|
Slipping in
somewhat under the radar this holiday season is Guy Ritchie's,
Sherlock Holmes,
a film that was forced to compete with James Cameron's titanic,
Avatar, but has so far held its own. This
Hollywood version of Holmes required a commercial score befitting the
project, thus Ritchie employed the services of
Hans Zimmer and Lorne
Balfe for the film. The soundtrack offers 12 tracks that stack up with an
uneven running time. For instance, cue 11 runs for over 18 minutes, so the
content doesn't play like a typical score album.
The Hans Zimmer
version of Sherlock Holmes is about
what one should expect from the composer (and his team). The score is a
modernized, melodic take on the Holmes character and delivers a listening
experience that may not sound "authentic," but it does have a charm about
it. Much like the way Guy Ritchie morphed Holmes into an intellect with
brawn (and mixed martial arts capabilities), the music of the Holmes era is
morphed into a modern vision that references the time frame but never embeds
itself completely within it. In other words, the music is not as brazen as a
Pirates of the Caribbean about being
dislodged from the time and place of the story, but it does hold onto its
modernistic roots in the manner in which it is designed.
The score is
driven by an identifiable comedic main theme that establishes itself in the
opening track and is later referenced throughout the album as a calling card
of sorts. It does a rather nice job in setting up the tone of the characters,
and gives off a tongue-in-cheek type of vibe that is placed well within the
context of this story, but I think it ultimately comes across as sounding
perhaps too polished and having too much of a"studio" sound. This type of
sound design is not as distracting when the featured solo instruments are
heard on the score, the inclusion of which was a nice and surprising touch,
but the main theme could have benefited more from a classical, unpredictable
touch and less of a modern studio mix.
The manner
in which the tracks are arranged on this soundtrack is a bit perplexing. For
most of the soundtrack, the cues on the album have a rather brief running
time until the final two tracks (11 & 12) arrive. What really stands about
the 11th track in particular is that it runs for a whopping 18 minutes and
change! I'm all for extended cues or suites, but having one cue run at an 18
minute clip is a bit tough to digest. Having heard the track, there were
definitely areas in which the music could have been sectioned off into
individual cues, but alas, a decision was made not to for some reason.
Ironically, this extended piece offers some of the best music from the album,
so you'll basically have to sit through the extended running time to enjoy
it.
Sherlock Holmes
lands on the scale as a slightly above average score but it never seemed to
connect with the right type of energy for me. It all seemed a bit too
measured for my tastes; a bit too precise. That said, there are some
enjoyable moments to be had, so it's not a total wash, and it is certainly
reasonable to download this digitally at a price of $9.99. |
