Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Composed by Brian Tyler

Although it was hardly well-regarded, the action-horror cross-over Alien vs. Predator still made enough money to garner a sequel. The first film is passable entertainment but Requiem suffers from the fact that most of the action takes place in a dark, rainy environment, making it difficult to see the new alien and predator designs. The characters are wafer-thin and there’s a certain maternity ward scene that was just a little too much for me. The film itself bombed. Not a failure is Brian Tyler’s score, all of which can be found on the soundtrack album. This is from around the time that Brian Tyler started getting the opportunity to create big action scores. The actual album presentation is horrendous, but I will talk about that later. First the actual music.

Tyler does a good job of using the style of the Alien and Predator soundtracks, especially the former, though he or somebody in charge decided that none of the franchises’ preexisting themes would be used. One of Horner’s motifs from Aliens does appear, but not much. One cue in which it materializes is “Coprocloakia”. A variation on the Predator theme plays in “Predator Arrival” and “Power Struggle”, with the percussive elements remaining, but the core theme replaced by a variation of Tyler’s Requiem theme. A couple tracks, “National Guard pt. 1” and “Taking Sides,” (the latter a quite good 13-minute piece) use a motif heavily reminiscent of Ripley’s theme from Alien Resurrection. The latter half of “Buddy’s New Buddy” has a call-back to Elliot Goldenthal’s dissonant strings from Alien 3’s “Candles in the Wind.” These are nice references, but it is frustrating that Tyler wouldn’t or was not allowed to actually make the franchise themes clash. At least he finds a way to reference them whereas Harald Kloser ignored them completely for the first AVP.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Composed by: Keith Emerson, Nobuhiko Morino, & Daisuke Yano

Unfortunately, despite some pretty good films, the Shinsei Godzilla series was not proving as financially successful as hoped. As it happened Godzilla’s 50^th birthday was coming up, so Toho decided to once again take a break from the franchise (their longest) with a big extravaganza. The final result, Godzilla Final Wars is at best a guilty pleasure. Like Destroy All Monsters decades earlier, the film boasts a large cast of monsters, but gives almost none of the them significant screentime. Also like that earlier film the plot involves aliens using mind control to invade the earth with monsters. The director Ryuhei Kitamura, known for his over-the-top and violent action films, expresses too much interest in the Matrix-inspired human fight scenes. The film’s saving grace is that it gets so ridiculous and bad that it gets good again. Highlights include a literal Japanese Keanu Reeves serving as a Neo expy, a scenery-chewing alien commander, and martial artist/pro wrestler Don Frye as a badass American. Needless to say, the film is divisive in Godzilla fandom.

Also divisive is the musical score, composed by Keith Emerson. Instead of getting Michiru Oshima, Takayuki Hattori, or another traditionally orchestral composer, Kitamura went in a completely different direction by hiring British progressive rock artist Keith Emerson. Emerson only had a couple weeks in his schedule to create music. In fact after the first act of the album he largely disappears from the track credits. Japanese composers Nobuhiko Morino and Daisuke Yano stepped in to complete the music, ensuring that the composers’ material lined up stylistically. The result is a score that somewhat matches the over-the-top film, but is wholly unsuited to represent the gravitas of Godzilla. The music is rock and techno-laden, though thankfully there are a few legitimately good pieces. Overall the music sounds like it comes from an early 2000s video game.