Atlantic
Instrumental, 2009
Listening to the original soundtrack of Avatar, I can only wonder whether I have accidentally bought some kind of “the best of James Horner” collection. This collection of tracks recalls too much moments in the past when he managed to acquit himself with more glory.
The love theme, performed by Leona Lewis with the key melody repeated several times throughout the soundtrack, feels like some generic pap patterned after love anthems performed by Céline Dion and Lara Fabian in the past. This song lacks any memorable melody and the chorus that is supposed to soar ends up falling flat on its face. But that can describe the rest of the tracks in this collection. The tracks make for some pretty background music in elevators and seminar rooms, but listening to them can result in some dreary moments.
The most disappointing aspect of this soundtrack is how generic it is. The movie has created a brand new culture for a race of aliens in a faraway planet, and the music that accompanies the movie is… this? I can only think of, say, the soundtrack for the TV series Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, which incorporates beautiful Arabic influences into its music, and wonder what James Horner is doing to come up with this thing. Probably asleep at the wheel, I guess.
