A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

There seemed to (just about) be a reasonable excuse for director Robert Rodgriguez drafting in two film composers to provide the music, along with himself, for Sin City, which had three distinct stories.  A few weeks later, the same director has come to the same arrangement with the same two composers, John Debney and Graeme Revell, for The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, his next film.  This time there seems to be no particular reason for having three composers write the music for the film and in any case, things don't turn out nearly so well.  That is not to say that Sin City was a great score (it wasn't), but it was all right for the film.  Sharkboy and Lavagirl is banal.

The biggest problem this time is that Rodriguez has written the majority of the score himself; and he is not a good composer of music.  The second biggest problem is that this is meant to sound like orchestral music, but instead what we get are orchestral samples.  They're not even particularly high-quality ones, so it makes the whole thing sound even thinner and cheaper than it otherwise would have done.  In fairness, Rodriguez came up with a fairly engaging main theme for the film; sadly he uses it again and again and again and again in track after track until you want to stick it down somebody's throat.  By far the best thing about the score is when the theme is performed by wordless female vocalist, when it becomes really rather enchanting; it is this and only this which prevents the score from being worthless.

Debney and Revell's contributions add a touch of class but remain resolutely generic; however, they seem like an island of creative inspiration compared with the ocean of banality surrounding them.  The lowest points come with the singing; the songs "Dream Dream Dream Dream (Dream Dream)" and "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" are so utterly devoid of any merit whatsoever, one wonders whether they're deliberately awful.  Surely to god nobody could have come up with something quite so bad if not on purpose?  The whole album is so shoddy, though: from the cheap synths, the complete lack of ambition in any of the music to be anything other than the most simplistic accompaniment to the film.  Indeed, the whole thing sounds like a five year old's school music project.  It is extraordinary in its sheer awfulness.

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Tracks

1. The Shark Boy (RR/JD) (3:47)
2. The Lava Girl (RR) (1:28)
3. Max's Dream (RR) (1:37)
4. Sharkboy and Lavagirl Return (RR) (1:44)
5. Planet Drool (RR) (2:12)
6. Mount Never Rest (GR) (2:35)
7. Passage of Tim e (RR/Thiel) (1:30)
8. Mr Electric (GR) (1:09)
9. Train of Tought (JD) (2:01)
10. Dream Dream Dream Dream (Dream Dream) (RR) (1:54)
11. Stream of Consciousness (JD) (1:33)
12. Sea of Confusion (JD) (3:04)
13. The LaLas (Weinstein) (1:09)
14. The Ice Princess (JD/RR) (2:51)
15. Sharkboy vs Mr Electric (GR) (:55)
16. Lavagirl's Sacrifice (RR) (2:10)
17. The Light (RR) (2:21)
18. Battle of the Dreamers (RR) (1:21)
19. Mr Electric on Earth (GR) (1:15)
20. Unplugged (JD/RR) (1:12)
21. The Day Dreamer (JD/RR) (1:29)
22. Sharkboy and Lavagirl (RR) (4:09)