10,000 BC Soundtrack

From composers Harald Kloser (The Day After Tomorrow) and Thomas Wander comes this pretty awesome soundtrack. The music has a definitive tribal influence which is perfect for the movie but which I find also makes a great listening experience.

However, in terms of tribal versus orchestral then orchestral comes out as the winner in terms of quantity. But quality? Well there are some real amazing orchestral cues such as 'Sea Of Sand', but for me that is just about it. If you liked Harald's score to The Day After Tomorrow then you might like a few more cues then me because there are plenty of moments on the soundtrack which remind me of The Day After Tomorrow Soundtrack, 'Sea Of Sands' included.

For me though it is the tribal influences that really make this soundtrack great. Whilst a lot of it is simply just tribal drums helping to build the tension, the best ones are the climactic ones such as 'Speech' and 'Food'.

'Speech' starts out as pure orchestral and then 2 minutes in mixes the tribal stuff as well, and boy does it sound good when those drums and voices come in with the brass pounding away and strings sliding about on top. For me that minute just makes the whole album worth buying.

'Food' is just pure tribal and starts out with some light drums before the tribal singer comes in and builds it up until he goes crazy. Then we get some more tribal drums and percussion along with the rest of the tribal singers which come in with a groovy little beat before all the tribal singers go crazy and the drums soften, bringing the cue to an end.

The 'End Credits' is another brilliant cue, but sadly the rest I found pretty average. Saying that though the soundtrack provides a good listen all the way through with three or four outstanding tracks that are worth going back and listening too many times. However, if you're not really into your tribal influences then I'd probably give this a miss, unless you're a real big fan of Harald Kloser or The Day After Tomorrow Soundtrack. But if you do like your tribal influences then it is a great listen, and if you want more tribal music then I would check out Amampondo which are a kick ass group of tribal musicians. However, there isn't any orchestra in their music and their later stuff contains a lot of electronics. But if you've got a rather large eclectic taste like me, then I'm sure you'll love it.

10,000 BC

Independace Day and The Day After Tomorrow, two great movies by director Roland Emmerich. Sadly I don't think 10,000 BC is as good as either film. But hey I guess you can't have all successful films, not even if you're Stephen Spielberg.

Saying that though 10,000 BC isn't the worst film in the world and whilst it did have rather a strange opening and first half which I sat through thinking, "Hmm... is this a good film or a bad film... I'm not sure yet." The difficulty I found was telling the different people apart during the first half, because they all looked the same. This kind of put me off a bit since it meant I didn't recognise the main character very easily. Getting the bad out of the way there was one scene in the jungle which I didn't like simply because I couldn't see what was going on.

But now onto the good. The second half was much better and had a much different look to it aswell. I thought it was much more exciting and this is where I really got into the film. Whilst I was watching it though I did find it reminded me of the film Stargate (which it turns out Roland directed as well so I guess that ain't a coinsidence), but Stargate was a pretty awesome film so I thought that can't be bad.

Whilst you might think to yourself, "Why did I bother to watch this film?" I say give it a chance since you might actually grow to like. I know I did. Plus all the films that I've seen of his have been pretty dam good: Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow; so I say take a leap of faith and give 10,000 BC a go.

The Lion King Complete Score Petition

There is currently an online petition to get a complete score release for Hans Zimmer's The Lion King. If you wish to sign the petition, follow the link below.

The Lion King Complete Score Petition

Heroes Soundtrack

Just like all great TV shows the music plays a big part of the show. Heroes is no exception so I was real excited to find there would be a soundtrack release. However, the soundtrack isn't a score release of the music by the shows composers Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman but instead features mostly pop songs that I don't even remember being in the show. In my opinion it is just another 'music from and inspired by' soundtrack that studios use to make money because of their larger target audience.

Sadly the few Wendy & Lisa tracks that there are only reach a total duration of 3 minutes 33 seconds, excluding the Heroes Mega Mix, and they aren't even the best ones from the show. Natural Selection is by far the best although it is way too short only lasting 24 seconds.

If you are going to get the Heroes Soundtrack I'd go for the iTunes version with the Heroes Mega Mix which is by far the best track on the album and features a lot of the music that really helps make the show what it is. I only hope there will be a score release some time in the future because if Michael Giacchino's music for Lost and Bear McCreary's music for Battlestar Galactica can get releases then why can't Wendy & Lisa's music for Heroes.

