X-Men: The Last Stand

undefined

Product Description ------------------- In X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, the final chapter in the X-MEN motion picture trilogy, a cure for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates them, or give up their powers and become human. The sing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test triggering the war to end all wars. The 20th Century Fox summer blockbuster features a thrilling and epic symphonic score by composer John Powell. Powell, one of the most exciting names in film music today, is a newcomer to the X-MEN franchise but his scores for such hits as the Bourne Identity, the Bourne Supremacy and the Italian Job make his score for X-MEN: THE LAST STAND among the most anticipated of the entire summer! From Brett Ratner, the director of Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, 20th Century Fox's X-MEN: THE LAST STAND opens nationwide on over 3500 screens on Memorial Day weekend, May 26. .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 genous; 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 . 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