Miz

Like John Williams, he will give his all no matter the quality of the project. But this is a work-horse score - it sounds very much like its fit for picture (and its repetitive nature suggests the film's beats are samey too) - but not interesting enough for repeated listens away. I'm only one listen in, and I can hear craftsmanship throughout, but I could also describe this simply as Caroline Shaw's Partita for 8 Voices meets Mica Levi's Under the Skin meets Solo's Enfys Nest vocals.

Wachowskis, if only he'd created more scores for them. Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending are more comprehensive scores than the rest in the list...but Reeves for his darker tones, and Bird for the sheer exuberance that put his career on the map. I also think Tomorrowland is a super score.

I don't mind this album, it's a genre-mix outside of the usual scoring sensibilities most of us like, and much of it is forgettable but not unlistenable. That's not a great recommendation but actually I like the dub and electro source music tracks, and the most exciting track is McCreary's opener: Batuu Wilderness, it's got a great build and real oomph at the end.

I gave this a deep listen while walking over the coastal mountains of Wales to a 5000-year-old stone circle. Totally fell in love with this score, more than when I got it first as a kid. The sound quality is an improvement for me because as a teenager I listened to a CD on a whatever-stereo, and ripped it in 128kbs because I didn't know any better. Now the instrumentation and detail is leaping out at me, and the new material draws out important parts of the musical development. I'm sure this is Horner's best score - I'm not saying he peaked early, much fantastic work was to come, but the craftmanship at work is astounding. Thematic inventiveness, development, contrast (between short/long, hard/soft etc.). Rich orchestration, strong percussion and exotic instruments deployed with subtlety and force. Excellent spotting, dramatic instincts and carrying or lifting the imagery beyond its hokey origins (much like Star Wars and other classics). And it was clearly temped with obvious sources, and much like Star Wars and other classics (even take The Incredibles), Horner pulled together a coherent and valid whole from the sound-parts. You can also hear the influences of other contemporary successes of his (Aliens, Wrath of Khan) during a part of his career where he was leaning into new territory - it's great to hear the now-tired villain motif as it was new. Like a great Williams or Powell score, it has a ton of notes! Basically it's more melodically driven than many similar scores. The performances of orchestra and solos are strong and heartfelt. And yes that source music is punchy and fun too. This makes me want to watch Willow again, as it's really a score that outshines is source, and makes for a great 'story listen' too.

I cued this up into 20 tracks, kept the Nelwyns at the start (the village features plenty at that stage of the film even if that music does not, it's already at the end so no need to move these), and split Bavmorda's Spell Is Cast into the first 8 and last 9 minutes ('Castle Assault'), and split Willow The Sorcerer into a 3 and 6 minute tracks (Homecoming & Credits). Willow's Theme is a concert piece at the end. Twenty is a nice round number too. I'm sure you're all thrilled to know.

I think the tension throughout this episode matched the style of this score well. However, I think that's entirely accidental because we've heard this wallpaper style through every sort of scene in the whole series so far.

It's not so much the lack of existing themes that lets this score down. It's the lack of carrying, or even noticing, the dramatic contours of this (albeit flatly directed and edited) show. From planetary reveals, ship take-offs and landings, dramatic reveals, dialogue and scene transitions, this score has it covered... as in, just covered over in simplistic mood music (or, cut to mood music suddently, as in the Ep 2 Vader reveal). Where Williams, or Ludwig Gorransson, would trade in flourishes, instrumental variety, contrasts in tone, and real melodic strength, this score barely manages the drama on-screen. But the lack of even tonally nodding to the legacy themes is a deficit (as Giacchino, Powell and Gorransson have all done, quite aside from quoting them outright). This is all the more disappointing because the new material here is not up to the job.

How tedious.

Is there actually a release of this? Are people just being sarcastic commenting on specifics?

Please tell me, in these scores is there any reference to any of Masato Nakamura's amazing early soundtracks to the first Sonic games?

Does anybody have an entry-level tracklist of highlights from this album?

Thanks. I like it, the track edits and the sound quality is generally better than I am familiar with (maybe mp3 320k vs. FLAC, which I didn't think I could tell the difference between with my iPhone-grade earphones).

On Soulseek I have come across a Deluxe Edition of HTTYD3: The Hidden World, in FLAC. It has a few new tracks of varying sound quality, and known cues are separated, plus a nicely edited suite at the end. Anyone know where this has come from?

The right man for the job, but I'm still interested to see how they get a story with heart out of the delusional backstory of the original character. However, I have faith in the writers / Disney's cash-cow milking abilities.

