X-Men 2
John Ottman
" Moments in the music make the score worth it, especially when all the themes appear "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
In 2000, Brian Singer announced that he would bring the comic book heroes of X-Men to life, and he wanted nothing more but to work with his buddy, co composer and editor John Ottman. Yet problems arose with John directing, scoring and editing Urban Legends: The Final Cut in the same year, and so he wasn't available for the gig. The scoring assignment went to Michael Kamen instead, who composed (as we know it by now) a score that suited the movie fine enough. Luckily due to the success of the franchise, Ottman got another chance, this time on X-Men 2. So Ottman fully scheduled his tasks to do X2, editing and composing it, while Brian Singer lent him a hand in whistling the theme for the movie all day long.
I have heard criticism about Ottman's theme being a virtual identical alteration of Michael Kamen's original theme for the first X-Men. True, the theme is very similar in the style, if only here a little more fleshed out by the orchestra. However Ottman wasn't copying nor adjusting the theme of Kamen, he was doing it to the X-Men theme of the animated television series. You see Kamen used an alternation of the theme of that series in the first movie, Ottman did the same of the theme of either Kamen or just the show. So basically, the theme is directly linked to all sources and basically you should criticize Kamen too if you assault Ottman first. But I don't care, because the theme for the television series was cool, Kamen's a bit dark and underused (if receiving a great performance at the end credits of the movie) and Ottman's is the one Singer was whistling all right, receiving the heroic credit of the mutants here and appearing at least several times with gusto on screen.
It's always a difference to film music listeners by stating a theme early on in the film, because then you know there's a tune backing up the main characters. And Ottman and (of course) Singer knew that, so they used the main theme as the corner stone for the rolling title in the movie (with great effect I might add). It also opens the score in a special rearranged format, namely "Suite from X2". It gives us already the enjoyable brassy main theme with some great use of choir, alongside a secondary choral theme.
"Storm's Perfect Storm" is another highlight, using ferocious choral performances to state the awesome power of Storm. Furthermore, one of Kamen's good touches was the mysterious use of instrumentation for Mystique, and Ottman does something similar in "Sneaky Mystique" for our lovely shape shifting beauty, in using the same cello technique but adding soft mysterious vocal effects by Bobbi Page. Later in the track the bells, percussion and orchestra round up a terrific sense of urgency.
"Mansion Attack" is a 7 minute package of at times ferocious action music, but overall it remains this for just a few minutes, adding some of the loudest percussion moments in the 2nd minute I heard for quite some time. Yet it doesn't stay like this making it not a highlight, which it should have been. "I'm In" has at the end the vocal mysterious tones for Mystique directly sequencing itself into a choral statement of the main theme, and even how short it is, it remains splendid indeed.
However, when we want to talk about highlights, here's one you'll definitely remember. "Magneto's Old Tricks" covers for the most part simply choral phrases, being in the begin either the main theme or choral theme, followed by the choral delight of Magneto's theme with great menacing display. Take notice that this is a mixed track, mixing 2 scenes together lying various apart from one another in the film.
"Death Strikes Deathstryke" is actually a bit disappointing in its melodic effect, but it does have a fanfare ala The Usual Suspects which gets noticed rather easy. And at the end we have some action tension music in "Getting out Alive", some emotional choral glimpses for the surprising ending in "Goodbye" and a truly wonderful statement of the main theme with additional light choir that concludes the score with a bang in "We're Here to Stay".
Altogether, X-Men 2 still isn't the score I'd hoped for. But it has advantages. First of all, it works like dynamite in the movie (with some unreleased gems), secondly Ottman's score is simply better to listen to than Kamen's one and thirdly, it simply carries some great ideas overall. Even if the listen isn't anything like I was hoping for, almost each track carries an idea of 10 seconds to a minute that I simply adore. And that means that score has something interesting for me in about any track. X-Men 2 simply glues together better than Kamen's effort, while having a theme that does it what it needs to do, namely kicks ass. For that, I love the moments in the score, and for that I give it this quotation, take it or mutate it!
