I, Robot (Score)

Prolific sci-fi author Isaac Asimov first penned the foundations of what would become one of his most acclaimed books in the 1940s, eventually adapting I, Robotto screenplay form in the 1970s. It would take Hollywood another three decades to hammer the author's vision into CGI-fueled, would-be summer blockbuster -- yet give composer Marco Beltrami a little over two weeks to compose and record its score after the project's original scorer bowed out. Given such constraints, it's no surprise to find the composer leaning on the same dynamically bi-polar, orchestral/electro-metallic palate that colored his music for Terminator 3 with such broad, sweeping strokes. What passes for melodic motif here (i.e. the main title's brief, descending minor key riff) are largely beside the point; Beltrami never gets the chance to do much other than build suspense via moody atmospherics or underlay the film's copious action with serviceable musical boilerplate. His Hellboy score is a better measure of Marco's true artistic range; this one showcases the shrewd, less-as-more constructs of a craftsman on a tight schedule. --Jerry McCulley