Jump to content

Hans Zimmer - X:Men: Dark Phoenix


Fancyarcher

Recommended Posts

Most of the longer tracks actually don’t start too badly, but then they gradually involve into standard Zimmer droning and thumping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too much Dunkirk in the mix, with a little TASM2 sprinkled over it. It's mostly garbage.

 

Shame though, I was actually kind of looking forward to this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First thing I notice on Spotify is he's using the single word track naming again which means he's tried to make it much more of a concept album.

 

90 seconds in and it's even worse than I thought it might be. Like The Dark Knight with a bit more colour.

 

The film is directed by a producer which suggests to me that they were in the 'we need a marketable name' mindset, and not 'I want a good score' mindset.

 

Should've gotten Powell to do this - his X-Men score is awesome, and everything that this one isn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

First thing I notice on Spotify is he's using the single word track naming again which means he's tried to make it much more of a concept album.

 

I appreciate this. Zimmer produces albums better than the McCrearys and Desplats of the world.

 

Sadly the first track is the best of the bunch. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its clear he just took tracks from multiple scenes and placed them together. But I like them well enough compared to his work in Inferno.

Apparently he is also going to release a 2CD edition (like MOS/ASM2) later on???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Dixon Hill said:

Trwk0jd.png

 

You know how YouTube works, right? 8 million views does not equal 8 million people, nor does one "view" equal listening all the way through.

Subtract the autoplay views, the double or triple or more views, the views that don't actually like the music, the accidental views, the curiosity views, the casual views, and the views that don't actually listen but use it for background filler.

Then of course you'd also have to subtract all the views by Zimmer himself, who obviously goes back to that music for inspiration every few months. That alone is worth 1 million views per year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

Its clear he just took tracks from multiple scenes and placed them together. But I like them well enough compared to his work in Inferno.

Apparently he is also going to release a 2CD edition (like MOS/ASM2) later on???

Correct. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just listened to this. Hard to produce a more uninspired score :( I was never into Zimmer bashing but this is sooooo bland. 

It's true sometimes Ottman use of the orchestra (its sound in general) could feel cliché but it had personality and I loved his x-men theme. Well there is no theme in here… I mean no obvious ones. I'm sure it'll work within the movie though.

 

But in the end, we are in the era of background music (not said in a bad way) where no one except us wants the music to be noticeable, etc. So I won' say zimmer has lost his talent, on the contrary ! He just adapts to nowadays trend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, toothless said:

But in the end, we are in the era of background music (not said in a bad way) where no one except us wants the music to be noticeable, etc. So I won' say zimmer has lost his talent, on the contrary ! He just adapts to nowadays trend.

 

I don't think it's as bad as that - I think in this case the director just wanted the droning sound.

 

Zimmer definitely has talent. He just doesn't get to use it quite a lot of the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happens when you get dragged back into the superhero world.

I cant imagine his next two ventures will demand a different soundscape.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, gkgyver said:

 

You know how YouTube works, right? 8 million views does not equal 8 million people, nor does one "view" equal listening all the way through.

Subtract the autoplay views, the double or triple or more views, the views that don't actually like the music, the accidental views, the curiosity views, the casual views, and the views that don't actually listen but use it for background filler.

 

Yes and despite all that the overall number of fans represented by Youtube or otherwise still can reasonably be estimated in the millions you twat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

Happens when you get dragged back into the superhero world.

I cant imagine his next two ventures will demand a different soundscape.

 

Yeah WW84 will be all synth as well. Nolan had the right idea with Interstellar to go into another route. Tired of this.

 

Main problem with current Zimmer:

 

- seems he isn't inspired, very rarely so and recently mostly with Nolan;

- overuse of the rhythmic stuff, the melodies just take a back seat and despite to the contrary believe here he did have those. You can still hear a snippet here or there but it's drowned out by a wall of electronic noise;

- Wanting to collaborate, while I'd argue his better stuff is when he's off doing his own thing like with Interstellar or work with talented composers like JNH instead of Junkie XL...;

- Picks fucking shit projects, his minions are doing one hit after the other while he is doing shit like this and Spongebob and whatnot...;

 

I'm holding hope out for Dune but wouldn't surprise me if that were a disappointment as well. He needs a director/film to really inspire him to come up with something fresh. Otherwise this is just a waste of talent and time.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think my problem with Zimmer may be as simple as wanting him to take his projects a little less seriously and have a bit more fun.