Tracklisting
1. Suite from X2 (7.09) Excellent track
2. Storm's Perfect Storm (2.18) Excellent track
3. Finding Faith (1.29)
4. Sneaky Mystique (3.30)
5. Cerebro (1.26)
6. Mansion Attack (7.33)
7. Rogue Earns her Wings (1.34)
8. It's Time (3.38)
9. Magneto's Old Tricks (4.57) Excellent track
10. I'm In (4.10)
11. If You Really Knew (3.20)
12. Playing With Fire (2.43)
13. Death Strikes Deathstryke (4.50)
14. Getting Out Alive (3.57)
15. Goodbye (5.26) Excellent track
16. We're Here to Stay (1.48) Excellent track
Total Length: 60.18
I have heard criticism about Ottman's theme being a virtual identical alteration of Michael Kamen's original theme for the first X-Men. True, the theme is very similar in the style, if only here a little more fleshed out by the orchestra. However Ottman wasn't copying nor adjusting the theme of Kamen, he was doing it to the X-Men theme of the animated television series. You see Kamen used an alternation of the theme of that series in the first movie, Ottman did the same of the theme of either Kamen or just the show. So basically, the theme is directly linked to all sources and basically you should criticize Kamen too if you assault Ottman first. But I don't care, because the theme for the television series was cool, Kamen's a bit dark and underused (if receiving a great performance at the end credits of the movie) and Ottman's is the one Singer was whistling all right, receiving the heroic credit of the mutants here and appearing at least several times with gusto on screen.
It's always a difference to film music listeners by stating a theme early on in the film, because then you know there's a tune backing up the main characters. And Ottman and (of course) Singer knew that, so they used the main theme as the corner stone for the rolling title in the movie (with great effect I might add). It also opens the score in a special rearranged format, namely "Suite from X2". It gives us already the enjoyable brassy main theme with some great use of choir, alongside a secondary choral theme.
"Storm's Perfect Storm" is another highlight, using ferocious choral performances to state the awesome power of Storm. Furthermore, one of Kamen's good touches was the mysterious use of instrumentation for Mystique, and Ottman does something similar in "Sneaky Mystique" for our lovely shape shifting beauty, in using the same cello technique but adding soft mysterious vocal effects by Bobbi Page. Later in the track the bells, percussion and orchestra round up a terrific sense of urgency.
"Mansion Attack" is a 7 minute package of at times ferocious action music, but overall it remains this for just a few minutes, adding some of the loudest percussion moments in the 2nd minute I heard for quite some time. Yet it doesn't stay like this making it not a highlight, which it should have been. "I'm In" has at the end the vocal mysterious tones for Mystique directly sequencing itself into a choral statement of the main theme, and even how short it is, it remains splendid indeed.
However, when we want to talk about highlights, here's one you'll definitely remember. "Magneto's Old Tricks" covers for the most part simply choral phrases, being in the begin either the main theme or choral theme, followed by the choral delight of Magneto's theme with great menacing display. Take notice that this is a mixed track, mixing 2 scenes together lying various apart from one another in the film.
"Death Strikes Deathstryke" is actually a bit disappointing in its melodic effect, but it does have a fanfare ala The Usual Suspects which gets noticed rather easy. And at the end we have some action tension music in "Getting out Alive", some emotional choral glimpses for the surprising ending in "Goodbye" and a truly wonderful statement of the main theme with additional light choir that concludes the score with a bang in "We're Here to Stay".
Altogether, X-Men 2 still isn't the score I'd hoped for. But it has advantages. First of all, it works like dynamite in the movie (with some unreleased gems), secondly Ottman's score is simply better to listen to than Kamen's one and thirdly, it simply carries some great ideas overall. Even if the listen isn't anything like I was hoping for, almost each track carries an idea of 10 seconds to a minute that I simply adore. And that means that score has something interesting for me in about any track. X-Men 2 simply glues together better than Kamen's effort, while having a theme that does it what it needs to do, namely kicks ass. For that, I love the moments in the score, and for that I give it this quotation, take it or mutate it!
Tracklisting
1. Suite from X2 (7.09) Excellent track
2. Storm's Perfect Storm (2.18) Excellent track
3. Finding Faith (1.29)
4. Sneaky Mystique (3.30)
5. Cerebro (1.26)
6. Mansion Attack (7.33)
7. Rogue Earns her Wings (1.34)
8. It's Time (3.38)
9. Magneto's Old Tricks (4.57) Excellent track
10. I'm In (4.10)
11. If You Really Knew (3.20)
12. Playing With Fire (2.43)
13. Death Strikes Deathstryke (4.50)
14. Getting Out Alive (3.57)
15. Goodbye (5.26) Excellent track
16. We're Here to Stay (1.48) Excellent track
Total Length: 60.18