Album Review

Henry Jackman – X-Men: First Class Soundtrack Review

• 15th Jun 2011

Themes from the X-Men theme known to us already are drawn from, but seldom is it returned to as composer Henry Jackman makes his own score seem as fresh as possible. There are moments when you suspect he is going to go off on a Hans Zimmer (Pearl Harbour hints in Mutant And Proud) type trip – be he manages to keep a fairly tight rein over his materials. Speaking of Zimmer – it also often veers closely to Inception in places in both some of the atmospheric orchestral building as well as the use of electronic guitar.

What does stand out is the Magneto theme that is returned to often as the character progresses through the film – ending of course in the climatic moments of the film. The crux though is actually the second Pain And Anger which is beautifully understated and reveals the theme in a more simplified version instead of going all bombastic on us.

It is sad though that the album lacks a few of the tracks used throughout the film – as it misses all of the psychedelic fun the film has in certain scenes (Like the mutant recruitment montage). That said this is still a decent enough effort to stand on its own merits and is worth having in a collection.