Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I'm up to the last act of Attack of the Clones.Some quick thoughts:Phantom is a good score. It is easily the strongest of the three and few people will debate that. I still don't think it's on the level of the original scores.Clones is an extremely low-key score, especially for being Star Wars. As I recall of the film, it is very (shitty) dialogue heavy and the music is just kinda there, rarely drawing attention to istelf, but serving some purpose. It actually reminds me a lot of Star Trek TV scoring in the 90s.More to come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,312 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Yea, but then that last act is awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,340 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I have a hard time deciding which one is best, they all have good and bad points about them. crocodile 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewya 360 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 The Phantom Menace is better than just "good", it is a masterpiece for Christ's sake (and best of the prequels)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not Mr. Big 4,639 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Agreed, TPM is one of my top 5 JW scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balahkay 627 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I love TPM and it's definitely the best prequel score, but I agree that the OT music is better. Williams kind of reinvented the Star Wars sound for TPM and it's the music that makes the film "watchable" to me... even in it's hacked up form. Arpy and Gruesome Son of a Bitch 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Score 770 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I'm up to the last act of Attack of the Clones.Some quick thoughts:Phantom is a good score. It is easily the strongest of the three and few people will debate that. I still don't think it's on the level of the original scores.Clones is an extremely low-key score, especially for being Star Wars. As I recall of the film, it is very (shitty) dialogue heavy and the music is just kinda there, rarely drawing attention to istelf, but serving some purpose. It actually reminds me a lot of Star Trek TV scoring in the 90s.More to come...Yes, but the Finale of AotC is probably the best single cue in the prequels. Gnome in Plaid 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,453 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 When the Imperial March kicked in, the first time I heard it, I wept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 When the Imperial March kicked in, the first time I heard it, I wept.I agree that this is a completely kick-ass moment.More thoughts:- Phantom oozes that magical fairy tale vibe you'll find in Williams score of similar styles, such as Hook and Harry Potter. This is missing from Clones and Sith. It isn't a unique score--many cues to me sound interchangeable with Hook and other scores of this style.- Qui-Gon's theme gets two thumbs up from me. Perhaps my favorite cue from Phantom is Darth and Qui-Gon!- I've always loved the Coruscant music- The vocal in Yoda Strikes Back just doesn't sound right to me...too Lord of the Rings or something and not Star Wars. I couldn't help but recall the rejected music from Departure of Boba Fett, as well as Luke Pursues the Captives, where the Williams of that era masterfully turned the benevolent Yoda's romantic theme into action music...here, it just doesn't feel right.- Love the A.I.-esque vocal for the Emperor at the end of Clones--overall, a great finale, but this moment stands out as my favorite for some reason.- Sith has a lot of awesome cues, but it just doesn't feel complete to me.- Williams delivered perfect music for major sequences: Anakin's turn, the killing of the Jedi, the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan and the immolation scene. Wow!- Not a fan of Williams quoting earlier music in Sith: the Qui-Gon funeral music was great in Phantom, but it just doesn't fit here. As I recall from the film, it felt totally overblown and ridiculous. I also don't like the use of The Duel from Empire when Yoda and Palpatine fight. This was a pivotal moment for two characters with established themes--musically, it feels totally unsatisfying and disappointing. I Am the Senate was much better, but it still kinda meanders, like a lot of cues in these scores.- Sith's end credits go on for way too long. Leia's Theme and The Throne Room, while good performances, feel out of place and it's pretty disappointing after stellar end credit suites for Phantom and Clones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 - Not a fan of Williams quoting earlier music in Sith: the Qui-Gon funeral music was great in Phantom, but it just doesn't fit here. As I recall from the film, it felt totally overblown and ridiculous.But it was the best thing about that scene. Almost made it poignant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 I don't agree, but I respect your opinion.I think Williams went overboard with the choral stuff in the Prequels, especially Sith. I didn't like it there and I didn't like it in Grievous Travels to Palpatine, which is a bit too Potter-esque, but a good cue otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,453 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I wish the stellar choral music from ROTJ's Final Duel had been reused in ROTS, in order to complete the cycle. Awww nuts. Sharkissimo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Forget the preguels guys. There has been an awakening, haven't you felt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodBoal 7,538 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Dammit BB what the Hells the matter with you? Other people's prequel posts are positive, why are yours like a funeral? