Enemy of the State

Originally Zimmer was slated for this film, and the trailers I have seen still has his name in the credits. For some reason, I suppose he passed the project on to a couple of his partners at Media Ventures.

To be frank, these kind of action scores are starting to become a little tiresome, silly and a cliché. Why do every action score from the guys at Media Venture have to sound the same. I know that computers and synths are common tools for those guys, which makes me wonder whether they are using something like Microsoft Action Score Composer 98... ("Click here to add some cool percussion" or "Click OK to get some nice staccato string chords") There seems to be so much routine in the music. It does its job in the film, and it kind of works on CD too, but where are the creativity, the brain and the great, new, ideas?

So, this score follows the formula Trevor Rabin, Herry Gregson-Williams and the other guys seem to use. There's a catchy, powerful main theme, that's really good; there's the constant use of all kinds of percussion; cool electronic sounds and those staccato, often low, strings. Wouldn't it be about time to come up with something new, and leave this kind of scoring behind? That's what I'm thinking when listing to Enemy of the State. At the same time I do understand why they keep writing these scores. They're good. It's hard not to enjoy the music. And it always sounds great when the main theme kicks in with full power. However, the use of the main theme is the biggest problem with Enemy of the State - it isn't used so much. In fact, there aren't much thematic material in the score at all. Instead what we get is 50 minutes of non stop action that just goes on and on and on and... It would have been nice with some rest, i.e. some softer music, between the action. And I find it hard to appreciate action music without themes to revolve around.

But I can't get away from the fact that I somewhat like it anyway. Because it gets your adrenaline pumping. It is rousing action music. But it doesn't leave any memories. I've listened to the soundtrack a couple of times now, and I still can't hum anything at all from it. But, if you loved Armageddon, and can't get enough of action music a la Hans Zimmer (whose action scores I love, by the way) I suppose you will like this soundtrack, too. But I want something new.