Customer Reviews

Roving Mars [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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One can't help but seem fascinated by Philip Glass's choice of projects. Very hesitantly did the composer agree to score his iconic Koyaanisqatsi. Films that followed have been quirky indy projects covering a variety of subjects. "Mindwalk, A Brief History of Time, Fog of War, Mishima and Candyman" and others are hardly in the realm of the mainstream; but these films all offered something different and inspiring to Glass.
The same can be said of his score to Roving Mars. With its opening "Mars" bars we see an image of the (apparently) manacing Red Planet. The opening notes are straight out of Glass's "Music with Changing Parts". In this score, each of the NASA rovers receives its own music which reoccurs in different forms through out the score. The music is scored for small orchestra and the recording sounds nice.
Glass's mainstream film scoring has however yielded less interesting results (Secret Window, Taking Lives) with the exception of the remarkable "The Hours". Roving Mars is quite interesting, and at about 35 minutes it is short and sweet.

When I first found out about this soundtrack online I was curious to find out what the music sounded like. I got the soundtrack before I got the chance to see the IMAX film. Interestingly enough, the soundtrack is better then the film itself. There are a lot of realistic computer graphics and behind the scenes footage about how the Mars Rovers were built and what they did once they got underway on the Red Planet but many of the interviews with the scientists were boring and in the end, it is the computer graphics and the robots themselves that make for an interesting film. The composer of the soundtrack does a very good job with setting the mood for the film. You feel as though you're actually going into space with the robots and circling the mysterious planet of Mars. After listening to the CD, my favorite tracks are the opening title and the finale theme song, which is very uplifting and I never get tired of listening to it. For someone who is interested in robotics or just listening to an intriguing soundtrack, "Roving Mars" is definitely worth it.

Como he comentado en otras oportunidades considero a Philip Glass como un extraordinario compositor. Sin embargo, siento que en sus trabajos de sountrack no termina de desarrollar buenas ideas en sus piezas.

Este trabajo mantiene ese sin sabor... al menos a mi, al final de cada pieza siento que se hubiera podido desarrollar aun mas lo que comenzó.

Sin embargo, en general, es un muy buen trabajo, que te lleva y con la sola música ya te habla de la película