Film soundtracks are often a crapshoot. If a soundtrack is well-produced and compiled, it can transcend its roots and become a noteworthy album in its own right. Sadly, too often, soundtracks are just used as mere promotional tools and put together with very little thought or care.Transporter 2, the soundtrack to the film, is unfortunately a case of the latter. It's clearly meant as a collection of fresh new music, but unfortunately, it's packed with a bunch of music that's clearly meant to suggest other more popular artists without actually involving them. The effect of all the derivative artists is to come off as a budget-price collection of knock-offs. With the exception of the score excerpts by Alexandre Azaria (pleasant, but hardly revolutionary and ultimately forgettable unless you've seen the film), all the new cuts by new artists sound like rewrites of bigger-name acts. The Servant sounds like both pre-techno Oasis ("Body") and post ("Cells"). The Strokes-like Strays deliver "Life Support"(one of 2 cuts that don't actually appear in the finished film). The electronic techno/industrial of Sin is entertaining, as are the straight techno of Mylo and Shakedown, but ultimately, it's possible to get better big-beat techno from other sources. As for the weakest cuts, Grand National are another '80s retro-act a la Franz Ferdinand, but far more inept. And the DJ Premier-remixed DJ Cam cut, "Voodoo Child", is not really Premier's best work at all.
It's worth noting that, with a handful of exceptions, the music isn't terrible, just imitative. Cinematics (another act whose music isn't in the film) are a likable, pop-rock act in the same vein as Coldplay, and Kate Nauta's "Revolution" is a decent Evanescence rewrite. But overall, none of this is at all noteworthy or significant. If you enjoyed the film, it will be an agreeable souvenir, but otherwise, it's not worth going out of your way for.
