Return to Oblivion

A couple weeks back, I reviewed the new movie Oblivion. In the review, I noted that one of the stronger aspects of the film was its musical score, composed by French electronic band M83. I mentioned that I'd probably be picking it up for my MP3 collection, and soon after I did just that. Unfortunately, however, this turned out to be a score that works much better in concert with the film than standing on its own.

This happens sometimes. Movie scores are created to support a film, of course, and the fact that many of them work as an independent listening experience is merely an added bonus. Even a film score enthusiast like me can't truly pay that much attention to the music while watching a movie for the first time. I'm certainly aware of it if I think it's strong, but there's no way I can really dig into it until later when I'm listening only to the music. And when I did that for the Oblivion score, I realized it's actually a rather derivative work.

M83 is not the first electronic band to compose for film, but their approach is heavily reminiscent of another band that has done so recently -- Daft Punk. Oblivion quickly calls to mind the score for Tron: Legacy, as fused with the powerful horn drones of Hans Zimmer's music for Inception. (You know, the sound that's now in almost every new movie trailer?) There's a considerable amount of low-adrenaline music in the film too, which doesn't have that Daft Punk vibe... but it too seems derivative, this time of the new age ambiance of Phillip Glass (who contributed to the score for The Truman Show, among others).

The soundtrack isn't a total bust. There are a couple of moments where M83 cuts loose with something a bit different. My favorite track on the album is "Canyon Battle," which has a bona fide rock music drum solo in the middle of it. With films usually dominated by orchestral music, this is an entirely different vibe that still meshed well with the film itself. There are also some decent tracks in "Waking Up," StarWaves," and "Odyssey Rescue," although these don't carve out as much unique territory.

I post this mainly to retract my earlier endorsement of the Oblivion music. Well, in part. It's certainly not the worst soundtrack in my collection. In fact, I'd say it rates as good as a C overall. But it does turn out that I what I thought was an exceptional part of an average movie is really just equally average.