THE HEART OF THE APES
Composer Michael Giacchino is back with another Planet of the Apes installment and his insistent, encroaching, otherworldly, tribal soundscape is awesome. But unlike his first, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which certainly captured the darkness, mystery, and potency of the popular movie series, War for the Planet of the Apes finds a middle ground between rousing and militaristic and threatening and futuristic: a heart. This is especially evident in the thematic “Paradise Found,” the beginning of “Apes Together Strong,” and “Exodus Wounds,” a reflective, wistful, thoughtful, sweeping, majestic gut-puncher that utilizes choral subtleties.
Giacchino definitely has all the qualities necessary for modern action scores, from video (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) to television (Lost) to film (Star Trek), but mammoth, ruminating, and dazzling (most evident with Tim Simonec and Jeff Kryka’s shimmering orchestrations) gets a little wearying without a bigger theme that’s woven throughout. And there is a strange paucity of wit in the music when we read punning titles like “Don’t Luca Now,” “The Hating Game” and “More Red Than Alive.” Still, I suggest putting on the headphones and getting lost on this evocative planet.
War for the Planet of the Apes (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Sony Classical
17 tracks | 75:35
release date August 4, 2017
available at Amazon and iTunes