- Composed by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch
- Epic / 2017 / 94m
Long in the making, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal Blade Runner has finally arrived. When the project was first mooted, two things were taken as given: that Harrison Ford wouldn’t be involved, and that it would likely end up being terrible. Neither of those things has come to pass: Ford has now revisited most of the roles that made him famous and in the hands of Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 has become one of the best-reviewed films of the year. Ryan Gosling stars as a replicant sent by the LAPD to “retire” a child apparently born to a female replicant.
The Vangelis score to the original film has become the stuff of legend, not just because of its quality but probably also because of the various difficulties that have existed over the years in actually finding the proper score on album. It’s undoubtedly his most impressive film score, perfect for its film, and I imagine he was probably sought out for the sequel but turned the opportunity down (at least, I would hope he was sought out). Villeneuve’s usual composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was slated to score the film instead but, as has been widely publicised, that didn’t work out and so you-know-who came aboard instead.
The official take is that Jóhannsson departed because Villeneuve wanted something closer to Vangelis than he was delivering. I was never that upset when Zimmer came on board, to be honest: in some ways it feels like a project he would treat with absolute relish, following in the footsteps of one of the composers who has had such an influence on his career. Scoring took place mostly while Zimmer was busy on his concert tour, so credit is shared with Benjamin Wallfisch, and Zimmer himself has said that he had a mostly supervisory role and it was Wallfisch who did much of the heavy lifting.
Regardless, we have what we have, and that’s a score that is clearly very intent on paying considerable homage to – and staying within the same sound world as – Vangelis’s original, down to the equipment used, to such an extent that at times it feels like a bit of a cut-and-paste job. To misquote Eric Morecambe, all the right sounds are there – just not in the right order. But the problem is clear right from the opening track: yes, the sound is there, but the soul is missing. It comes across as just another abrasive synth score – it’s like the backing track from Vangelis’s opening cue, but somebody forgot to add in what should be up front and central.
There are some highlights, and these come when the score gets closest to the original: “Mesa” (a title which sounds like the opening two syllables of a Jar Jar Binks quote) shimmers with beauty, “Joi” lives up to its name, and late on “Tears in the Rain” is… well, you know what “Tears in the Rain” is (it’s absolutely outstanding). Three tracks – nine minutes, out of 94. To be fair, there are four other good tracks (another 14 minutes) but they’re by Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley (separately, I should be clear) and don’t sit entirely comfortably in the middle of all the noirish synths.
The rest of the time, there are some interesting textures – the sampled deep male choir is a nice little touch, the occasional piano adds the only real feeling of humanity – but I can’t find much to praise. The first half of the album is just frankly rather dull – so little ever seems to happen, it’s just these noodlings around Vangelis. Unfortunately, the second half is sometimes downright unpleasant, starting in “Hijack” and reaching its (anti) zenith in “Sea Wall”, with grimy, unpleasantly abrasive action sounds that are so aurally offensive, they could be by Junkie XL. (In fairness, there’s some much more interesting material in the first half of the lengthy “Sea Wall”.)
Perhaps if Zimmer had had the time he no doubt would have loved to have had to throw everything of himself into this, we’d have got something special: it really does seem like the perfect sort of film for a completely turned-on, creative Hans Zimmer to immerse himself into. (With Wallfisch, it’s harder to say: his good work to date – much more so before he moved to Hollywood, I have to say – have been when he’s got to write elegant orchestral music – so he always seemed a bit of a leftfield choice to be the main support act – or perhaps the leading player – in this.) I suppose we’ll never know for sure if it was just the circumstances and the timing that led to the missed opportunity, but it really is a missed opportunity: it’s like listening to fragments of a dream popping up occasionally in a nightmare, the bits and pieces of the original score being used so half-heartedly and mixed up into very disappointing standard 2017 film music action tropes. I’ve never been convinced that the original Blade Runner score works quite as well outside the film as within it, but it’s undoubtedly one of the greatest electronic film scores (quite possibly the best of the lot) – there’s far less going on in this rather bland follow-up.
Rating:
**
Imitation without much inspiration
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