Monsters vs. Aliens

The overall buzz created for DreamWorks’ new film, Monsters vs. Aliens, originated almost a year ago; becoming more apparent after the ingenious inception into the 2009 Super Bowl ads promoting the new 3-D spectacle. The film follows Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon), an ordinary girl who gets hit by a meteorite on her wedding day, causing her instant transformation into a giant. After she is imprisoned by the government with other monsters, she gets the opportunity to fight an alien seeking to conquer Earth and obtain the element that caused Susan’s alteration. The other monsters fight alongside Susan, promised by the President to regain their freedom if successful with the mission. The overall storyline is not incredibly original, but the marvelous 3D action sequences, coupled with the outstanding voiceover work, create an entertaining and enjoyable film appropriate for the entire family. As has been the case since Dreamworks Animation began producing movies, starting with Antz in 1998, the scoring assignment was left to Hans Zimmer and his team—or should I say the ‘Zimmer drones.’ In this case, Henry Jackman, a relatively unknown composer whose credits resided within the context of creating additional music for Zimmer and his collaborators, was hired to do the job. The result: a functional and fitting score that works relatively well throughout the film with little thematic content and few commendable arrangements.

“A Giant Transformation” is the first track of this album. One would expect to hear a glorious theme as we follow the meteorite heading for Earth. Instead, the first impression left by the score is the tonality employed by Jackman, which at times reminds us of Danny Elfman’s score for ‘Mars Attacks.’ The stop-and-go motion of the piece prevents it from becoming a cohesive and flowing musical work. While animation requires some of the latter, Jackman seems creates very abrupt changes that are very noticeable. The disappointing results created by these hasty musical changes will only become more apparent in subsequent tracks.

Departing from the established sound heard in the first track, the sweet music from ‘A Wedding Interrupted,’ ‘Didn’t Mean to Crush You,’ and the second half of ‘The Grand Tour’ offers very clichéd arrangements and progressions that seemingly go nowhere. Jackman wanders around with the woodwinds, strings, harps, and the piano, never solidifying any of his musical ideas. Here, Jackman had the opportunity to create a character theme that would follow Susan throughout the film; alas, he decided to play it safe and create sappy library music that could have been written by any film composer.

Undeniably, ‘Meet the Monsters’ and ‘Monster Mojo’ are the most disappointing tracks of this album. These tracks appear to be completely out of place in the album, with almost nothing to offer. ‘Meet the Monsters’ is a painful listening experience, considering there is no rhythm, bass line, or other instruments performing anything worth mentioning. The wacky or comedic undertone it hopes to manifest is only made apparent by the visuals, fundamentally replacing the relationship and function of the film score.

The obvious — and some would say inevitable — use of both electronic and orchestral elements for an animation-driven score has been the norm for Zimmer and his pupils; Jackman’s score is no different. Unfortunately, Jackman seems uncomfortable with the combinations and often fills the voids with unnecessary sounds. This is particularly evident in ‘Oversized Tin Can,’ a piece that starts with an interesting military musical quality that quickly dissolves into a chaotic arrangement utilizing anything from an organ and guitars, to wacky and silly vocoder-like effects. Not surprisingly, the music shifts between styles so quickly that the listener cannot find any redeemable motifs or ideas in the music. To a lesser extent, ‘The Battle at Golden Gate Bridge’ also suffers from the overutilization of sounds and shifts in arrangements; nonetheless, the first two minutes of this track certainly showcase the talent Henry Jackman possesses. At times there are indications of great themes about to form within the brass and string lines. Sadly, Jackman appears to be so entertained by the medley of electronic sounds he creates, that he leaves his best orchestrations to fall short of the listener’s expectations.


‘Imprisoned by a Strange Being’ serves as a reminder as to why Jackman was hired to do the job. It is in this track that we first hear a clear four-note motif, very intricate orchestrations, and an overall sense of dramatic understanding. This long track contains some of the most salvageable material from the album and it is well worth more than a single listen. The four-note motif is better appreciated in ‘Galaxar as a Squidling,’ a track that also sustains a decent level of musicality by avoiding the unnecessary use of certain electronic sounds. Regrettably, the same cannot be said of “March of the Buffoons,” which jumps around all of the sounds, motifs and arrangements heard in previous tracks. Admittedly, one can’t help but to assume that Jackman made a conscious effort to bombard the listener with as many sounds as possible to see which ones would stick, conclusively creating very chaotic compositions.


The quirky and elegant ‘Ginormica Suite’ proves to be the best composition of the entire album. The amount of talent displayed by Jackman in this track can easily allow the listener to forget the previous 17 tracks. The harmonizations reflect a very different musical understanding by the composer. Whether the music sounds at times too similar to John Powell’s and Harry Gregson-Williams’ ‘Chicken Run’ doesn’t seem to affect or downplay the effectiveness of this track inside and outside the film. This should have been Jackman’s basis for the rest of the score, adequately creating a memorable tonality and theme.

For his first major scoring assignment, Henry Jackman produces a dynamic and effective score that does everything it is supposed to do. While there are quite a number of instances containing inexcusable musical compositions, there are a few moments of exemplary musical brilliance. Whether Jackman will become the next great Media Ventures’ alumnus is very difficult to say, and one can only hope he develops his own style; but what can conclusively be deducted from this score is that he possesses the talent to create better and more memorable animation scores. In the end, Monsters vs. Aliens is a somewhat below par score— excused only by the fact that it is Jackman’s first major individual project. The popular songs added to the album neither affect nor help Jackman’s score and are there only for marketing and commercial purposes. The score is well worth listening to, but don’t expect too much in terms of musical content.