For the fourth entry in the MonsterVerse, Legendary brings in a new composer: Tom Holkenborg, also known as Junkie XL. Out of the gate, he gives a track reminiscent of Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla theme. Although that motif appears over and over again, in general Holkenborg paves his own path with this score that is different from earlier entries in the franchise. Ultimately he delivers a decent soundtrack, which gets some undeserved flack although at the same time it’s a current lowpoint in the theatrical scores for the MonsterVerse.
In general, this soundtrack sits between the realm of “good” to “okay”. There aren’t any bad themes on the disc, which is a positive. It’s also not overly repetitive, which is also a plus. It suffers, though, from a lack of highlights. “Hong Kong” is the best track on this disc, but it’s an extra long suite. In fact, it’s a jaw dropping 13 minutes long. It features the new Godzilla theme briefly, but also has some nice subdued vocal work. The best part is toward the end of the track, covering the battle with Mechagodzilla which gets very energetic and is quite successful as a result of that. It wonderfully crescendos into a deep single male chant, which also works well to evoke a primal sense that aligns with Kong ripping Mechagodzilla apart. This, though, then transitions into a softer motif used for Kong surrendering to Godzilla, which is fine... but personally would have preferred if this was its own track rather than added to this lengthy suite.
Again, I don’t want to convey that the soundtrack is bad. A few tracks do shine. “The Throne” is also quite good, as it has a nice epic quality to it befitting the track title. “Mega” is another long suite that has some stellar moments, in particular it has the title motif that would be reused for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024). There is also an interesting styling toward the end of the suite that evokes a sound very close to Godzilla charging his atomic ray, which isn’t pleasant or unpleasant to listen to but is an interesting creative choice nonetheless. “Nuclear Blast” is also nice, feeling a little frantic at times, although is one of the many tracks here to leverage that new Godzilla theme.
Speaking of the new Godzilla theme, I feel it’s worth dissecting. It starts off very similar to Ifukube’s work for the first 45 seconds. After that, it makes a large divergence into an all new theme. I’ve seen fans get frustrated by this, as why not just use the Godzilla theme is the common complaint, although sympathize with the director. As stated in an interview with us, this was a creative choice as he feels the Godzilla theme is too associated with Toho’s Godzilla rather than the MonsterVerse. That reference rings true in the film, as there is a segment that actually calls back to the Halo Jump motif from Godzilla (2014) that appears briefly on this CD in the long “Tasman Sea” track.
Well since I dove into Godzilla’s theme, I feel I should also cover Kong’s new theme, which is simply okay. My biggest complaint is it doesn’t really feel like a Kong theme due to the synth work. It also pales in comparison to the more energetic and also majestic music featured in his solo film, Kong: Skull Island (2017). That said, there are elements which are nice, such as the more soothing portion toward the middle of the “Skull Island” track. I would say, though, this portion feels more like Jia’s theme than Kong’s. After that soothing portion comes some drum work, which actually evokes that ancient island feeling, but isn’t all that successful as it kind of keeps going rather than building to something.
Bottom line, I’ve read a number of opinions online about this score from fans. It tends to get a lot of heat, which I don’t think is particularly deserved. However, all the same it’s not an overly memorable soundtrack. It also doesn’t compare favorably to the earlier music in the MonsterVerse, which happened to be Henry Jackman’s phenomenal score to Kong: Skull Island (2017) and Bear McCreary’s solid soundtrack for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).
As a side note, seeing as so few go for the physical releases these days, I’ll talk about the booklet. This thing is very thin, offering just a production still of Jia on the back and the inside featuring credits with a blurry image of Godzilla blasting the ground toward Hollow Earth. Speaking of, the credits are disappointing. It mentions that some of the music was by Antonio Di Iorio, but does not cite which themes in particular. As for Di Iorio, at least he would get better credit for the sequel, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024), as a co-composer. |
