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  adaptingI, 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 forTerminator 3with 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. HisHellboyscore 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