Reign of Fire


Colosseum (4005939637422)
Varèse Sarabande (0030206637427)
Movie | Released: 2002 | Film release: 2002 | Format: CD, Download
 

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# Track   Duration
1.Prologue3:22
2.Enter The Dragon3:18
3.An Early Harvest2:42
4.Field Attack4:12
5.Marauders2:48
6.Meet Van Zan3:50
7.Archangels3:58
8.Dawn Burial3:03
9.A Battle of Wills5:31
10.The Ruins at Pembury2:11
11.Inferno3:24
12.Return to London4:12
13.Magic Hour5:24
14.Rebirth2:40
 50:34
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Reign of Fire - 06/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at
I would imagine that a film about dragons must be a treat for a composer, it would give you the change to make sweeping, Wagnerian gestures for both heroism and doom without fear of being overwhelming. At least you'd think. The first two dragon films that sprang to my mind were Dragonslayer and Dragonheart, the first being Alex North doing churning modernism and the latter Randy Edelman's lightweight, but tuneful fantasy, neither of which really fit my imagined approach. My evident ongoing disagreement with film composers on how to score such flicks continues with Edward Shearmur's Reign of Fire which is a grungy bit of pseudo modernism that never really gets very heroic, but is certainly heavy on the doom.

Shearmur's last effort was the engaging and pleasing K-Pax, but with Reign of Fire he's lodged himself into Goldenthal and Elfman territory; Lots of blaring brass, clanking percussion and stabbing strings. Unfortunately, the result is a score that sounds a bit like both, but isn't as good as either. That is not to say it doesn't have some cracking moments. After a brooding opening, Shearmur builds up the layers of orchestration, in the same way that Elfman did with his Planet of the Apes titles, although in this case, the little fragments of melody or percussion motifs aren't nearly so memorable, nor do they move towards an obvious cohesive whole. The proceeding tracks are pretty exciting action, with further influences of not only the aforementioned composers, but Don Davis' favourite, overlapping brass, not to mention some John Williams high end woodwind runs accenting the dramatic high points. For my money, the best of these is the final couple of minutes of Marauders which does actually have a short rhythmic motif bounced around the orchestra, most exciting when in the strings, punctuated by brass and underlined with a barrage of percussion.

Meet Van Zan starts with a brief respite of horn chords, but turns into a brief, but bracing march where the horn chords move from quiet nobility to a more strident finale where they combine with the rest of the lower brass. After this, things become somewhat disappointing and the interest level sags. The surprising introduction of some synthetic percussion gives Archangels a contemporary edge, but this soon degenerates a little into more chaotic modernism with plenty of those woodwind runs to balance the otherwise bass heavy orchestration. The ensuing tracks are turgid, vaguely suspenseful underscore which aren't interesting on their own. When the action does start again, the cacophony level seems to increase to the detriment of the enjoyment value. Rebirth seems like the obligatory triumph track, but after forty odd minutes of grinding, it's a welcome relief and Shearmur does at last make one brief heroic statement to close the score.

Reign of Fire just misses out on being highly recommended, which is unfortunate as it's an enjoyable listen. When you combine the somewhat derivative feel with the disappointing lack of memorable motifs or themes, it often sounds like an amalgam mainly other composers' musical tics without any strong stamp from Shearmur, well wrought and exciting though the mixtures often is. That coupled with the fairly tedious central tracks and the lumpy action toward the end, we are left with a score that is something of a disappointment after its early promise. Shearmur is undoubtedly a fine craftsman and seems to have avoided type casting; he is certainly adept at creating music suitable for very different occasions. I have no doubt that his own style will be allowed through in time, but for now we have a generally exciting action score from which I'm sure Shearmur will garner a few more fans, even if they are those of Goldenthal and Elfman.


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