Captain Thunder And The Holy Grail
(Capitan Trueno y El Santo Grial)
Music Composed By Luis Ivars
Performed By The Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra
Score Conducted By Oscar Navarro
Album Produced by Hachelius
Executive Album Producer: Mikael Carlsson
MovieScore Media MMS 11020
20 Tracks - Running Time: 53:13
Captain Thunder and the Holy Grail was a recent Spanish film that came out in Spain based on the comic book by Victor Mora which takes place in the 12th-century knight named Captain Thunder wanders the world fighting injustice and is accompanied by his faithful friends Crispin and Goliath. Thunder is then entrusted with a sacred mission of protecting a Scandinavian princess Sigrid as well as the fabled, Holy Grail from the forces of darkness as they travel from Palastine to the South of Europe.
Writing the epic sounding and at times, rousing score is Composer Luis Ivars, who was a former musician in and had traveled throughout the world as part of the groups Mediterrananeo and Danza Invisible. Now a composer, Ivars music for Captain Thunder is an action epic of a score that does take its influence from the late Basil Poledouris, Daft Punk, Hans Zimmer and a touch of Michael Kamen. It's an 80 piece orchestral score that is augmented with electronics and Yamine Amari's vocals which add a nice ethnic flavor to it.
"Hassan Desert" opens the score with epic feel to it with a large chorus of brass and woodwinds and into a more ethnic setting as Yamine Amar's wailing vocals establish the mood and atmosphere. "Thunder To The Rescue" has a flavorable Hans Zimmer rousing action sound with thunderous heroic brass and aggressive strings with a touch of synthesizers. Which also establishes one of the score' theme for Captain Thunder and appears again in "Thunder's Troops". with its heroic fanfare. "The Grail" is another Zimmerish sounding track with some brass and rythmic percussion licks. Some sinister material appears in "The Black Knights" with its some loud brass and tuba motif. Choral voices build up the opening of "Magic In The Cave" which give way to some otherworldly strings and atmosphere, "Revelation" is a lengthy track with some very dramatic and wonderful material for horns and some warm strings before seguing into the heroic Captain Thunder theme which is a major highlight of the score. "Adiago Agitato" (Rain Of Fire) is a very dark and brass laden track with orchestrial rumbles. Yasmin Amari's lush vocal lends soothing gentle atmosphere to "Morgano and Hassan's Goodbye", which would remind some of Lisa Gerrard's vocals on Gladiator and quite an excellent track. "Farewell And A New Adventure" is nice little finale which slowly reprises Captain Thunder's theme in rather lush way in triumph as the music soars with its airy strings and brass fanfare signifying that we will see the Captain in another adventure soon. "Captain Thunder" which ends the album on a satisfying note with a short energetic reprise of his theme.
MovieScore Media has released a surprisingly satisfying and enthustastic score that will absolutely thrill fans of the adventure saga and discover an interesting new talent in Luis Ivars. I honestly didn't know what to expect from this score but after two listens I can see why Mikael Carlsson released it. It is really good and very enjoyable. While it may not be memorable, it is still a rousing work that should be discovered by alot of people through word of mouth. If there was an interesting and surprisingly rousing adventure score to take a gamble on purchasing, it'd would be something like this one.
Captain Thunder and the Holy Grail is one of MovieScore Media's better releases amongst the many that I've heard that include JCVD, Jack Brooks Monster Slayer, The Red Canvas, The Flock, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey and Butch And Sundance amongst the many and it is a neat adventure score that should attract attention for all the right reasons. It is very good. 7.0 out of 10
Captain Thunder is available to order from Screen Archives http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/16803/CAPITAN-TRUENO-Y-EL-SANTO-GRIAL-CAPTAIN-THUNDER-AND-THE-HOLY-GRAIL/
Captain Thunder – or Capitan Trueno in Spanish - is one of the most popular comic book heroes in Spain and the long-awaited film version depicting his adventures calls for nothing less than a truly epic, big and heroic orchestral score. We are happy to work with yet another brilliant Spanish composer – Luis Ivars – on this album, presenting a very exciting score that will be appreciated by fans of such esteemed action maestros as Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer and Basil Poledouris. Of particular notice is the catchy Captain Thunder Theme, but there are many other thematic ideas to be explored in this complex work, which balances beautiful orchestrations and ethnic colourings with subtle electronic elements. 1. Hassan Desert 5:29
2. Thunder to the Rescue 3:52
3. The Grail 3:14
4. Thunder's Troops 1:09
5. Heads Forest and Village 2:47
6. The Black Knights 2:13
7. Magic in the Cage 2:25
8. Is He Going to Die? 2:13
9. Revelation 6:00
10. Sigrid's Spell 2:25
11. Mysterious Tunnel 1:41
12. Sigrid Cries 2:19
13. The Great Troop 1:25
14. Crispin in the Drawer 1:07
15. Open the Dome! 1:11
16. The Last Tower 3:03
17. Adagio Agitato (Rain of Fire) 3:10
18. Morgano and Hassan's Goodbye 3:18
19. Farewell and A New Adventure 3:10
20. Captain Thunder 1:04
- Danny Gonzalez
Film Musix Examiner NYC
