Soundtrack Review: Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull by John Williams (2008)
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This is a review of the motion picture score for Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull by John Williams.
“It all starts like any Indy soundtrack with the infamous Raiders March blasting its heroic sounds into our ears like Dr. Jones slashing his whip into bad guys”
Aah, do you remember 1981? Not me, but Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. I was only 4 at the time, but little did I know what an impact the movies and John Williams would have on my life. I didn’t see the movie until the late 80s, but it was worth the wait. Of course the music in it was exciting, it was different somehow. John Williams didn’t compose all last year, so I bet a lot of people have missed him and here he is with his latest score. This is the track list for Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull:
Track List
- Raiders March
- Call Of The Crystal
- The Adventures Of Mutt
- Irina’s Theme
- The Snake Pit
- The Spell Of The Skull
- A Whirl Through Academe
- The Journey To Akator
- ”Return”
- The Jungle Chase
- Orellana’s Cradle
- Grave Robbers
- Hidden Treasure And The City Of Gold
- Secret Doors And Scorpions
- Oxley’s Dilemma
- Ants!
- Temple Ruins And The Secret Revealed
- The Departure
- Finale
For Fans Only
There are 19 tracks in all with a total play time of 1:17:16 so it’s pretty much filled up and I bet you a 2 CD version is coming. It all starts like any Indy soundtrack with the infamous Raiders March blasting its heroic sounds into our ears like Dr. Jones slashing his whip into bad guys. Yes, it’s just as great as ever, and has only been updated slightly. The rest is all “new” though. New is of course relative. It’s new music, but to be fair, if you have heard the music of Indiana Jones before, you will not find that John Williams has changed his style. This of course is great news for John Williams fans and Indy fans, and not so great for those who are not, but come on, who isn’t?
Expectations
Right, so what do we think of it? Well, apart from “nothing new here, but please stay” I like this as I did the previous Indiana Jones soundtracks. If it ain’t broken, why fix it? It’s funny, as I listen to it, I remember how childish it could be at times, almost like listening to E.T. or Home Alone at times, but it is the john Williams way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That being said, I admit I wasn’t too excited over this one until it was in my mailbox simply because I kind of already knew what to expect. The bottom line is that this is exactly what I expected and I am happy with that. You can’t change when it’s Indy, Superman or Star Wars, the fans won’t allow it and neither do I. If you can live with the fact that this score is Indiana Jones through and through you can’t go wrong here. I am listening to it for the third time now and enjoying it a lot. Listen to Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull by John Williams below:
Negatives:
- Nothing groundbreaking new stuff
Positives:
- It’s the John Williams Sound
- No change to the Indiana Jones formula
- As exciting as ever
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Comments
Ouch! She does look a bit confused. Well at least it wasn’t Hungarian (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
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How does he keep going? It’s been 27 years since Raiders was unleashed on the general public, and yet Williams is still composing at a very high level. Applause aside, what does that mean we’re getting in Indy 4? While Williams is still an exciting composer (5-stars for complete Revenge of the Sith), most of his action material has sounded samey since Phantom Menace, with the xylophone and brass parts bringing in familiar approaches. On the other hand, Williams has shown he can still break out of that mold given the right inspiration (complete Anakin Obi-Wan battle from SW3), and he’s always produced varied and powerful action music for the Indy scores with classics like “Desert Chase”, “Mine Car Chase”, and “Belly of the Steel Beast”, just to name a few. So, of course, expectations are high.
But can he deliver? Well, yes…and no. The true high point of this score is the music for the Skull, some of the creepiest music he’s ever composed. With 3-note and 6-note patterns alternating off each other, it truly creates an alien presence and is well-used throughout the score. Irina’s theme is both alluring (sax usage) and powerful (action material in “Jungle Chase”). Mutt’s theme is playful, fast, and furious, and outside of the first Potter score is a style Williams hasn’t really used that much since Hook. The underrepresented theme for the Russian soldiers is also regal and effective in the action material, particularly “Ants”. And there’s the powerful crescendo into the skull theme at the end of “The Return”, an orchestral build-up as only Williams could do it and perhaps the highlight of the score. The action material is solid, with the driving power behind “Jungle Chase”, the creepy nature of “Ants!”, and the diverse percussive array thrown at us in “Grave Robbers”.
But (had to be a but) the score still disappoints somewhat, especially given the three powerhouses in front of it. Compliments to the new themes aside, the last three I mentioned just aren’t numerous or integrated enough. Irina’s theme and the Russian theme are just not represented well enough on album to get a real flair for them, with much of the Area 51 material being missing on album that would’ve helped here. Mutt’s theme is essentially a variation on Far and Away and incredibly chaotic in parts, as if Williams didn’t have a clear direction for the character. And the action material (plus the temping of the Ark theme…don’t say this was necessary because it was used differently in Last Crusade) just feels all too similar in some parts, with “Jungle Chase”, “Ants!”, and, most derivatively, “Whirl Through Academe” feeling too Star Wars prequel at times.
Overall, it’s a very solid score, technically and orchestrally well-constructed and some superior music throughout, but there’s a lot of grand classic music in this series and we don’t really get that here. 4/5
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John Williams repeats himself, big surprise… not. All composers does and Williams, the legend as he is, is no different. Doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In between the Media Ventures and Elfman scores we need something else, and JW is the man for the job. It was a good score, but strictly for fans only, which I happen to be.
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Haven’t seen it but my wife been trying to drag me to it. Looks like a lot of fun and i did like the first three. Does sound like they could have chosen a better plot though. Aliens? Hmm
Oh well I’ll have to do an Indiana Jones marathon and then go see it.
I do get the feeling that Indiana Jones to my wife was what Cap’n Jack is to the girls today though.
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It was actually a lot of fun. Indy is back to his old self, actually older self. Aliens schmaliens, it was a fun movie and you can’t ask for more than that. An Indy marathon sounds fun. Count me in!
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i keep imagining Cate Blanchett speaking English with a German accent in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull even though she’s supposed to be Russian
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