Ad Astra (Max Richter & Lorne Balfe)

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

18 minutes ago, KK said:

 

Also my first. It's brilliant, for what it aims to do.

 

Blue Notebooks and Memoryhouse remain his best original work. The rest of his later career has some highlights, but is mostly hit and miss, or retreading familiar material.

 

He should go back to what he's clearly best at - looking forward to Händel Recomposed!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

51 minutes ago, Thor said:

I'd argue that Richter's "breakout" in film music terms was WALTZ WITH BASHIR (2008), although SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) was the first that alerted  me to his name (although it's existing music, not original score).

This is exactly how I discovered him as well. Shutter Island and then Waltz With Bashir. 

25 minutes ago, KK said:

Blue Notebooks and Memoryhouse remain his best original work. The rest of his later career has some highlights, but is mostly hit and miss, or retreading familiar material.

Also my favorite albums from him, though I’m quite fond of Sleep as well. 

[toothless 963]

On 9/19/2019 at 12:39 AM, toothless said:

 

I really like some of his work such as:
http://www.deezer.com/track/78481520

 

 

5 hours ago, Thor said:

A-ha! So that beautiful electronic thing was FRAHM?! Thanks for clarifying, thestat -- it's the best musical aspect of the score. Figures that it was an existing piece. In the film, it first appears when McBride (Pitt) drives to the rocket launch on earth.

😄

[antovolk 95]

Per DG's press releases with the Richter single and Balfe's Twitter, an album is indeed coming. Likely just working through what they can contractually include from both composers etc. Quite odd that Balfe posted this on YT and DG didn't release it officially...

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

He's trying to squeeze in.

[antovolk 95]

Another source track from the film that actually, from what I remember, appears quite a bit...

Sounds like a big situation of Gray just picking and choosing stuff - some from Richter's full score, some from Balfe's, some source cues from Richter and Frahm...

[KK 3,307]

Most films with Richter signed on as composer, just pull from Richter's existing work anyway. It's pretty common.

[Edmilson 7,392]

So, let me see if I got this right:

• Gray hires Richter to score the movie.
• Despite having scored it, Gray still decides to use pre existing pieces by Richter and others.
• Not satisfied, he still hires Balfe of all people (maybe it was the studio's decision to make the movie more commercial) to score a few things.

Is that right?

[antovolk 95]

8 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

So, let me see if I got this right:

• Gray hires Richter to score the movie.
• Despite having scored it, Gray still decides to use pre existing pieces by Richter and others.
• Not satisfied, he still hires Balfe of all people (maybe it was the studio's decision to make the movie more commercial) to score a few things.

Is that right?

Yeah, except that according to Hybrid on H-Z.com Balfe recorded a whole score for the film start to finish, not just a few things. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Film was most likely temped with Richter. Balfe brought in as a late replacement. 

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

On 9/21/2019 at 11:30 AM, Thor said:

I'd argue that Richter's "breakout" in film music terms was WALTZ WITH BASHIR (2008), although SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) was the first that alerted  me to his name (although it's existing music, not original score).

 

Waltz with bashir for sure. That had considerable arthouse presence and was widely seen.

 

It also has this unforgettable masterpiece cue which has inspired me or numerous occasions and something I have remembered since listening to it the first time in the context of the movie nearly 11 years ago.

 

 

The impact this has in the film is difficult to overstate. You watch the movie once and you will remember if forever.

[Edmilson 7,392]

11 hours ago, antovolk said:

Yeah, except that according to Hybrid on H-Z.com Balfe recorded a whole score for the film start to finish, not just a few things. 

 

What a mess. So Gray hires Richter, puts some other compositions by Richer and by others, and still hires Balfe to essentially score the movie, despite having multiple pieces by Richter and others to choose.

 

This situation is reminding me a bit of Age of Ultron, one of the worst scored blockbuster movies of the decade, and it's not the composers fault (although neither Tyler or Elfman were particularly inspired). The music as heard in the movie (when you can hear it) is a mess that bizarrely blends Tyler, Elfman and Silvestri.

[Arpy 4,145]

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

The music as heard in the movie (when you can hear it) is a mess that bizarrely blends Tyler, Elfman and Silvestri.

Yeah, Age of Ultron is an utterly forgettable mess. Orchestral wallpaper.

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

Fits the movie then!

[MedigoScan 324]

9 hours ago, Arpy said:

Yeah, Age of Ultron is an utterly forgettable mess. Orchestral wallpaper.

