About the Soundtrack: The shape shifting robots from the
Transformers universe return in
Revenge of the Fallen, a sequel to the 2007 box office smash. Reprising his role as composer is
Steve Jablonsky, who delivered a rather entertaining effort for the first installment and continues the musical development in this follow-up. Right out of the gates, the first problem with this soundtrack is the somewhat brief running time that spans 14 tracks. Were this not a rather large scaled, commercial film, than I could forgive the relative brevity of the content. However, I think fans might have been deserving a bit more than a 45 minute presentation.
What You Need to Know: So the soundtrack runs a bit short, but how good is it? Well the answer to that is rather simple -- it's decent, slightly above average but not on par with the first film's score. I must remind you that there is most assuredly additional music that did not make it onto this release. Whether this first iteration of the
Fallen soundtrack represents the best tracks from the film remains to be seen, or heard, as it were.
The tone of
Revenge of the Fallen shifts to darker corners of the Transformers universe. There is also a heavier industrial and rock music influence on this score as compared to the first. Where
Fallen succeeds a bit more than its predecessor is through the use of the choral elements that Jablonsky includes, with the prominent female voice standing out as a high point on the album (such as in track 6,
Infinite White). Additionally, and since this sequel is the dark act in the series, it's no surprise that more of a imposing, sacrificial style is employed within the context of the musical score.
In a broad sense, I maintain that the motif Jablonsky used in the "Arrival to Earth" track in Transformers 1 should have served as the base theme for the entire series. Though there is a build-up to the payoff of this theme in Fallen, it never fully comes back around for an encore (at least on this soundtrack release). I feel this motif was one of Jablonsky's best and thus, it would be disappointing if it's not heard during the film at some juncture.
Finally, there are moments during Fallen that sound like a direct replica of music heard on the first soundtrack. While Jablonsky does create a variance in the main thematic movement, the Autobot "heroes theme" resurfaces in a manner that is identical to what was heard in 2007, at least in spots. In that sense, the composer seems to have stalled the progression of the music in the series more than continue it, which is a slight disappointment. Any time there is a sequel I am keen to hear an advance on previous ideas, and in this case, it's more lateral than forward.