Can anyone line me up with the best and most listenable tracks from each of these three scores? I listened to Homecoming once, and found it too bouncy and too popcorn to really hold my attention. I've only seen the film once. Same for Far From Home. I used to be a massive Giacchino fan once, and many of his scores are still excellent in my eyes, but I've seen through the veil a little bit as I think he has reached his 'ceiling' in terms of complexity and creativity of writing... he keeps scoring things the same way over and again, and his best theme writing is behind him. Of course it's also about attachment to certain films, and his more recent do not grab me like they did a decade ago in my twenties.

Pop-quiz, Dragons fans and leitmotif pedants! Are there more themes in the HTTYD trilogy than there in the original Star Wars trilogy?

Questions: Is the Batu Sener piano album available as a download from 5 Cat Studios? It doesn't even specify format. I don't like their site, the product page opens in an 'interior' window in browser with scroll bars that don't work. ??? Does Dreamworks hold the rights for John Powell's music, or 5 Cat Studios, or the composer?

I've found the Extended Edition... is it complete? Can anyone confirm where the additional music is sourced from? (I hate dialogue and FX faded in the music!)

This album will stick in the craw because I came so close but so far from seeing Williams conduct in London that February. I understand why hearing other recordings and orchestras is interesting for appreciation of beloved pieces, but the differences cut both ways. I'm not concerned about flub notes etc., but I see why some musicians want to turn their ear to that. In short, here are my heretical opinions: Devil's Dance - not as good as anything else from Mutter's recent album, I don't really buy the noodling. Dartmoor, 1912 - when Williams-does-Vaughn-Williams, a change of pace doesn't stand out too much, and this is a nice rendition for that reason Suite from Jaws - what fun to hear some of his oldest themes turned about playfully, and refreshing to not hear the shark's music at all! Marion's Theme - is this a new piece? It's new to me, and I'm glad to finally have this slice of sheer iconic romanticism standing alone, even if the theme offers little in the way of B-theme facets. Main Title from Star Wars - always a challenge, right? We've heard so many subtly different but all powerful and coherent performances over the years, but the force isn't quite with this one, I think. The Rebellion is Reborn - totally agree that this loses a lot of power by slowing the tempo, but I do like hearing the instrumentation spaced out a little. Luke & Leia - possibly my favourite concert piece by Williams, so I was sad to here it truncated in the bridges, as I find it perfect in its construction. Imperial March - the presenter on Classic FM (UK radio) related that the brass section of the Vienna orchestra asked for this to be added to the programme, and when performed John said it was the best performance of it he can remember. It holds together well and has a good deal of punch! Raiders March - Indy's going to have trouble galloping his horse to this one. Is it supposed to be a slower tempo than every other rendition I've heard?

How To Train Your Dragon 3 and Solo are on par with, if not the best-ever Williams' scores, then the peak 'Williams sound'. And the first HTTYD is great on its own, but the scores just get better and better, and they're surely the best trilogy of scores since the original Star Wars trilogy (and maybe Lord of the Rings, depending on your taste).

Don't mistake a great, memorable theme that lasts down the ages, for a great score. My entry is: Battlestar Galactica by Bear McCreary Before BG, was there a television score so smartly-conceived, richly-instrumented, varied in tone and thoughtfully-developed? I think it paved the way for Lost and its ambitious leitmotif landscape, for proper investment in scores for television, and all the other as-good-as-movies scores that have elevated the post-linear-TV landscape... a popular highlight being Game of Thrones.

Yet by that time he had already scored Endurance, which is an impeccable score and for me has one of the top 5 pieces of his career.

But the plot structure and elements themselves are poorly conceived. If I can come up with something like the above within 2 weeks of seeing their post-it note of a narrative, they could've spent some more time on it. And that empty conclusion, gosh.

