Live Free or Die Hard

There's nothing like a sequel that comes out just a bit too long after the previous installment that doesn't live up to the expectations of the previous entries. Mind you, Die Hard with a Vengeance was hardly a rousing success and most commentators gave Die Hard 4 (or Live Free or Die Hard as it's known in some areas) fairly good notices although one can't help but think the claustrophobic style of the first two was part of the series' signature and opening them out into a more Mission: Impossible or Bourne style action movie starts to miss the point somewhat. The first three had music by the late Michael Kamen and the original is now a much sought after collectors' item having sold out from the original 3,000 copies produced for Varese's CD Club. I'm afraid it's not a Kamen score with which I am familiar and as I've noted elsewhere, action wasn't really his forte despite numerous assignments in the genre earlier on his career (which he did well, but his work elsewhere is simply better).
While Ed Shearmur, as Kamen's student, might have seemed an ideal choice (and his entertaining Johnny English score reinforces this notion) it is Marco Beltrami who takes over the reigns. Beltrami's career has gone from promising, to disappointing and currently seems at a kind of quality equilibrium that marks him as above average, but not a composer whose every utterance I'm chomping at the bit to hear. Coming to the Die Hard 4 score after that for The Bourne Ultimatum it's noticeable just what separates a merely good action score from a solid, but not entirely striking entry. It's ironic to note that Beltrami was tutored by Jerry Goldsmiths whose action was largely second to none and whom Beltrami emulates to some extent, while John Powell was raised the Media Ventures way, yet has turned elements of that style entirely into his own and gone on to outstrip his erstwhile colleagues in quality with every new release.

Perhaps the most striking difference between Beltrami's and Kamen's scores is the lack of a quote from a famous piece of classical - Beethoven's 9th and Finlandia - but I don't think Kamen's action style is so obvious that there's any particular expectation here. I'm reliably informed that Kamen's original themes cameo here, but I'm neither familiar with, nor are they memorable enough, to add much in the way of series consistency (which possibly isn't even required). In fact, if anything, it's this year's answer to Giacchino Mission: Impossible 3, a well written series of action and suspense cues that hit all the right marks, make the right sounds, but without much in the way of a strong main theme (well, save for Giacchino having Schifrin's iconic melodies to quote from time to time, but his own stuff was skilled but not outstanding) or anything to stand them out from the crowd. There's nothing that could be described as a centrepiece action cue, almost all the tracks are in the 2 to 4 minute range and while Beltrami weaves his action motifs together with skill, there's not much for the listener to take away afterwards.

If all that sounds a bit harsh, then I guess it probably is, but with the caveat that it is well written and it's nice to have something that brings to mind Jerry Goldsmith, rather than Hans Zimmer. Notably, Beltrami gets plenty of mileage out of dissonant brass clusters and actually uses the strings with considerable intelligence - cues such as Copter Chase and Yippee Ki Yay aren't just a thick barrage of percussion (although there is plenty in evidence) and tutti orchestration, but the different sections bounce off each other so there's less of the grinding wall of sound that is so prevalent in other genre scores. Synths are used discretely and merely add to the texture rather than driving it. Had this been a standard Goldsmith action score, I probably would have defended it from its detractors, but even his less impressive efforts had some good main themes - Air Force One, for example. However, Die Hard 4 is just a series of efficiently constructed and orchestrated motifs; action junkies will find plenty to enjoy, but everyone else might find it a touch underwhelming. Skilled and professional, just nothing that stands out.