About the Soundtrack:  Roland Emmerich's latest composer of choice seems to be Harold Kloser, who picks up the baton where David Arnold left off for the director's blockbuster films.  When Arnold exited the collaboration, the drop-off in quality was immediately noticeable -- Kloser stepped in and delivered a rather plain sounding effort for "The Day After Tomorrow." Aside from a nice closing theme, Kloser's style was far removed from that of Arnold's.  In "10,000 BC," Kloser teamed up with Thomas Wander (and evidently a few others), who is credited with writing additional music for the film.  The final output, with regards to the soundtrack, is a fully orchestral score that gives us about 50 minutes of music.  While this score may not make us forget about Arnold's signature style, the gap has been shortened by a bit.

What You Need to Know:  Kloser had a unique vantage point for this production.  Not only was he the lead composer but he also served as co-writer of the script, with Emmerich serving as the other end of the tandem.  This extra insight must have given Kloser extra time to dream up the score, though the modest themes might suggest otherwise. That is, in fact, if he wrote the majority of the music for this score. When there are co-writers involved, and given Kloser's demands for this film, one can only wonder what his final contributions were toward writing the score.

 

As I listened to this album for the first time, I was fairly impressed by the orchestral scope of the score.  It wasn't until the second listen that the music began to feel derivative of some other source of music.  As it turns out, the astute message board posters of the world locked in on the inspiration behind the music, Zimmer's "King Arthur."  The similarities between the two projects cannot be overlooked.  The deja-vu is most apparent during the thematic statements during the score, offering chord progressions that are too close for comfort as compared to "King Arthur."  Try as I might, I just couldn't shake it.  I also picked up on a "Gladiator" reference at one point during the album, too.  Like the inspirations mentioned above, this too was a sure-fire lock as being a temped track.

 

There are a couple aspects where"10,000 BC" does shine, however. The first example is primarily due to the tribal elements that are introduced.  The writing that features African inspired vocals and chants add credibility to the album and represents an original presence to the music.  The second impressive feature to note is the sheer depth of the orchestra and the use of percussions during some of the bolder statements on the album.  It's been far too long since we've had the opportunity to listen to an orchestra on its own delivering film music without electronic augmentations.  One specific instance of this is during the "Sea of Sand" track, when the prisoners are being sailed away to their captivity; the music truly soars with a lamenting sense of loss and it's a statement that I really appreciated. These are the type of money scenes that only Spielberg, Lucas and Emmerich seem to deliver any more. The soundtrack ends with more of the same melodic overtures, but again, the lack of originality keeps it from ascending to greater heights.

 

Final Score: "10,000 BC" pretty much comes as a mixed bag.  There are parts that I loved and parts that I disliked.  On the one hand, it's totally refreshing to hear music in an orchestral sense again, larger than life and offering a true presence.  The tribal singing is also a plus.  Conversely, the use of themes that seemed to be inspired by temp tracks is a true disappointment.  That it progressed from its rough cut to the next stage and kept the similarities is even worse.