--Brian

Shaun

Perhaps it should have been expected given the nature of the film and composer attached, but the one area where The Time Machine falls short is originality. Aside from the chorus filled tribal tracks, The Time Machine has a hard time forming a distinct personality. As stated, Badelt handles the orchestra in a way that sounds very unlike Hans Zimmer, but for the most part the thematic development and several different motifs Badelt utilizes are clearly the work of a Media Ventures-goon. The romantic writing echoes Zimmer's Pearl Harbor while the ethnic tracks draw uncanny similarities to Mark Mancina's Return to Paradise, and the main action theme -- heard best in "I Don't Belong Here" -- is a slightly altered orchestral rendition of "War" from Pearl Harbor (that's a bit of an overstatement, but the similarities are certainly aplenty); hell, Badelt even shamelessly rips off Elfman's percussive stylings a la Planet of the Apes in "Morlocks Attack", which most certainly was temped with "The Hunt" from Elfman's score. Even the tribal bits, which sound inspired given the film music medium, are a distinct rip of Karl Jenkin's meshing of the orchestra and "world-music elements". In short, The Time Machine is a very conservative score -- one often riding the fine line between similarities and plagiarism. Thankfully, that doesn't keep it from remaining one helluva roller coaster ride.

Read the last line, though

Here's a question:

Why is it that when the rest of the score primarily sticks to the orchestra, the action cues have to use Zimmer "horns" (also known as the first 44 and last 3 keys of a keyboard) throughout? It's extremely cheesy. Perhaps someone stuck in the revolving door at MV did the action pieces (of sh*t).

And I'm sorry, Media Ventures or not, just because someone uses a piano in a score doesn't mean it's worthy of 4-stars.

Shaun