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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Terminator Underwhelming, May 20, 2009
I have been a Danny Elfman fan since I was a kid, he scored much of my beloved childhood films (Batman, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before X-Mas). I've watched him advance from just a lot of wonk bonk wonk bonk wonk bonk and occasional spits of chorus to some amazingly deep orchestrations like his heavy handed Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks, Hellboy 2 and even Wanted scores, which prove he can hit a range of emotion and setting than 99% of composers. Corpse Bride the score was AMAZING despite how eh the movie itself was.
So wtf happened here Danny? I got worried the second he said he'd use the theme "if appropriate" in interviews when his signing on to this got announced. Brad Fidel's scores for T1 and 2 were amazing due mainly to how understated they were. The more understated they were, the more intimidating they became. The Arnold T-800 had his own sort of repetitive beat theme which perfectly told you he was mechanical, seemingly unstoppable and damn scary. The overall Terminator theme was strangely and welcomely emotional, speaking to the weight of the circumstances and how the overall plot was to save mankind. In T2 you got the T-1000's more wave pulse like theme, a slow drone getting louder and fading out, louder and fading out. Again, creepy, repetitive and mechanical, but smoother than the Arnoldbot theme, symbolizing his shape shifting and advanced design. The various assemblies of percussion Fidel used for incidental pieces were as intricate as the Terminator Endoskeletons themselves. They created drama, horror, tension, humanity... whatever the films needed he expertly delivered.
Brad McCreary, who did the TV show's score, took his ques from Fidel while adding his own themes for Sarah and John that were quite emotional and fitting. So much so that the only reason I started watching the show was due in large part to McCreary's amazing score which I stumbled on accidentally (check out the amazing mechanical breakdown during the "Bike Chase" which border's on avante garde at moments, that's what two machines fighting should have playing over them). McCreary did his all to perfectly capture the feel of the original scores while still adding a lot of very nice material to the mix.
So how in the hell did someone as amazing as Danny Elfman manage to accomplish neither? This is the sort of bland action scoring that's a dime a dozen in Hollywood. There's some interesting uses of the Terminator theme's tune in the tracks "Salvation" and in the one with an accoustic guitar (I forget the name) but it sounds like he's either flipped the notes or the chord progression, I can't quite tell. I'm not a music major. All I know is that I had to hunt with a very keen ear just to catch the buried touches of those themes he saw fit to grace us with. The only theme he really does use is a variation of the T-1000's wahhhhhhh a wahhhhhhh a theme. That's sort of become the oh s*** a terminator is chasing me theme, which is fine. And he does a lot with it on the Harvester track. But that's really all he does. Honestly, he could have completely re-themed the whole franchise and I wouldn't have minded if it had actually gone somewhere. He's done some amazing work in the past but this is far far far away from it. This is the sort of art you stumble on and say... something happened here, fight with the director, too many cooks advising in the kitchen... something. I don't know. But its horribly disappointing that, first, there's little to no nods to Fidel's amazing work and, second, Elfman doesn't add anything to justify NOT using the old themes.
Don't know what happened, but I hope if a sequel gets off the ground they can get somebody who gets it better. At this point, I'd recommend McCreary as a replacement, he gets it. That soundtrack is certainly one of the very best TV scores I've ever heard and very very good in the field of scores in general.
At least next year Elfman will have Burton's Alice to play with. He'll knock that out of the park.... its just too bad he couldn't here, its a serious let down for me as both a hardcore Terminator and very hardcore Elfman fan.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lacks the best part of the whole soundtrack, June 1, 2009
Saw Terminator: Salvation and the very next day bought this soundtrack. What made me want to buy it was the awesome score during the opening credits, specifically the very end when you hear the main Terminator theme found in all the movies.....clank clank...clank......clank clank.............clank clank...clank.......clank clank. It was arguably done the best and sounded the best out of all the movies. It only lasts for a few seconds, but that alone would have justified the cost of the soundtrack. Unfortunately, whoever was involved with putting this soundtrack together said, "Nah, lets not include the coolest part of the whole soundtrack in the release." Whoever that was I'd like to just give a sarcastic thank you. I mean what a disappointment. What a let down. This is such a serious violation that they need to just scrap the current release and make a new version with that piece included. That is what defines a Terminator movie. I still can't believe it's not in there. Tell me it was political so I can be mad at the system, because I truly think any sane person would have included it. If politics takes the best part out of the whole soundtrack, then it's time to get rid of politics. I gave it 3 stars because it's still the Terminator and I think any fan would enjoy listening to it.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the opening drum roll???!??, May 24, 2009
I was extremely disappointed with the opening track. When I saw the movie, the opening track has the familiar drum track from all the terminator movies towards the end of the song. The soundtrack for some reason left it out. Now the opening track sounds like something left over from the batman movies!!!
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~ Harry Gregson-Williams
~ Steve Jablonsky
~ Joshua Bell
~ Alan Silvestri
~ Alan Silvestri
by Danny Elfman 
