Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Product Description Soundtrack composed by John Ottman, who also composed the score for the first Fantastic Four movie as well as the scores for Superman Returns, X2: X-Man United and The Usual Suspects. Amazon.com The past couple of years have been, er, super-busy for composer John Ottman: He wrote super-heroic scores for movies such as Superman Returns, X2: X-Men United and two Fantastic Four installments, including this one. Being a sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer reintroduces some themes from its predecessor (as on "Botched Heroics"). The main new development, of course, is associated with the titular hero, and it starts off the CD. Appropriately, considering Silver Surfer's conflicted nature, a moody undercurrent courses through the track, even when it finally gets to soar. New villain Galactus is a big ol' cosmic cloud of evil; appropriately again, his theme ("Galactus Destroys/Opening") is distinguished by a certain synthetic, low-end fuzziness. Overall, the CD is relatively low key for a big summer action movie. The suspense/action cues don't pummel your eardrums; a track like "Sibling Switch" brings to mind the classicism of Bernard Herrman circa Psycho, while the use of the choir of "Four in One" isn't that different from what you could hear in 1960s sword-and-sandals epics. This relative restraint may frustrate those who enjoy contemporary bombast, but it will be a pleasant surprise for fans of a more restrained approach. --Elisabeth Vincentelli