 

I tried to make sense of the music heard in the movie, but I gave up 30 minutes in because I realized it used so much material from Avengers 1, and that score was not that memorable to begin with!

[Arpy 4,145]

3 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

 

I tried to make sense of the music heard in the movie, but I gave up 30 minutes in because I realized it used so much material from Avengers 1, and that score was not that memorable to begin with!

I don't remember much of the movie, so my judgement is unreliable. I seem to remember Ultron flying with a coffin through the city and a big fight at the end with a floating city.

[Edmilson 7,392]

2 hours ago, MedigoScan said:

 

I tried to make sense of the music heard in the movie, but I gave up 30 minutes in because I realized it used so much material from Avengers 1, and that score was not that memorable to begin with!

 

Actually, to be honest, that isn't that much tracking of Silvestri's Avengers 1 on AoU. It's mostly on the opening battle scene, when we see the Avengers back in action raiding a Sokovian forest and smashing HYDRA's henchmen, and when they return to base after the battle. 

 

The main problem is that the music as heard on the film jumps back and forth between Elfman (and his additional composers) and Tyler, with absolutely no respect for musicality or the composers' original intent. And the music don't even works! It's a fucking mess! There's a hilariously bad bit on the movie, during the Seoul chase, when Black Widow is on her bike and throws Cap's shield back to him, and we hear a pathetic tracking of Elfman's Avengers Unite that has absolutely no place there. 

 

The only moment on the film that the music is left (more or less) intact is on reel 3, which covers the trip to South Africa, the confrontation on Klawe's ship and the Hulk v Hulkbuster battle. Tyler scored this whole sequence, and then Elfman didn't rescored it, so it is 98% Tyler. 

[Edmilson 7,392]

Just watched the movie.

 

There's some stuff that bothered me:

 

-Despite being set about 100 years into the future, the ship's design are still very much of the 20th century. The ship's equipment is almost analogue, with stuff like buttons and switches. I wish the production designer were a little bolder on this film. 2016's Passengers is a terrible movie, but it offers a cool vision of a spaceship designed with the technological knowledge that we have on the 21st century. Isn't it time for new sci-fi movies to outgrow the Apollo, the Nostromo, the Millenium Falcon, ships that were designed on the previous century?

 

-The movie breaks a little the "Show, don't tell" rule. All we have is Pitt's voiceovers explaining who he is and how he feels to the audience, but we don't see nothing that supports that idea. For example, there's a scene in which he tells about the rage his father felt, and how he felt the same, but we pratically haven't see him act with fury and rage so far. A few flashbacks showcasing his flaws would've been good.

 

But it is still a pretty great movie, with great visuals, cool VFX and a story that is a curious mix between psychology, Malick, Apocalypse Now and space adventure. A few scenes even got me a little emotional. It's absolutely worth seeing on theaters. 

 

As for the score, I can't say for sure what is Richter and what is Balfe. There's some TDK-ish stuff that is definetly Lorne's, but other than that I dunno who wrote what. Maybe when we get the OST...

[Arpy 4,145]

I like the utilitarian look of ships - switches, buttons, levers, they're all tactile devices which tell the audience that they do something; that the actors are interacting with something physical is also a bonus. I'm actually sick of the futuristic, touchscreen holographic interfaces, it's lazy, and unrealistic. 

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

-Despite being set about 100 years into the future, the ship's design are still very much of the 20th century. The ship's equipment is almost analogue, with stuff like buttons and switches. I wish the production designer were a little bolder on this film. 2016's Passengers is a terrible movie, but it offers a cool vision of a spaceship designed with the technological knowledge that we have on the 21st century. Isn't it time for new sci-fi movies to outgrow the Apollo, the Nostromo, the Millenium Falcon, ships that were designed on the previous century?

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

You find touchscreens unrealistic?

[Arpy 4,145]

45 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

You find touchscreens unrealistic?

Having worked with plenty of machinery, having easily accessible switches is a no-brainer. Touchscreens can be broken just by looking at them.

[Thor 7,465]

1 hour ago, Arpy said:

I like the utilitarian look of ships - switches, buttons, levers, they're all tactile devices which tell the audience that they do something; that the actors are interacting with something physical is also a bonus. I'm actually sick of the futuristic, touchscreen holographic interfaces, it's lazy, and unrealistic. 

 

 

Totally agreed!

