Star
Trek Nemesis Deluxe Edition
Without doubt a frustrating
and disappointing soundtrack for what is essentially a
solid score. The ominous nature of the early cues are hardly
what you expect for a Star Trek Movie and those hoping
for a series of blistering action cues will also be sorely disappointed.
The days when a Star Trek movie had the epic scale of
Star Trek The Motion Picture and the adventure and excitement
of the original crew sequels, have long gone. Berman and his
TV crew have seen to that, as they continue to fashion TV product
for the big screen and unfortunately it forces artists like Goldsmith
to come up with an essentially low key score. Correct it may
be and I don't doubt every note here is bang on the money but
this is hardly the grand scoring that Goldsmith has achieved
time and again and what a franchise like Star Trek deserves.
Varese's lengthy CD opens
with a series of early cues focussing on the villainous Romulan's
and their home world, ably supported by some darkly written electronic
effects. Orchestra supports with stark percussion and strings
while low end brass hints at Deep Rising style scares.
Action phases in out during the middle and final selections and
provide the orchestra with a solid work out although style again
hints at an earlier score; this time US Marshals. These
cues are in no way the stand out set pieces or action frenzies
that you'd hoped they would be but they do again show how great
an adventure scorer Goldsmith is, even in these restrictive circumstances.
In terms of thematic material
the down beat nature of the story means these are forced into
third place but Goldsmith has again written a new theme to augment
his original. Emotive as his First Contact theme but just
a little more melancholy to make it even more memorable. Heart
breaking we couldn't have had more of this. Occasionally we also
get to hear a phrase or two from his original stunning theme
and of course it makes a proper appearance during the end credits.
Not the satisfying listen
that Varese made this score out to be at all, especially as you
trawl through the grim opening cues, but the second half is a
lot more rewarding giving the composer an opportunity to shine
a little and remind us all why Goldsmith is the music to Star
Trek. |