by pepsukka on 10/16/2007
favorite track: 13
 
Finally! A new Die Hard movie! Expectations were high, maybe too high for its own good... or maybe not. Since it was such a long time ago since the previous Die Hard movie was in theaters, I found myself eager to see the film and hoped it would be as good as its predecessors. Before I saw the movie, I started to reminisce Michael Kamen's (composer of Die Hard 1-3) familiar notes and got myself all pumped up for the experience. What? Stop.

This is not the way to give Marco Beltrami a fighting chance and win me over with his talents. A new start. Clear your head. Forget everything. Expect anything. Well, eventually I got what I wanted in the first place, which is musical ideas that follow the same course as they did in the previous films. Music is exciting and thrilling with big orchestra and its violins, trumpets etc. So why did I feel a bit disappointed? Expectations probably were too high. Great expectations - from the movie - can redirect audience's senses so that they don't even hear anything is wrong ? with the music - and make them forgive some mediocre elements in the score. On the other hand, big expectations can lead a composer to a downfall and audiences can be very unforgiving. Maybe the latter happened to Beltrami's music. He does a good job and makes the best of the talents on board with The Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra.

For my taste, the music served better with the film than without it, as a listening experience. If a person is in a mood for thriller-action music, then this score is perfect. Not my favourite of Beltrami's scores but I have grown to like it more each passing month.