01 Heroes Title — Wendy & Lisa
02 Fire and Regeneration — Wendy & Lisa (featuring Shankar)
03 He's Frank — Brighton Port Authority (featuring Iggy Pop)
04 All For Swinging You Around — The New Pornographers
05 Glad It's Over — Wilco
06 Weightless — Nada Surf
07 Nine In The Afternoon — Panic! At The Disco
08 Chills — My Morning Jacket
09 Natural Selection — Wendy & Lisa
10 ABoneCroneDrone 3 — Sheila Chandra
11 Not Now But Soon — Imogen Heap
12 Jealously Rides With Me — Death Cab For Cutie
13 All Things Must Pass — The Jesus and Mary Chain
14 Homecoming — Wendy & Lisa
15 Man In The Long Black Coat — Bob Dylan
16 Maya's Theme — Yerba Buena
17 Keeping My Composure — The Chemical Brothers (featuring Spank Rock)
18 Heroes — David Bowie
19 Heroes Mega Mix (iTunes Exclusive) - Wendy & Lisa

Heroes

Heroes has finally returned. After a trully amazing Season 1, Season 2 looks to be just as exciting, if not more.

Every episode from Season 1 was amazing, except the last one which was still good but slightly disappointing, given how they bigged it up throughout the rest of the season. But Season 2 seems to jump straight back in and after watching the first episode I was again on the edge of my seat jumping up and down with excitement due to the amazing cliff hanger at the end.

Just in this first episode we have already been introduced to two new characters, Maya and Alejander, although it looks as though it is only Maya who has the powers. However, we aren't sure yet exactly what her powers are. I wouldn't say they are particularly good powers though since she seems to have just killed a load of people by accident. How? We don't yet know.

So it looks as though Season 2 is going to kick some more ass, and I'd have to say that it is currenlty one of the best shows on television. Unfortunatly though due to the writers strike Season 2 was cut short and there are only 11 episodes. Could this mean it's going to be a repeat of the Season 1 finally or is it quality not quantity? I can't wait to find out.

Jumper Soundtrack

This is John Powell's third score for director Doug Liman. I wouldn't say this is Powell's best score as on first listen I didn't really think there were any partucular cues that stood out, but I think this album grows on you.

The cue that really sums up the whole soundtrack is 'Bridges, Rules, Banking' as it contains most of the major themes and sounds. Although it's definitly not the best cue since it doesn't explore the themes as well as some of the other cues such as 'It's Sayonara' which contains the best arrangement of the eastern sounding theme (note: it only sounds eastern because of the instrument it is primarily played on).

Other great cues include, 'Jump Off' which is the better arrangement of the theme also played in the cue 'My Day So Far'.

However, even after listening through the soundtrack several times, I still can't really pick any cues that jump out (excuse the pun). Nevertheless, the soundtrack does have a good overall sound as I have enjoyed it best listening to it as a whole. Although I would say that Doug Liman's last film Mr & Mrs Smith had a much better score from Powell as I found all the cues from that soundtrack were outstanding and I'd put it as one of Powell's best scores.

Jumper

I went to this film expecting loads of action, an awesome story and some cool powers that I wish I had. But I came out slightly disapointed. It was kind of like when you record a film off the television. You get drawn into the story as the film progresses and just as it gets to the climax it stops because it hasn't recorded the end of the film, you get really pissed off and go away disapointed. Thats what I felt like with Jumper. It felt like it needed an extra 30 minutes on the end. But on the other hand I'm sure we'll get another hour and 30 minutes instead, since Hollywood seems to be bringing out sequels of everything recently.

I'd be pretty happy with a sequel though because overall it was a pretty awesome film. Although after watching Star Wars Episode II & III, I couldn't figure out whether I didn't like Hayden Christensen or whether it was just the films themselves. I now see that it was Hayden Christensen that I didn't really like.

However, I think I can forgive the slightly poor acting of Christensen because the directing was absolutely out of this world. Doug Liman has done an excellent job of bringing this story to the screen. The jumping was incredible and it totally looked real (apart form one time when Christensen jumped over to the fridge, but that was his fault). I can't wait for the DVD so I might get some insight into how it was filmed because there are sequences when they are fighting and jumping simultaniously and my God they are good.

I kind of have mixed feelings about this film. But I think it is safe to say that the good out way the bad. Plus its got Samuel L. Jackson in it and he is definitly cool. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves action films, just don't say I didn't warn you though when your disapointed by the ending.

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Welcome to my blog where I'll be looking at films, television programs and soundtracks. Plus I might upload a few of my own films.