2012- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

adam lambert
only went to movie to see adam sing. movie-so so. can only do same plot so many times. movie stale

A Decent Yet Underwhelming Soundtrack
"Come back to us Goldsmith!" Was the exclamation that popped into my head the first time I listened to this soundtrack. Sure, the music is VERY polished... but it doesn't make a statement. I know I'll be bashed for saying this... but there ARE ways to underscore a film while still maintaining character thematic continuity and at least a dash of excitement. That being said, I do respect the composers for doing a couple of things right. This score is delightfully easy on the ears (and the first couple of tracks create an amazingly terrifying atmosphere.)

Predictable and characterless
The disaster movie to end all disaster movies, 2012 is an apocalyptic action adventure directed by Roland Emmerich who, not content with destroying New York twice in Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow, or destroying most of the United States in Independence Day, has now gone one better and destroyed the entire world. The film is based on the old legend of the highly accurate calendars created by the ancient Mayan civilization which `ran out' in the year 2012, causing some to believe that they predicted the end of the world, and stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt as the men and women caught up in the global cataclysm. 2012 marks the second instance of composer Harald Kloser also being responsible for the film's screenplay after his debut work 10, 000 BC last year. Naturally, he also writes the film's score, with assistance from his regular collaborator, fellow Austrian Thomas Wander (who changed his surname from Wanker, for obvious reasons). Given the nature of the film, one would expect 2012 to be a monumental, apocalyptic action score of the highest order. In fact the right raw materials are in place - large orchestra, choir, appropriate electronic enhancements, large cinematic canvas on which to paint - but it's actually an enormous disappointment. The problem with 2012 is the sheer lack of imagination; it's just so predictable and so characterless as to be stupefying. It wants to be heroic, wants to be stirring, wants to be epic, but ends up sounding like a bad parody of itself. It's patriotic wallpaper covering the cracks in the film, hoping no-one will notice how bland it is, because it's loud and fast and tonally pleasant and manages to find the chord progressions that push the right emotional buttons of the audience. Even the action cues - "Spirit of Santa Monica", "Run Daddy Run", "Leaving Las Vegas", "Saving Caesar" and others - which are normally a mainstay of scores like this seem by-the-numbers, as of they were written by a piece of software called EpikSkore101 rather than a living, breathing composer. To be fair, some of the cues do contain some attractive (if, again, staggeringly generic) moments, notably the choral parts of "Ashes in D.C.", "Nampan Plateau", "Open the Gates" or "2012: The End of the World", but these moments are few and far between. Ironically, the most entertaining track on the album is actually the superb modern rock song "Time for Miracles", written by former Eleven members Alain Johannes and the late Natasha Shneider, and performed by American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. If that doesn't tell you something, nothing does.

I enjoy Soundtrack music
I enjoy Soundtrack music, and I have to admit that I bought it mainly for Adam Lambert's "A Time For Miracles." I love the song, and the rest of the soundtrack is good to listen to. I like to play it while I'm reading or just relaxing in bed at night. I always check with Amazon when I am looking for CD's, music downloads, books, or DVD's because I always find what I'm looking for, at a reasonable price, and most of all, the excellent service that Amazon provides.

I wanted to like it, I really did but...
So I watched 2012 yesterday, you know the one, the world is getting destroyed. The Mayas made this prediction long ago. It turns out to be true and the whole world goes to hell. Sounds pretty cool and the movie was as expected. The CGI and production value was through the roof and you even cared for the characters. I carefully listened to the score by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander and thought it wasn't too bad. Sure there's some generic action stuff in there, but it plays along well with the scenes. What's interesting about Roland Emmerich movies when it comes to the music is that, as of his last few films, he always chooses Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander to do it and even better, Harald Kloser also co-wrote the script with Emmerich. Should make for the perfect marriage of movie and music right? They did that in 10,000 B.C. and it was really good. Here's the review of 10,000 B.C. if you have forgotten. So what about 2012? 2012 starts ominous enough, with a couple of cues that go nowhere, but serve as teasers for what is to come. This is predominantly an action score as it should be, but it never goes over the top. What I noticed when watching the movie, was the inclusion of a lot of comedy scenes with accompanying comedy music. By comedy music, I mean the type that John Debney is doing these days. This hasn't spilled over onto the score release and I wasn't upset by that to be honest. I'm not a fan of goofy comedy music in general and as this is an action score, that would have seemed out of place for the general public. I didn't want to do this, but I have to compare it to 10,000 B.C. because that's the last reference point for the Kloser and Wander duo. For 10,000 B.C. they blatantly stole music from Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky and got away with it. It actually worked to their favor and made the score to 10,000 B.C. energetic and fun. It lent it some great thematic stuff. Of course that didn't go down well with the purists out there -- no stealing! Well you who thought that was bad, will be pleased to know that 2012 doesn't blatantly steal from anything except every possible action movie out there. What I mean by that is that 2012 sounds like any other generic action fest, some of it is good, actually most of it is good, and some of it is decent. The energy and thematic presence from 10,000 B.C. is gone, in fact you will be hard pressed to find any themes of significance here. Maybe it was for the best, in that, at least it doesn't resemble themes you've heard before, right? Well, personally I'm sad to see it go. If it works, why break it? I don't mind seeing a little stealing in scores (as long as it is stolen from scores that I actually enjoy). Most of the cues are generally good, they just lack the extra punch to get me excited. The action cues are what drives this score and it does so in a non-surprising manner with thumping percussion and quick violin jolts. There is a lot of music missing from the movie that didn't make it to the score, but I won't be crying for an expanded release here. What we got here is fine and probably the best that they could do. There are some scenes I believe should have been re-scored before the film's release, such as Adrian's heartbreaking speech which got me teary eyed, but not because of the music. `Adrian's Speech' doesn't match the scene at all which had all the hallmarks for a great emotional theme. This is what at the end of the day is wrong with this score. It misses a lot of opportunities for great scoring and settles for mediocrity. I was expecting the music to be frantic and overblown like the effects budget of 2012, but it didn't quite deliver what I needed. It is clearly a decent/good score, but I know it could be a lot better. A movie like this has great action scenes and a lot of emotional moments, and the emotional moments are sadly missing from the score (for the most part). It's the end of the world for crying out loud! Play it like you mean it!