Hello Gamespot!

I recently got a bunch of soundtracks. About 20, to be exact, so I'm going to start reviewing the whole batch soon.

Right now, I'm listening to the score for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the final installment in Michael Bay's ridiculously explosive action series. Steve Jablonsky's work in the original film actually brought me into the whole film soundtracks craze. I had no idea how wonderful film music could sound until I sat there in the dimly lit theater illuminated by the screen itself, watching a massive cube spin through space as a massive French Horn theme pounded against my senses with Peter Cullen narrating.

And the music kept impressing me from there; various moments, like the battle with Scorponok and the Arrival to Earth sequence had dauntingly impressive music. Simply put, I loved it; even after I've begun listening to true masterpieces (i.e. Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Crimson Tide), the original score to the 2007 robot flick Transformers still is massively enjoyable.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a very different beast from the original. Instead of sticking to the massively memorable and beautiful themes, Jablonsky decided (unnecessarily) to reinvent the series' sound, introducing synthetically high-pitched choir to symbolize the frightening evil of the Fallen, and reprised the Autobots theme of the original to represent Optimus Prime. Then, another theme was utilized to represent the Decepticons, first introduced in The Shard. While not as instantly memorable or enjoyable as the first score, Revenge of the Fallen was a decidedly adept score with impressive music and cues.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon, however, is again an interesting score. It somehow manages to stay faithful to both Revenge of the Fallen and the original scores while still introducing new content. You hear some of Revenge of the Fallen's synthetic choir motifs, and some of the same themes, and you also get some reprisals of themes the first score, like Arrival to Earth and Soccent Attack. The reprisal of Arrival to Earth is disappointing in its instrumentation, but the fact that it's reprised at all makes me very glad that Jablonsky tried to provide closure to the scores.

However, the score introduces a lot of new stuff as well. You have the deep, pounding brass chords ripped straight from Inception's sound palette, the weirdly synth filled beats from Tron, the string riffs from The Dark Knight, and the intense, pounding percussion from Thor. The score seems more synth-filled than ever, and while this isn't necessarily a good thing, it suits the movie well.

Sadly, it seems again that Jablonsky decided to reinvent the sound of the franchise. While he stuck to the same instrumentation and in some cases, even the themes, he still took the score a little farther than necessary, and in doing so took away a lot of the original brilliance of the original. I have to say that as good as the score is, it doesn't compare to the first score. The themes aren't as memorable, the synth is more overwhelming than ever, and the battle themes are distinctly unimpressive in comparison. As a whole, the score is consistent; what's lacking is a memorable feel and any moments that really jump out at you. Look out for my review soon.