 

I revisited a few bits of At World's End recently and the bits I like are really fun. Then Zimmer does some pretentious piece of oscar bait or some superhero film where he wants to reinvent everything (or just works with a director who wants droning), and it ends up being boring, generic, pap like this.

 

He should pick more films where the director wants something bright, colourful and exciting. I reckon if he'd done HTTYD:HW (and the director had asked for the same thing he asked of Powell), we'd see what he's capable of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

He should pick more films where the director wants something bright, colourful and exciting. I reckon if he'd done HTTYD:HW (and the director had asked for the same thing he asked of Powell), we'd see what he's capable of.

 

I suspect his assistants would have done most of the work. I don't think he's interested in writing that kind of music anymore. Which is fine.

 

But I do want to hear Zimmer really care about a project again, which I haven't really heard since Interstellar. Hopefully Dune delivers...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This X-Men score definitely sounds like a phone-in job. But the Nolan scores certainly represent his artistic curiosities with his sonic palette more accurately. He moved on from colourful/traditional orchestral scoring a long time ago. It's unreasonable to ask him to be his 90s self again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, toothless said:

Just listened to this. Hard to produce a more uninspired score :( I was never into Zimmer bashing but this is sooooo bland. 

It's true sometimes Ottman use of the orchestra (its sound in general) could feel cliché but it had personality and I loved his x-men theme. Well there is no theme in here… I mean no obvious ones. I'm sure it'll work within the movie though.

 

But in the end, we are in the era of background music (not said in a bad way) where no one except us wants the music to be noticeable, etc. So I won' say zimmer has lost his talent, on the contrary ! He just adapts to nowadays trend.

 

"Adapts"? He started the trend, dude.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Lord Zimmer said:

 

Yeah WW84 will be all synth as well. Nolan had the right idea with Interstellar to go into another route. Tired of this.

 

Main problem with current Zimmer:

 

- seems he isn't inspired, very rarely so and recently mostly with Nolan;

- overuse of the rhythmic stuff, the melodies just take a back seat and despite to the contrary believe here he did have those. You can still hear a snippet here or there but it's drowned out by a wall of electronic noise;

- Wanting to collaborate, while I'd argue his better stuff is when he's off doing his own thing like with Interstellar or work with talented composers like JNH instead of Junkie XL...;

- Picks fucking shit projects, his minions are doing one hit after the other while he is doing shit like this and Spongebob and whatnot...;

 

I'm holding hope out for Dune but wouldn't surprise me if that were a disappointment as well. He needs a director/film to really inspire him to come up with something fresh. Otherwise this is just a waste of talent and time.

 

 

Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got back from the film, Zimmer's score works fine for what it needs to be, it wasn't great or particularly memorable, but it underscored the action and the drama as well as could be expected. Although, it felt as if the music was smothering the film at times, like they weren't confident a scene could carry itself without the 'heightened tension' aspect of Zimmer's music. Early on he develops a theme that's linked to Jean, but it rarely cuts through until the end when it's too late. I wish Zimmer would've had more time, or more space within the film to develop this choral theme with the solo voice as I felt it could've served as greater connective tissue between the scenes and characters. One thing I thought was an interesting omission in the score was any sense of heroism in the way of a theme for the X-Men, but that's also something they bring up in the film about the X-Men not being 'Superheroes', there is a theme that has heroic strains but is just the same generic stuff we've heard in almost every superhero score and action film ever. If I could sum up the score in one word it would be 'inoffensive', it doesn't feel overpowering enough to be distracting, and doesn't have a strong emotional core that leaves any lasting impression.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, gkgyver said:

 

"Adapts"? He started the trend, dude.

 

I know.

 

But creating a style for a film and watching it evolve to something bigger applied to numerous movies are two different things. He may have created a style it’s hard to get away from, for now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Damien F said:

Zimmer's approach to this score...

