G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Soundtrack Review
Turbocharged but Aimless Action Score by Alan Silvestri
Aug 14, 2009
Famous for his blazing action-adventure scores as well as his tender scores for romantic comedies and tender family films, Alan Silvestri is nothing less than universally respected in the film scoring community. From the classic heroics of Back to the Future to the glorious enchantment of The Polar Express, and from the delightful comedy of Mouse Hunt to the gothic bombast of Van Helsing, Silvestri’s aptitude for his art is undeniable.
But his latest blockbuster score, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, while as adrenaline-filled as any of his action scores, is noticeably less focused, with a disappointing emphasis on electronics and attitude over emotional development and cohesive structure.
Modern Electronics Emphasized in Silvestri's G.I. Joe Score
When listening to Silvestri’s score for G.I. Joe, it is important to remember that he composed it for Stephen Sommers’ most modern and shallow film to date. The exotic swashbuckling of The Mummy Returns and the gothic chants of Van Helsing have no place in the world of G.I. Joe, so Silvestri has instead infused his score with extremely potent amounts of electronica and rock elements, which are extremely effective in conveying the “cool” contemporary style of the characters and action, but which offer no real substance, depth or opportunity for narrative development.
To his credit, Silvestri utilizes the electronic elements mostly in the first half of the album, with the second half of the score showcasing the sheer, rip-roaring power of the orchestra very effectively. Also, the electronics themselves are never very grating or otherwise unlistenable, and are integrated quite well with the more organic ensemble.
Lack of Structure and Focus in G.I. Joe Soundtrack
Time and again, composers have proven that style and substance can be effectively produced in a single score, whether aided by electronics or not (the works of Jerry Goldsmith and David Arnold come to mind), and all the ingredients for a solidly entertaining blockbuster action score are in place in G.I. Joe. So what’s missing?
Because the film itself has no real emotional gravity, and instead relies on nearly constant action sequences and special-effects scenes to engage audiences, Silvestri’s music has to content itself with complementing the moment-to-moment events on screen, with little to no substance in the narrative to provide Silvestri’s score with an emotional backbone or core on which to build and grow. Thus the music suffers from a certain lack of structure and direction which cannot be amended by style and ensemble size alone.
Themes and Motifs of G.I. Joe's Music
The album is not without consistently recurring motifs, and it is the presence of these simple motifs that breath what little personality there is in G.I. Joe into the score. A short, major-key fanfare represents the G.I. Joe organization and its over-the-top heroics, while a simple 5-note motif for the villains of Cobra is less easily identified.
The Joes’ motif receives some thunderously obvious performances (notably “General Hawk,” “The Joes Mobilize” and “Deploy the Sharcs”), but its brief progressions make almost all of its appearances unsatisfactory in their brevity. It is not until the final “End Credits” cue (arguably the best track on album) that the theme is explored to its fullest, with gripping effect.
Summary
With the majority of the album given over to blazing electronics and thunderous, meandering action cues with little structural or melodic integrity, many listeners may find the 70+ minutes of music on the commercial score album to be a curious mixture of the overwhelming and disappointing.
With little room to explore softer shades of reflective emotion and expand the thematic horizons of his score, Silvestri has produced a superficially thrilling (and at times very entertaining) soundtrack to an otherwise forgettable motion picture. It is a score which very much showcases style over substance, and it is the musical equivalent of the phrase “All dressed up with nowhere to go.”
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