Search - John Murphy :: Armored

John Murphy's Style Overtakes Substance In This Enjoyable Ef

Kaya Savas | North Hollywood, CA | 02/25/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"John Murphy is a British composer whose known for his extremely modern scoring techniques. He loves to infuse rock and orchestra to create these synthesized soundscapes. His work on Danny Boyle's films are the highlights of his work. I absolutely loved his score to Sunshine, it was such a huge part of the film.



Now, Murphy is known for doing some "lesser" quality films too like Basic Instinct 2 and The Last House On The Left. His style was a perfect fit for Armored I must say even if the film itself was a total misfire. The score does stand on its own and those who like Murphy's style should get good milage out of his work here.



I feel like the first and last tracks (which contain the main theme) embody Murphy and all of his style. I love the synth loop with the strings. As the score progresses though we lose the momentum of that first track. The theme gets revisited in a few tracks like "Warehouse", but it's hard to pick out any memorable tracks that really connect. That's what I look for. I look for music that connects to me emotionally, and it can be any sort of emotion. The problem here is that most of the score here has no depth beyond the surface. As an exercise in style it gets a thumbs up because it's definitely a decent listen and John Murphy fans should thoroughly enjoy it. All in all I wasn't expecting much here but was actually surprised and delighted by what I found."