About the Soundtrack: Brian Tyler, ever connected to Jerry Goldsmith's legendary career, is back with another tie-in with the great, late composer. And this time, Alan Silvestri's in the mix too.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is the follow-up to the modestly successful Aliens vs. Predator film that sparked the joining of the two film franchises. While many fans of the originals do and should cringe at what's become of these two entities, we could at least be thankful that Tyler was brought in to do the score for this most recent feature.
The soundtrack offers a great deal of music, as is typical with most of Tyler's releases, and is presented in the composer's own style, even though he drew inspirations from the previous films. The cues are arranged in a way that optimizes the listening experience, which I will touch on below.
What You Need to Know: This was the one AvP score that I was looking forward to. Even though I knew this film would require a suffocating underscore, I was pinning my hopes on Brian Tyler creating a memorable homage to each franchise in just one score; he was about half successful.
The album begins with an onslaught of tense, exciting action fare that gives the listener hope. I had thought that perhaps Tyler shifted the trend and created more of a fast-paced horror score. The first track alone, while not terribly original, certainly can get you out of your seat with its intensity. As it turns out, this track along with the album's first 20 minutes are the best of the lot, with only spot moments providing anything memorable beyond it.
Throughout the score, I was waiting for distinct references to Goldsmith and Silvestri's original efforts, and while there were a few of them, the rest must have been too subtle for my ears. If anything, the music sounded more like Tyler's own and played a bit too familiar in that respect. This could have been due to the weak content of the film itself or it might have been "requests" by the film's producers. In any case, this didn't turn out to be the score I was hoping it would be.
On an album like this, I would have loved hearing the Predator march pace the score with the Alien underscore playing at odds against it. Indeed, there are specific, unmistakable references to these styles but there simply wasn't enough of each. Instead, the score fades off into standard horror material and never seemed to recapture my interest after the opening moments. I know Brian Tyler is close to the material and embraces the spirit of the movies but for some reason that energy never translated into the material.
Final Grade: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem offers a score that is slightly better than the film itself and unfortunately, that's not good enough. Brian Tyler has been doing solid, consistent work over the years but I don't think this ranks as one of his better efforts, even though the concept of this production suggests that it would be. I guess at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you call the film -- if it's weak, than typically, you'll end up with a lower quality score. We may not get to hear the music we want from this franchise until a production teams gets the concept right ...and that might be a long time coming, friends. You can pass on this one.