 

giphy.gif?cid=790b76115cfc103b2f73437351

 

Exactly.  There's some moments in his Batman scores that aren't too bad but overall it's noise to me just like Man Of Steel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zimmer scores often sound like pots and pans falling on the ground during an earthquake. I can barely discern any melody or musical construct most of the times so much so that it seems overly generous to call is "music". I think Zimmer should perhaps submit his "scores" (or soundscapes or whatever the hell he calls them) in the Sound Effects category for Academy Awards consideration.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

I see people have only started listening since 2015.

MoS is a (mostly) great score btw.

MoS is a great concept album, but all the best parts are drowned out by waves of the usual noise. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

It doesnt help that some of my favorite pieces werent put on the album. (even moreso with BvS)

 

Yeah there's this one bit in BvS where Superman flies Doomsday into the atmosphere and they detonate a nuke up there that has this real statement of dread in the war room that I really liked, but it wasn't on the album. Ah well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is going on in this score? Yes, HZ had to recalibrate as Kinberg tried to piece up the madness of the production. But this sounds either like one of those early Media Ventures trailer CDs from the late 1990s or a total mess of Dunkirk and other nonsense that he has been fumbling about with. This is so bad.

Is this the worst score of Hans' career - it sounds like cheap trailer music done in every film industry in the world. I think the world finally caught up with Zimmer. He cheapened the standards and now the poor standard sound better than him! Ironic and he better get back on his game. A Widows score consisting of nonsensical rythmic stuff is not going to make him relevant. Time to harvest the good times. Hans - your time is up. Innovation is over. Stopped with Interstellar. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/9/2019 at 8:24 AM, Arpy said:

MoS is a great concept album, but all the best parts are drowned out by waves of the usual noise. 

 

I'd agree, and I do think the score has a reasonably unique sound, which I do enjoy now and again.

 

Zimmer has done some really good scores which are mostly ambient concept albums an would function very well as library music albums. The Thin Red Line is a perfect example - wonderful score which could hardly work better on album. I also like parts of Blade Runner 2049 as a nice ambient relaxation/reflection album. (although far less original)

 

This is the same idea, just far worse musically.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

It doesnt help that some of my favorite pieces werent put on the album. (even moreso with BvS)

Same with Interstellar's 'Quantifiable Connection' which was eventually included on the FYC but the track was corrupted!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is truly one of the worst scores I have heard in years. Cleary being loud is considered talent. If this score was a person it would be Tiffany Haddish  unleashing her attitude. 

It was offensive to any fan of good scores.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

It doesnt help that some of my favorite pieces werent put on the album. (even moreso with BvS)

 

If such absurdly lengthy albums need a few more cues to make them truly worthwhile, chances are the music is banal and pointless.

 

Zimmer is the only composer nowadays that can outright prevent me from seeing a movie, and it's because of noisy trash like Man Of Steel and this X-Men car crash.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought the anti-Giacchino sentimentality was harsh, seems Zimmer might take the 'most hated' spot.

 

If anyone thought this was the worst score they've heard, then they clearly haven't heard nearly as many scores to make that call. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Arpy said:

I thought the anti-Giacchino sentimentality was harsh, seems Zimmer might take the 'most hated' spot.

 

If anyone thought this was the worst score they've heard, then they clearly haven't heard nearly as many scores to make that call. 

If you are commenting in reference to me then you  need to stop. I have seem more movies and heard more scores than most here, its a bad score. For the record I flip flop decided who is the worst composer between the Zim and Gia. Either way you lose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fwiw I had kind things to say about his score to dunkirk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess I am also crazy for not hating this score, let alone thinking its the worst score I have ever heard.

 

Also Zimmer soundtracks in my opinion are notorious for leaving out stuff I'd rather want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its not the worst. Its very typical of Zimmer the king of the ONE star score.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Critics say the film was "lifeless and joyless". Both of those words apply to the score too. I would add uninspired to the list. Zimmer said he would retire from scoring superhero movies after BvS. I wished he stood by that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.