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodBoal 7,538 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus 5,399 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Some days I prefer the gloriously playful Trade Federation March (ugh, dat name doe) over the Imperial one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 It's the perfect march for settling trade disputes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 7,988 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I have a hard time deciding which one is best, they all have good and bad points about them.Yes I feel mostly the same way.The Phantom Menace for all its iconic and memorable highlights, certainly worthy of Star Wars, contains excessive amounts of very nondescript underscore material that doesn't really do much, except when suddenly interrupted with yet another Williams stock fanfare. True, each planet seems to have it's own colour palette established by composer. But I never get a sense of dramatic forward motion from those passages. Plus, I feel it doesn't do nearly enough with its (otherwise very good) themes. But still, it remains as the most remembered of this trilogy. But, as I said, it's down to highlights, rather than whole thing.Attack of the Clones is, as E.T. pointed out, quite low-key. After the colourful and breezy TPM, the tone shifts to vaguely suspenseful material and relatively monochrome texture throughout. And yet I can't help to think that this is the only prequel score that has some kind of sustained identity and structure. The unifying elements being beautiful love theme and extensive use of percussion. It does establish a certain sound that Williams would start to explore for the rest of 00's decade. And it does contain some of the best material in the prequel trilogy - Coruscant chase, Tusken Camp, Arena, finale, even conveyor belt.Revenge of the Sith has the least amount of filler and indeed most of the material is really strong. But, it has even a bigger identity crisis than TPM. Williams never really gives his work on this film a clear enough identity. Star Wars films are generally known for their catchy themes but this one doesn't contain any. Battle of the Heroes is a really cool piece of an underscore and, as a ceterpiece, has much more in common with The Forest Battle and The Asteroid Field than it does with Across the Stars, Princess Leia's theme or even Duel of the Fates. Well composed and finally fulfills some dramatic role in this trilogy. But also feels incoherent and anonymous in the grand scheme of things.Karol - who genrally chooses Attack of the Clones these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muad'Dib 1,801 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 For me it doesn't get any better than this little gem: The choir explosion at the end is spectacular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus 5,399 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 It's the perfect march for settling trade disputes.It's like the European Court has its own theme tune Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 7,988 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I thought of the same thing. Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 It's the perfect march for settling trade disputes.It's like the European Court has its own theme tune They would only allow muted horns though. Because of stringent health and safety regulations regarding the capping of noise. Gnome in Plaid 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Skywalker 1,793 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Quigon's funeral in padme's death is a re-recording so it is meh and unfitting.On the other hand, the instrumental version of Padme's funeral is a highlight. And the Imperial march counterpoint ...I think i'm the only one that thinks qui-gon's funeral is rooted in Yoda's death (and dark side beckons..)... and padme's funeral really seems more like it because it has no choir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 I want to listen to them again, but they kinda burnt me out yesterday.I forgot to mention that I followed up the utterly unrelated end credits for Revenge of the Sith with the score that started it all: Star Wars, my Anthology playlist. I have to say, it's immediate apparent how different the Prequel scores are. There's just nothing like that flourish where the droids escape from the blockade runner anywhere to be found in the Prequels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,340 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Or anything like the goosebumping reintroduction of themes like in The Imperial Probe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 Clones is an extremely low-key score, especially for being Star Wars. As I recall of the film, it is very (shitty) dialogue heavy and the music is just kinda there, rarely drawing attention to istelf, but serving some purpose. It actually reminds me a lot of Star Trek TV scoring in the 90s.I agree with myself. Perhaps this is why Clones is my favorite of the Prequels? Cat's out of the bag, but I believe I've made this public in the past. In my opinion, it has the most interesting underscore once you remove it from the film, where it's mostly lost in the awful sound mix of a truly bad movie. Listen to that awesome Fury/V'Ger/Vertigo-esque mystery motif in The Meeting With Fett, Rainy Ramp and The Arrival at Tatooine. Just awesome. In that musical excursion to Tatooine, it's evident Williams believed he was scoring a good film. For the longest time I didn't know there was a secondary motif for Anakin in this score. It isn't used nearly enough, but it's there. I'm still a proponent of the electric guitar in the chase through Coruscant. The one blunder for me is not the Love Theme abruptly ending when they first kiss, but Yoda