Powell generally avoids playing the music for laughs, but unlike the sugar laden drivel of romantic comedy scoring, the nature of the film allows for a more robust and exciting effort. The more serious and exciting moments, notably toward the end are actually terrific fun, The Mall Chase being a particular highlight. It also has the benefit of being a considerably more extended than cues in the first half, which are often stinger cues with the music not really having time to go anywhere or develop much. However, the cues covering the finale of the film are also rip roaring action fun, nothing subtle here at all, but hugely entertaining none the less. There are a couple of major themes, but they aren't nearly as good as those for either of the animated films, although the overall effect of the score is favourable.
Powell seems to be able to take the Media Ventures sound and turn it into something that sounds a little less manufactured and while the first half never really finds its feet, once he gets going, Powell doesn't let up until the end. Not exactly great art, of course, but a score like this isn't about art or taking itself seriously at all, it's about having a good time and Powell certainly delivers the goods.
As a side note, the very observant might notice that the liner notes contain a list of the musicians in the orchestra, named the The Hollywood Studio Symphony. This is part of a new deal to allow for longer soundtrack albums through lower re-use fees for union scores where the album isn't likely to sell in great numbers. Certainly great news for Varese and other labels who can't always afford to stump up for very long albums. It's a shame that they don't name the orchestras after the studio the film is produced by such as the 20th Century Fox Orchestra, as happened for many golden age scores. In this case, the Dreamworks Symphony Orchestra has a nice ring to it.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 40:27To see John Powell's name without that of Harry Gregson-Williams alongside, is almost a surprise, so good were their efforts for Antz and Chicken Run. While his score for Ivan Reitman's comedy isn't quite as good as either of those cracking efforts, it's still far more enjoyable than the mediocre comedy that it was written for. Despite David Duchovny's laid back, dead pan delivery and some inspired creature designs and effects, Reitman's comedy simply isn't all that funny. As many reviewers have commented, it would have been interesting as a serious sci-fi thriller as originally intended. Certainly several sequences could have been genuinely quite terrifying if it hadn't been a comedy. Even a more daring downbeat conclusion could have been used instead of the vulgar product placement "comedy" solution, which is attempting to out-do Mars Attacks' Slim Whitman routine but fails.
