Search - John Powell :: X-Men: The Last Stand (Original Motion Picture)

X-Men:  The Last Stand (Original Motion Picture)
John Powell
X-Men: The Last Stand (Original Motion Picture)
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
 
  •  Track Listings (27) - Disc #1

While Hollywood franchises often stick to one composer as a way to establish continuity, the three X-Men movies have gone to three different musicians. And yet, the sound has remained remarkably homogenous; in other words,...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: John Powell
Title: X-Men: The Last Stand (Original Motion Picture)
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Varese Sarabande
Original Release Date: 5/26/2006
Re-Release Date: 5/23/2006
Album Type: Soundtrack
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 030206673227, 4005939673222, 030206673227

Synopsis

Amazon.com
While Hollywood franchises often stick to one composer as a way to establish continuity, the three X-Men movies have gone to three different musicians. And yet, the sound has remained remarkably homogenous; in other words, if you enjoyed Michael Kamen and John Ottway's scores for the first and second installments, respectively, you'll get a kick out of what John Powell has come up with for the third. Though he adopted a more contemporary, electronic-inflected sound on actioners The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, here Powell goes for the full symphonic treatment. What's most interesting is his use of a 45-member chorus, which is surprisingly varied. On "Jean and Logan," the choir delicately hovers above the strings, almost out of reach, but on "Rejection Is Never Easy," it weaves in and out in a rather spooky manner, and it unleashes at full blast on the CD's climax, "Phoenix Rises," a six-minute-plus opus that at times sounds like a weird cross between sacred music and Philip Glass. This is one of the best big-budget scores of the year. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

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CD Reviews

X-travagant Score to the Third Installment
Brandon Cutro | Tyler, Texas United States | 02/26/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)

"As Michael Kamen provided a rushed, unfocused score to the first X-Men film and John Ottman provided a much better and more thematic score to the second installment, John Powell continues along the same lines as Ottman did, only much larger in scope. For X3, Powell beefed up the brass and percussion sections, providing a dynamic, heroic sound.

This album neatly divides into 2 halves, with the first half consisting mostly of suspense and ominous music with some outstanding orchestral and choral outbursts and the second half consisting of non-stop action music that never lets up until the final note. The first two scores provided a main theme for the X-Men that sounded consistent throughout both scores, even though the themes were different and from different composers. Powell manages to do the same here, providing a powerful march, complete with your typical brass fanfares you would expect and can be found in "Bathroom Titles", "St. Lupus Day", "Attack on Alcatraz", and "The Last Stand." The percussion section is very reminiscent of John Williams' Superman theme here.

Dark Phoenix has a theme, performed mainly on the strings, which can be found in "Dark Phoenix's Tragedy", "The Battle of the Cure", and "Phoenix Rises". Angel has a theme too, which is found in a few sections in the score and is a heroic, uplifting motif for brass. The action music, which begins in "Cure Wars" and finishes out the album is an all-out, pounding, orchestral and choral battle. Here, the various sections of the orchestra compete with each other with several different motifs going on all at once, most likely draining the musicians' stamina, while the chorus wails throughout the orchestral frenzy. It is music that will definitely wear you out after a while.

All in all, a powerful score that in my opinion, is the best score of the X-Men franchise.

"