Strikes Back. I don't know, this cue just never felt right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I thought the love theme abruptly cutting out when Padme pulls away was the best thing about that scene. All it needed was the vinyl record scratch sound and it would have been perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hlao-roo 389 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I thought the love theme abruptly cutting out when Padme pulls away was the best thing about that scene. All it needed was the vinyl record scratch sound and it would have been perfect.It's great if you're (understandably) hate-watching the movie. It totally undercuts the scene. Dixon Hill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I thought the love theme abruptly cutting out when Padme pulls away was the best thing about that scene. All it needed was the vinyl record scratch sound and it would have been perfect. It's great if you're (understandably) hate-watching the movie. It totally undercuts the scene.Not really. I thought it suited the scene's sense of playfulness. It gave me a genuine chuckle when I first saw it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,626 Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I think it was the sound mix that messed up Williams intention in that sceneWe need the clean cue to hear if the music ends so abruptly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeinAR 1,949 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I just hope the Force Awakens is a quality score unlike aotc and rots.. there is great music in rots but it's all from star wars. But John had nothing to work with. The first time John Williams said the F word it was when he said you gotta be fucking kidding me after seeing a rough cut of aotc. He said it again 3 years later. Gruesome Son of a Bitch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balahkay 627 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I just hope the Force Awakens is a quality score unlike aotc and rots.. there is great music in rots but it's all from star wars. But John had nothing to work with. The first time John Williams said the F word it was when he said you gotta be fucking kidding me after seeing a rough cut of aotc. He said it again 3 years later.He didn't say the same thing for TPM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 He was fooled into thinking that one was actually a good film because they used real locations, the guy from Schindler was in it and he was just too busy trying to deliver a quality score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeinAR 1,949 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I just hope the Force Awakens is a quality score unlike aotc and rots.. there is great music in rots but it's all from star wars. But John had nothing to work with. The first time John Williams said the F word it was when he said you gotta be fucking kidding me after seeing a rough cut of aotc. He said it again 3 years later. He didn't say the same thing for TPM?Its got a Star Wars feel. The only film of the three that does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 And photographed on celluloid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muad'Dib 1,801 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Hey, if that Book Thief Oscar suite Williams did some time ago is any indication, he's still got it in him. Parts of it could belong perfectly in a SW movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 And photographed on celluloid.Irrelevant. Movies can lookgreat or awful regardless of them being shot on fillm or digital!Or else there would be no bad looking films before 2002! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Red Tails is one of the ugliest movies I've ever seen. Must be the camera brand Lucas prefers. However, I've noticed that I've consistently liked the look of digital movies shot with the Arri Alexa, such as Godzilla and The Avengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Lucas loves the shiny, artificial look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 So does my dad. He thought Red Tails looked great. Must be dementia setting in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Have you turned him over to State care? His bones will be useful for the production of glue. And his skin and organs can be harvested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Soylent Green. Hold the butter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 Clones sounds hissy and subdued. Sith is just weird and the percussion sounds terrible. Damn you, Shawn Murphy! I hope if these are ever released in expanded/complete form, their sound can be salvaged from the original elements, similar to the Ultimate Phantom Menace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,312 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Yea I still don't know why the AOTC OST has so much hiss on it. So bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 It seems it's always been widely criticized around here (and I kinda understand the criticism), but I enjoy Jango's Escape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 It's the best prequel album. But the love theme has always been one of Johnny's most annoying pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 I think it all comes down to the arrangement/performance. I'm not a fan of the A theme in the concert version, but it sounds awesome in the score itself, like in Love Pledge and the Finale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,312 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Yup, it does sound the best in those two cues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 It sounds best in the first 1 minute thirty seconds of every films opening title crawl. Since its the same theme! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now