So I'm going to be pathetic and reveal the plot ideas that have bounced around my head for weeks, that could have made Rise of Skywalker somewhat better, and actually live up to is name. The gap between the second and third films in each trilogy builds some significance into each trilogy: in the Prequels, they bookend the monumental Clone Wars; in the Originals, the capture and rescue of Han, and the reveal of Luke's self-styled Jedi level-up. The gap between Ep 8 and 9 is useless, only blandly revealing that the Emperor's back and everybody already knows except us, until now. Bad storytelling. Hide the Emperor. Kylo Ren is chasing the Rebels across the galaxy, fighting alongside his Knights of Ren so as to build a relationship with them that pays off with his betrayal later. Despite his victories, a Snokey/Palpatine voice is goading him to be as badass as Vader, which he's not, so he's getting stressed and losing his shit as a result. He researches the Sith further (on Dathomir, of course, EU fans) to try to find his place in that lineage, and he knows that Sith apprentices ascend by killing their masters, but even though he killed Snoke he doesn't feel like the boss yet. He also wrestles with the fact that badass Darth Vader did turn to the light side. Then he finds Palpatine, and doesn't feel up to the task of ending him...all the more reason to track down Rey, which the Emperor tasks him with. Along the way he is being dragged to the light... Leia forgives him the murder of his father and Luke admits to letting him down - "it wasn't your fault, but what happens now is your responsiblity": key insights into the Light side for Ben Solo. Rey is not a Palpatine. As we learn in The Last Jedi, anyone could be with the Force, and she must find her own way. She trains with Leia but Leia is using her efforts to contact Ben - it's one way of bringing down the First Order from within, and the Rebels have little else. They attempt to drum up support from resistance sympathisers, but find people too intimidated. Rose, Maz and Dominic Monaghan help with this. Finn and Poe bicker, but amidst the stress of their slim odds, find a way towards solidarity. Finn, Poe and Rey follow a daring lead to Kamino, where the once-proud arch-cloners are enslaved to the First Order; they reveal their technology has been used to resurrect Palpatine and build more armies, and the Kaminoans prepare to overthrow their masters secretly, then help the heroes escape. Their next lead takes them to Geonosis. They discover a new droid army that is arming a new fleet - we build towards the threat of the finale. Better to wrap up the galaxy and revisit celebrated locations with new eyes, rather than throw in endless new planets that have no character. As Kylo Ren tracks them down, yes, Rey does actually kill Chewie. This sends her towards the dark side; she can't control her power, nobody is here to train her, her Jedi master was essentially a coward. And the familiar temptation: the dark side has more powers. A new lead sends them to the Old Death Star as we have as seen (resistance fighters help, but you can cut the horses). Before their duel, Kylo Ren senses that Rey has been beckoned by Palpatine too. Rey bests Kylo Ren in a duel, during which she destroys his helmet, they accidentally swap lightsabres and she kills (then heals) him when he is distracted by Leia. She flees further into the dark side. Ben Solo is shamed, no ship, no helmet, no lightsabre, and he starts to see he has no place as the most badass Sith. Then ghost-dad forgives him too. Conflicted Rey heads for Palpatine's lair, Ben Solo gives chase, anguished now more than angry. The Resistance sends out its call for the end-game battle. They can't be sure Rey is able to destroy Palpatine, but they know they have to wipe out his clone facility and the sprawling new droid-operated fleet. That requires a team of commando engineers and fighters (enter Rose, Maz, Finn and others) to sneak into the command centre and set the destroyers against one another (no ragtag rebel fleet could actually wipe them out). Threepio's protocol droidery and R2's hacking skills are instrumental, BB8 can't have all the action. They also need to locate the cloning centre so that X-Wings and bombers etc. can destroy it. The battle reaches desperate lows, sacrifices are made, plans change on the hoof and they have to prevent rogue destroyers from reaching orbit. Rey faces Palpatine, and he obviously tries to draw her to the dark side, even goading her to kill him. "Strike me down and I'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine". She refuses and is bested by him, but Ben Solo arrives, conflicted. His Knights aren't convinced by his allegiance and they fight him, and in destroying his old students of darkness he truly becomes 'light side' (mirroring the reason he turned dark in the first place, the student betrayed by master). Ben comes to Rey's aid. He reveals that Palpatine's Sith ghost needs anchoring to a body, that the cloning facility is destroyed and that they could destroy him together. It takes a sacrifice on Ben's part to do so, and the Sith ancestor ghosts flee as there is now no longer a master OR apprentice. Rey says farewell to a dying Ben. Stormtrooper squads press in on the heroes trapped in the destroyed clone facility, and they are nearly done for. Rose and Finn's relationship is forged in their expectation of death. But with the stormtroopers' leaders, the resurrection tech and the fleet gone, and surrounded by rebel ships, they are fighting to the death. Finn (dressed in stormtrooper guard since sneaking in) addresses them over comms and uses his history as one of their own to persuade them to put down their weapons and go free as individuals. They take off their helmets to greet each other as people, some of them are Jango clones, but must still find their way as people. The rebels take them in. The Empire is not only destroyed, but dissolved. The light side wins by virtue of peace. The rebels celebrate, Chewie is memorialised with his long-awaited medal, and Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie, the 4 heroes of the Yavin Throne Room are finally gone. We find out what might be next for each hero: Poe has gone from smuggler, to hero-pilot, to... Republic general? Finn and Rose help the Republic, with Lando's help, to rebuild the parts of the galaxy destroyed by the wars. Rey does Jedi outreach in all the hard-up places they have visited, including Jakku, and spread the word of that mysterious myth: the Force. She finds one of those kids from The Last Jedi who has force powers. She ends up where she started (not necessarily permanently), but she is changed, and there are no more wars, only patient help towards the needy, and the possibility of an apprentice... the fate of a Jedi of the Light.

Thanks, that increases my appreciation of this score somewhat. I still think it is a bit of a strange and insufficient thematic approach, but cannot be helped in a film that was flailing all over the place with its inherited ideas.