Timeline [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Timeline [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Young composer Brian Tyler proclaimed himself a force to be reckoned with on his ambitious score for the cable miniseries <I>Children of Dune</I>. If the scale of that expansive score nearly outstripped its small-screen source material, he's taken a more conservative, if no less vibrant approach in his music for veteran director Richard Donner's adaptation of Michael Crichton's time-travel-themed action adventure. Much of the film's swashbuckling action takes place in the 14th century, and Tyler's music draws heavily on the rousing brass and thundering percussion arrangements of Herrmann's <I>Sinbad/Jason</I> adventure scores, suffused with a decidedly modern sense of melody and a few contemporary orchestration tricks (particularly in its time travel sequences) by the composer himself. The result may have its roots in the vibrant spirit of Korngold's Hollywood Golden Age swashbucklers, but it's vigorously pumped up with a dark, 21st century sense of orchestral cum electronic foreboding, tense mystery and a shrewd sense of dynamics that are Tyler's alone. <I>--Jerry McCulley</I>