The Avengers


Chapter III 11/10/1998 CD (667603010029)
Silva Screen Records (5014929030425)
 

Subscribe now!

Stay better informed and get access to collectors info!





 

# Track   Duration
1.Main Title 
2.Prospero Lab Destruction 
3.Meet Emma Peel 
4.John Steed, I Presume? 
5.DeWinter Castle 
6.Sir August's Garden 
7.Chasing Teddy Bears 
8.Flight of the Mechanical Bees 
9.Into the Love Maze 
10.DeWinter's Waltz 
11.Stairway to Madness 
12.Invisible Jones 
13.Emma's Balloon Escape 
14.Are you All Right 
15.Avenging Crimes 
16.The Final Conflict 
17.Aftermath 
18.The Avengers Theme 
19.The Avengers 
Submit your review Show reviews in other languages

 

The Avengers - 08/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at
Out of the hideous mess that was The Avengers appears a small glimmer of quality, in fact it's probably the only part of the film that comes out well. In between the almost non-sensical plot, the often terrible acting (even from Sean Connery and Ralph Fiennes) and variable set pieces, McNeely's score seems to have come from the film the Avengers was meant to be. The Main Title doesn't use Laurie Johnson's original theme but opts for a perhaps less suave, but more thriller-styled theme that should have set the tone for the film perfectly, much like Danny Elfman's Batman theme set the new tone that the new film had to avoid the often hilarious tone of the original television series. While the original Avengers series was infinitely better than the Batman series, it was probably write to set a different tone with the music as Johnson's theme is somewhat at odds with the more hard-edged 90's style. Unlike many of his previous outings, McNeely has completely steered clear of any John Williams-isms to produce a score that evokes Jerry Goldsmith in the action and the occasional hint of Bernard Herrmann during the more surreal episodes.

Having said that, the overall style bears some of the hallmarks of David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies with the somewhat retro sound combined with pop-influenced synth backing. Probably the highlight of the score is The Flight of the Mechanical Bees which is a brilliantly athletic action cue that combines all these elements to produce an engaging show piece that functions perfectly well on its own. Other action highlights include Prospero Lab Destruction (which I think was cut from the final film, either that or I'd fallen asleep by that point....). Emma's Balloon Escape, Avenging Crimes and The Final Conflict are also supremely exciting and intricately scored providing the excitement the film sorely lacked for most of its running time. To score some of the stranger sequences of the film, such as when Emma Peel and Steed first meet as well as the snooping around in DeWinter's Garden and castle, McNeely uses very ethereal sounds that are the moments that most closely evoke Herrmann, although the occasional use of sax makes the music sound somewhat sexier than Herrmann might have written!

Once the Final Conflict has finished, a brief coda of the original Avengers theme brings the album to a close. This is one of McNeely's finest works to date and it seems a shame that it comes from such a terrible film and didn't give McNeely the boost into the mainstream he really deserves. What I like most about this score is that the entire thing evokes a very specific mood and there is an over-riding sound world that McNeely has created which is so rare in film scoring sometimes. There are so many bland and colourless scores out there, it's nice to hear one that manages to create a whole new world in music. I wonder what Michael Kamen, the original composer, would have produced, although I suspect it would have been a little more standard and that would was the main reason he had no luck in satisfying the producers despite his best efforts. I suspect that had the film been better, Kamen would have been a lot more inspired as well. However, I am glad that McNeely scored as he's one of my favourite composers and conductors and this makes another excellent entry in his filmography.


Report a fault or send us additional info!: Log on

 



More