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

26 minutes ago, Arpy said:

Having worked with plenty of machinery, having easily accessible switches is a no-brainer. Touchscreens can be broken just by looking at them.

 

Well, in a hundred years they've finally managed to make them durable. It's science fiction, after all!

[Arpy 4,145]

They're too showy in films, like 'HEY GUYS LOOK AT THESE SCREENS...WOAHHHHHHHHHHHH...LOOK, HOLOGRAMS...WOAHHHHHHHH!'.

 

 

[Holko 9,499]

I almost shut off Minority Report when Cruise was wiggling his fingers in the air for 20 minutes to rotate the picture or something.

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

Cue Minority Report.

[Arpy 4,145]

 

4 minutes ago, Holko said:

I almost shut off Minority Report when Cruise was wiggling his fingers in the air for 20 minutes to rotate the picture or something.

Tony Stark's holographic interface is pretty good.

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

31 minutes ago, Holko said:

I almost shut off Minority Report when Cruise was wiggling his fingers in the air for 20 minutes to rotate the picture or something.

 

That was actually super cool in 2002! Kids nowadays...

[Holko 9,499]

One of the most impractical and overdramatic ideas for a user interface I've ever seen!

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

What - a touch screen that can be viewed from both sides? That's awesome!

[Thor 7,465]

I think MINORITY REPORT is awesome, including the visualization and realization of the technologies and interfaces. But by God -- so cumbersome and totally impractical.

[Edmilson 7,392]

6 hours ago, Arpy said:

I like the utilitarian look of ships - switches, buttons, levers, they're all tactile devices which tell the audience that they do something; that the actors are interacting with something physical is also a bonus. I'm actually sick of the futuristic, touchscreen holographic interfaces, it's lazy, and unrealistic. 

 

 

My biggest problem with this is that, despite being set in the 2100s, the movie's ship design and technology looks like it could have been from the 1970s - or, at least, from a movie made on the 1970s about space exploration on the future. And, considering how much the technology evolved since then, it's a little unrealistic and weird. 

 

Also, it prevents futuristc designers from reimagining space exploration on the future from the point of view of the technological knowledge we have today, and not 40, 50 years ago. I mean, we all love the Nostromo and the Falcon, but why not give a chance to try something new? Passengers is a great example - it's a terrible film, but it reivents how spacial exploration might be from the perspective of the 21st century.

 

I mean, probably this anachronistic feel of the movie was intentional by Gray, that wanted to reference the classic sci-fi movies of the previous decades. But it's a little weird that a movie about the future is so concerned with the technology of the past.

[Holko 9,499]

One thing that comes to my mind is that the past is already past and the genre-defining films have already defined the genre as is. For practical purposes, the Falcon possibly looks almost as antiquated today as it will 20 or 50 years ago. However, when you try to imagine the cutting edge today, it might work for a year or two then look ridiculous for all time to come except in the very rare cases where you manage to accurately predict the exact future, in which case it will lose its novelty somewhat.

[Edmilson 7,392]

My gosh, this is really a huge box office bomb: just US$ 35m on the US and US$ 90m worldwide. It earned less during last weekend on USA than It Chapter 2, despite the latter being on cinemas for a little longer than Ad Astra.

 

The movie costed between US$ 80m and US$ 100m to be made, so it'll have to earn over US$ 300m worldwide to break even.

 

I really hoped more people would watch it, it's one of the best movies of the year. But how can I blame the audiences when the movie is being promoted with this bland and boring poster:

 

 

It's a movie with great visuals about a space adventure through the Solar System, and they chose to promote it with Brad Pitt making a bored face with a depressing color scheme? No wonder people aren't watching it, this makes the movie look really dull.

[Thor 7,465]

I don't think you can blame the poster alone for this. As I've said numerous times, it's more the hybrid tone it chose to nurture (brilliantly, may I add) -- which makes it an easy target for misunderstood evaluations.

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

Isn't Pitt too old to play an astronaut, though?

[Thor 7,465]

Too old? Most commanders at the ISS in the last two decades have been Pitt's age.

[Edmilson 7,392]

6 hours ago, Thor said:

I don't think you can blame the poster alone for this.

 

I guess the poster is just a symptom of a larger problem: the utterly dull marketing material.

