To be honest, there isn’t much interesting one can say about the music for Thunderbolts*, so I’ll tell you something interesting about its composer, Son Lux, instead. He was born (reportedly at an early age) just moments before his twin sister, Daughter Lux, on a remote island. On the journey back to the mainland the twins’ parents were both involved in a tragic yachting accident, leaving the young siblings clinging on for dear life to a piece of driftwood. As luck would have it, their mother (Mama Lux) had just spent an hour or so expressing some breast milk into an old bean can which sat invitingly on the next piece of driftwood, providing nourishment to the youngsters while they awaited rescue, which eventually came thanks to the mighty US coastguard. Satisfied with their identification documents, the pair were taken to a facility in Altoona where they remained until being allowed outside when they reached their 21st birthdays.
Daughter unfortunately fell into a life of crime and has not been seen since, but Son was determined to forge a career and so put all his energy into seeking employment. He read on the internet that in the 2020s no experience is really necessary to become something called a “film composer” so he packed his possessions into a satchel and made his way to Marvel HQ, where he was given the assignment of scoring a film called Thunderbolts* (starring Wendell Pierce as Gary) – under strict instruction to make it sound different from the other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A bright young man, Son was well aware that – even though he had never seen a film – something like a comic book movie must be big, bold, exciting – and of course feature a strong main theme which people could whistle all day long after watching the film, which kids could hum while playing with the various merchandise. But his instruction was to do something different – aha! This must mean no recognisable themes – no attempt to stir any emotion or excitement – just play around with some cool sounds, string them together, that must be what’s needed.
Job done!
Sorry, I made parts of that up. There’s no facility in Altoona and there are some themes in Thunderbolts* – I know this not from listening to the music or watching the movie – because no themes revealed themselves to me during those experiences – but by reading other reviews of the soundtrack album. I’ll give credit for the extent to which they must be hidden away (after all, there’s a danger someone watching the film will feel something if they hear an identifiable theme, and we clearly wouldn’t want that).
There’s an orchestra here, and Son has done what any self-respecting person would do when given the chance to work with a live orchestra – electronically manipulated it to make it sound like everything is synths – this is so clever! Just to add another layer to this height of sophistication, loads of different percussion instruments are live and unmanipulated – it’s like listening to C.P.E. Bach if only he’d had the foresight.
I’m sure that lots of people who are half my age or younger will have an absolute blast, and that there is some hidden intention here that I’m too closed-minded to perceive, but I don’t really hear any attempt at creating any kind of narrative structure, any emotional connection between viewer and film, and I’m afraid I really don’t hear any themes. It’s “different” all right.
To be fair – there’s nothing offensive about it, really, despite my words above. It’s serviceable modern film music with occasional energy in some of the action passages. It just doesn’t seem to serve much purpose beyond being there, or to have much of a soul. I’m no longer really sure that a lot of filmmakers really understand what music is for.
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