the excellent action cues created by his predecessor, Poledouris. These sound more like outtakes from the Star Trek IV score than anything resembling Robocop. The first reviewer was far too generous, the Robocop Overture does not justify the purchase of this soundtrack.

Buy Robocop and Robocop 3, and maybe Star Trek IV if you want to hear some decent work by Rosenman.

Too intrusive to be ambient, too ambient to be memorable, this soundtrack was an enormous let-down.