 

I mean, from a certain point of view, this is James Gray's most "commercial" film (which by no means is a problem). It has a famous and bankable star in Pitt, a visually interesting space adventure that spans the Solar System... Sure, the movie is not exactly your typical MCU-crowdpleasing movie, but in any case the marketing should be working to assure the viewers that this is a great space adventure that needs to be seen on the biggest screen as possible (I watched it on my local IMAX).

 

The poster is a great example of the failed marketing. Imagine someone who casually goes to the theaters just looking for something to watch at a Friday night, but is not aware that Gray is one of the most acclaimed American filmmakers of the last few years or that the movie was screened on the last Venice Festival. This person will see the Ad Astra poster on his local multiplex or scrolling on his ticket purchasing app, and will probably think, based on this very dull and depressing poster, that this is a very boring movie indeed - and will instead go watch another thing.

 

Just look at the Interstellar poster, as a counterexample. It suggests an epic and visually arresting space movie that seems very interesting for everyone, not just Nolan fans.
 

However, the box office numbers suggest that the movie is failing to attract those outside the movie nerd bubble. It's very telling that it managed to earn less over the last weekend than It Chapter 2, despite the Pennywise horror movie have been on theaters for longer than Ad Astra. 

 

It's not that the movie could have been making Interstellar or Gravity money, but it had the potential of having a much better performance. Actually, the movie needs to be better at the BO, considering it was quite expensive.

 

But I guess the ridiculous marketing is to blame on Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox. The changes at Fox left a lot of their movies for 2019, be they good or bad (hello, Dark Phoenix), with people who had not a clue of how to conduct the marketing. It's no surprise that most Fox movies this year bombed.

[Jay 37,287]

The soundtrack album is now available digitally anywhere it's already friday

 

Quote

 

01. To The Stars (3:30)
02. Encounter (5:18)
03. Cosmic Drone Gateway (2:58)
04. I Put All That Away (3:27)
05. A Trip To The Moon (4:37)
06. Terra Incognita (2:50)
07. Ex Luna Scientia – Requiem (5:18)
08. Journey Sequence (3:20)
09. The Rings Of Saturn (2:58)
10. The Wanderer (4:51)
11. Erbarme Dich (3:39)
12. Forced Entry (2:27)
13. Preludium (4:02)
14. Resonantia (3:00)
15. Let There Be Light (2:18)
16. Ursa Minor – Visions (3:14)
17. Event Horizon (6:13)
18. Musurgia Universalis (3:06)
19. You Have To Let Me Go (5:57)
20. Tuesday (Voiceless) (21:07)
21. Opening (2:38)
22. Briefing (2:33)
23. Space Journey (2:40)
24. Rover Ride (2:51)
25. Pirate Attack (2:48)
26. Orbs (3:44)
27. Underground Lake (2:15)
28. Trip To Neptune (5:03)
29. Says (8:17)

 

2 Hours 6 Minutes

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/ad-astra-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/1482828581

[Thor 7,465]

That's great, but come ON! More than two hours? Sigh. Another project added to the 'to-make-into-playlist' list.

[MedigoScan 324]

Pasting an entire 21minute track from Richters previous work doent help.

[Jurassic Shark 12,029]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

That's great, but come ON! More than two hours? Sigh. Another project added to the 'to-make-into-playlist' list.

 

Easy - delete all tracks.

[Thor 7,465]

LOVE Richter's take on Bach's "Erbarme Dich" from the MATTHÄUS PASSION here. For some reason, the slower, melancholic tracks of Bach are very suited to an electronic idiom (think Artemiev's work on SOLARIS, for example).

[MedigoScan 324]

That was one of the highlights for sure.

Lorne Balfe didnt do that bad either. At the very least he kept my interest mostly. (I somehow love that bizarre pirate track)

 

This music also reminds me of Alien Covenant's score.

[publicist 4,643]

Which really is no recommendation. A:C was awful.

[MedigoScan 324]

It was. But a few music pieces stuck with me regardless, even though I cant even remember who did the score.

[publicist 4,643]

Jed Kurzel. Though i listened through all of Ad Astra fleetingly on a plane ride to Barcelona - of all places!! - and the few Richter library pieces are really the only things that aren't pure mood mongering.

[Thor 7,465]

Jed Kurzel's A:C was one of my favourite scores that year (including the Goldsmith nods); couldn't disagree more with you guys. But I don't quite see the similarity to AD ASTRA, I must admit.

[publicist 4,643]

Like the countless times before, you are expelled from the film music community.

[Thor 7,465]