Avengers: Age of Ultron

The Marvel money making machine continues to send its children to the cineplex to razzle-dazzle audiences around the world, leading in the inevitable box office records, one after another. Of course this means it's always bigger and always more sensational than the previous one. And how could one already top The Avengers in pure entertainment level? Well somehow Avengers: Age of Ultron seems to overdo it rather easily. For the music, no more Alan Silvestri, but Brian Tyler instead. Tyler was doing OK for the bosses with his Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, so he was given the opportunity to continue what he has always done, namely top that bigger is better attitude with a same run of the mil bigger is badder attitude. His action music is exciting, pompous and overtly rhythmic, thing is it's always the same bloody thing. And even here it's beginning to blur together so easily, it's so easy to get lost in them.

So over pompous it needed some respite (or perhaps some creativity from someone else). So, Danny Elfman was a logical and illogical choice. Logical considering he tackled the superhero genre before, illogical considering the most logical choice was waiting around the corner. Namely Alan Silvestri. No wait, that would mean they would admit they made a slight mistake with Tyler. Anyway, what the reason was I'm not that interested in, considering it will have to do with a lot of things. Thing is, suddenly Alan Silvestri lived on in Elfman's ideas. Considering he and he alone used Silvestri's own avengers theme in a slightly different variation. Weird considering the franchise, you would think themes would live on in this Marvel universe. But somehow only Elfman made sure of that.

That is not entirely true, Tyler's own Iron Man theme pops up briefly in various tracks ("Birth of Ultron", "Hulkbuster") but I don't remember Thor's theme popping up here. What we do get of Tyler is his typical energetic stuff. Tracks like "Rise Together", "Hulkbuster", "Seoul Searching" and "Fighting Back" are big and bad cues, using the orchestra at its fullest potential. But what's the use if the music is leading into one giant blur after a while. If there was one universe he could throw those different themes together, it was here. And too little and too loudly things are beginning to blur into one big action sound, never totally delivering something unique that would set them apart from the rest (you could swap A and B and I don't think anyone would hear a difference). Truth is, I'm beginning to feel the same for the movies nowadays. Why does it always have to overdo the previous film? Ah maybe I'm getting old, but the music for Avengers: Age of Ultron is fun if you're truly into that kind of thing, mediocre if you think it would change a thing. "Outlook" is the sole difference where Tyler pays suddenly true homage to Alan Silvestri's work, perhaps even more than Elfman.

Because believe me, it's not like Danny Elfman's music is way better. Because it's not. It's more diverse in tone I guess (occasionally even softer) and it has the strength of putting Alan Silvestri's good theme in the mix, with a variation of Elfman's own new theme before it. But after a while it's beginning to blur into the Avengers pool of averageness too, delivering substance over style. I like at least Elfman's attempt to give us the Silvestri vibe in "Heroes and "New Avengers - Avengers: Age of Ultron" (with the first being the best), and I admire him at least giving the theme a chance in the action music too ("Inevitability-One Good Eye"), but in the end it's not enough for this kind of franchise.

I admit that The Avengers of Alan Silvestri was an equally flawed experience, having it's own problems to sub stain that incredible length on disc. But even in average mode, Alan Silvestri had the gift to somehow make it work (and don't get me started on the black widow's theme which is sorely absent here). Tyler has surprised me from time to time to pay respect to previous scores from the past (Aliens vs Predator 2 to name the obvious one, Tyler used some of James Horner's ideas incredibly well), but here he's missed a big opportunity to put various themes together, and even the lack of the own Avengers theme is something I can't understand (intentional or not?). Elfman's music is not much better, but at least it uses the main Avengers theme (intentional or not?). Does it salvage the experience? Well fans of this kind of thing will get a kick out of it I'm sure, but for me it's too long, loses my interest too quickly and blurs into one identical mess that's hard to love, if you know we could have given Alan Silvestri another shot at it.

Ah if it was shorter it could have received a higher rating I guess?

Favorite Moment - Outlook (1.26 - 2.34)
Suddenly out of nowhere, there's the Silvestri's sound I was seriously looking forward to. I thought I would never hear it.

Tracklisting

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron Titles (0.44)
2. Heroes * (2.07)
3. Rise Together (2.23)
4. Breaking and Entering (3.04)
5. It Begins * (2.42)
6. Birth of Ultron (3.05)
7. Ultron-Twins * (4.13)
8. Hulkbuster (4.32)
9. Can You Stop This Thing? * (1.03)
10. Sacrifice (2.42)
11. Farmhouse * (4.03)
12. The Vault (2.58)
13. The Mission (2.48)
14. Seoul Searching (2.49)
15. Inevitability-One Good Eye * (5.07)
16. Ultron Wakes * (1.43)
17. Vision (3.47)
18. The Battle (4.24)
19. Wish You Were Here (1.36)
20. The Farm * (1.14)
21. Darkest of Intentions (2.26)
22. Fighting Back (2.33)
23. Avengers Unite * (1.08)
24. Keys to the Past (1.48)
25. Uprising (2.32)
26. Outlook (2.38)
27. The Last One (2.14)
28. Nothing Lasts Forever * (1.57)
29. New Avengers - Avengers: Age of Ultron * (3.09)

* composed by Danny Elfman

Total Length: 78.29