For a long time, a lot of films seemed to shy away from the big, dramatic orchestral film scores that really define the film. Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Superman are just a few examples of some past score that have been epic and hugely popular, purely because they're memorable and are a real driving force for their respective films. So few films from the past ten or so years have had that kind of soundtrack, and then came Transformers.
Transformers is one of those films that took me by surprise in terms of score. I knew that Linkin Park were providing the main song for the film with What I've Done, and there was a good selection of bands to be found on the soundtrack, including the Goo Goo Dolls, Smashing Pumpkins and The Used. Band-based soundtracks seems to be pretty much the norm with a large portion of films these days, with a great many of soundtracks being more "inspired by" type albums that include songs that don't even feature in the actual film, so to discover that Transformers was complemented by a cracking and enigmatic full-on score just made me love this film even more than I had ever expected.
Composed by Steve Jablonsky, who was mentored by the great Hans Zimmer, and also composed the score for films such as The Island and Steamboy, the score builds up so much atmosphere that at several moments it really gives me the chills.
In 2007, only the soundtrack was initially released which I have to admit was incredibly disappointing and definitely a huge mistake on the films part, as the lack of a release for the score created a huge fan-based backlash and online petition that spawned an eventual release, that was a pain in the bum to get hold of.
As is typical with film scores, Transformers is made up of several themes, that are fairly easy to pick out: first is of course for the Autobots. Another theme represents the Decepticons, which makes up for some fairly eerie chanting. Finally, having a theme of its own is the all-important AllSpark.
Tracks to check out:
- Arrival to Earth
- Bumblebee
- Optimus
- You're a Soldier Now.
There are a couple of tracks that are sorely missing from the score, which is a bit of a disappointment, but fortunately the best of the missing tracks appeared in the official Transformers Video Game, which made for a lot of standing around doing nothing, just so that we could listen to the track ;)
This score is how film scores should be, and I'm grateful that the trend for brilliant film scores seems to have really taken off again!
