The Fantastic Four (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) By Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass (CD theme review).

The fact that Phillip Glass co-scored this Marvel movie alongside Marco Beltrami is something of a surprise. Whilst the renowned US minimalist composer has flirted with genre before with films such as ‘Candyman’, this is the first time that he’s worked on a bona fide Hollywood blockbuster in ‘The Fantastic Four’. Alongside Beltrami, who has done scores for the likes of ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Resident Evil’, will a different kind of super-hero score be created?

There is early promise. ‘Prelude’ is an intriguing mix of Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. Blending the ominous and thudding drums of Zimmer with the more innocent air of Elfman’s lighter work, it manages to create a unique feel that sets the work out from other super-hero scores. When some of Glass’ trademark arpeggios make an appearance there’s a hint that the score will be something special indeed.

But the teased delights never really materialise after the Prelude. Insistent violins and ominous percussion in tracks such ‘Launch One’ and ‘The Garage’ are the stuff of the majority of Hollywood genre affairs and there’s nothing here that really stands out. Every so often there’s a snatch of something that is recognisably Glass. But even his trademark style of minimalism and repetition is more of cliché within the world of the super-hero film and it struggles to feel anything but ‘super-hero business as usual’.

Like the film which it scores, ‘The Fantastic Four OST’ is a workmanlike effort which contains nothing bad but nothing truly noteworthy neither. But it does throw a few tantalising snippets of what it would be like if the likes of Glass were given free rein to interpret their own Hollywood actioner. Perhaps the producers of ‘Doctor Strange’ should give him a call.

Laurence Boyce

September 2015

(pub: Sony Music Classical. 1 CD 72 minutes 10 tracks. Price: £22.10 (UK). ASIN: B014I5MQBI)

check out website: www.sonymusic.co.uk/