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Which of these 2 scores do you like better to listen to?


King Mark

  

32 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you like better

    • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
      9
    • The Adventures of Tintin
      23


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Ok, the 2 most recent Williams adventure scores

The much maligned and underrated KotCS (Lucas resentment spilling over to the music) vs. the overrated Tintin

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Tintin by a long shot, although both are great scores. KotCS is a great entry in the franchise and sadly underrated but Tintin is a far superior score!

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KOTCS By Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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I think there is a more vivid and vibrant sense of adventure in Tintin yes. KotCS sounds like Indiana Jones suddenly had grown dark and grim. Be that as it may I do like both scores almost equally for their different strengths in the same action/adventure genre.

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My thing with KotCS is that I find a big deal of it to be a bit boring. I like the music for the soviet characters, I like some orchestral outbursts here and there, but overall, meh. On the top of that the reuse of music puts me off a bit, and I miss some strong "main idea" like the Ark music, the slave children's theme of the Last Crusade theme were to the previous films.

I think the structure and style of the film influenced the music in the wrong way. The film has slow, empty, stale parts, half of it looks like it was shot in a sound stage and, to be a film about the search of a lost city, the lost city and the sense of wonder of it don't matter much. It needs humour and danger. If some of these elements changed we could have had a more interesting score, say JW writing music for a lost city, say JW going back to The Lost World jungley sound, say JW creating music for an imaginary culture had they dared to make something about that in the film.

In The Secret of the Unicorn, by contrast, the brisk pace, the sense of humour of the film are reflected in the music. The making of a random pirate treasure into An Awesome McGuffin is also reflected in the score, as are the several characters or the different locales. JW might not see many films, but he understands them wondefully when he sees them. And when something in the film is worth noting is probably going to end up in the music somewhere.

For example, Irina Spalko is probably the best designed villain in an Indy flick. And of course, JW tries to make that patent. I remember JW saying that Spalko was a sexy character or something like that. Granted the actual character wasn't up to such design and such music, but JW got that there was something there to explore, and it was correct to do so. Or the magnificent shot of the mushroum cloud gets quite cool music as well. You get the idea.

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Surprisingly, I like listening to KotCS more. Quite a bit of it is boring as hell, but when it's good, it's really good.

Tintin has just seemed unfocused to me from day one. None of the action sequences grab me and overall it's just too much of a jazzy score for my tastes.

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I voted for The Adventures of Tintin.

(...) and overall it's just too much of a jazzy score for my tastes.

If you would say this issue about Catch me if you can, I would agree with you. This score is really too much jazz. But not in the case of Tintin. There is a bit of jazzy-like here and there but overall it is orchestral music with a minor portion of jazz only.

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Surprisingly, I like listening to KotCS more. Quite a bit of it is boring as hell, but when it's good, it's really good.

Tintin has just seemed unfocused to me from day one. None of the action sequences grab me and overall it's just too much of a jazzy score for my tastes.

Jazzy? The only moments that are jazzy is the first track and maybe some of the piano riffs in the next two cues, but other than that, this is a classic adventure score from the maestro.

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Jazzy? The only moments that are jazzy is the first track and maybe some of the piano riffs in the next two cues, but other than that, this is a classic adventure score from the maestro.

Capturing Mr. Silk has lots of jazz elements. Even some blues. Introducing the Thompsons has some jazz too, and The Flight to Bagghar has a very jazzy instrumentation, specially thanks to that awesome Baritone Sax.

Tintin for me. But I really like KOTCS too.

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Tintin by a mile. It has something Indy 4 is sorely lacking in: life. Zest. Zeal. I thought, was afraid, that Indy 4 sounded old and tired due to Williams feeling that way. Now I'm thinking it's just because Indy is.

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Tintin by a mile. It has something Indy 4 is sorely lacking in: life. Zest. Zeal. I thought, was afraid, that Indy 4 sounded old and tired due to Williams feeling that way. Now I'm thinking it's just because Indy is.

Wow John, well said. I hadn't thougt of it that way. I do admit I seem yo like Indy 4 more than you but you cant deny War Horse and atintinvare both "fresher" and display much more originality than Indy 4 score. I really feel like JW will continue to come upvwith memorable and relevant music until the day he dies

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Tintin by a mile. It has something Indy 4 is sorely lacking in: life. Zest. Zeal. I thought, was afraid, that Indy 4 sounded old and tired due to Williams feeling that way. Now I'm thinking it's just because Indy is.

Wow John, well said. I hadn't thougt of it that way. I do admit I seem yo like Indy 4 more than you but you cant deny War Horse and atintinvare both "fresher" and display much more originality than Indy 4 score. I really feel like JW will continue to come upvwith memorable and relevant music until the day he dies

Agreed. Williams is gifted with the talent to be able to come up with strong memorable music consistently unlike any other composer. I don't even know how to explain it but with nearly ever score Williams delivers a piece of memorable and relevant music (regardless whether you like it or not). How he does it, I will never know!

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KotCS is heavily informed by Williams' previous Indy scores (for good or for worse) but it is interesting how he seemed to integrate almost WotW style darkness to the alien aspect of the film in his music. The use of subtle choral effects (real and synthesized) to convey the same unknown and alien as he did in WotW. The high register almost keening choral textures seem to him denote uncomfortable and unknown, alien and something ghostly. In KotCS they do not rise to such feverish pitch as they do in WotW but the technique is the same, especially in the finale where two worlds meets so to speak and the alien craft starts to unravel from the temple and the portal opens. WotW and KotCS choral music has antecedent in e.g. CEO3K where the choir is used in similar exotic ways to convey fear of the alien and unknown to great effect and I think it is interesting in itself that the most human instrument, our voice, is so effective in both soothing us as it is to unsettle us, indicative of familiar and alien at the same time.The grim and grinding action music with Williams' modern heavily rhythmic approach instead of balletic one is another example of where this score is different from the 3 predecessors, although setpieces like Jungle Chase and Whirl Through the Academe exhibit balletic scoring.

The deep and dark sonorities of the exploration music, the eerie wonder of Akator instead of the warmth of let's say TLC both show how differently Williams thought of this film. This music certainly has familiarity of Indy scores at times even in the above mentioned moments but the Crystal Skull as McGuffin somehow brings a deep darkness to everything in the music. The music has sections where I feel the old sparkle and spirit very vividly but at times there are moments when I think Indy has gotten old, grim and jaded. Determined, grim and gritty is what I would use to describe many cues in KotCS.

Tintin on the other hand feels very familiar but it has a youthful sparkle that is a joy to hear and get swept off with on an adventure. It does not exactly break the mold but uses some unique orchestrational effects and instruments to freshen up the approach. While I do enjoy Williams doing new things and trying his hand in different styles I also love to hear the Maestro do what he does best with his symphonic arsenal. With a plethora of wonderful themes for a new hero and story the classic Williams adventure/action mode is a joy to hear each and every time, a fusion of the old and familiar and new and unexpected.

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Yes I think there are two pieces in the finale of the film that used a real choir. Both are on the OST: Hidden Treasure and the City of Gold and Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed. The high female choir as Spalko approaches the alien skeletons sounds real to me as does the one used in the finale where Spalko is disintegrated.

Also it says Choir: Hollywood Film Chorale in the credits of the soundtrack booklet Indy4. ;)

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