150 replies to this topic

[KK.]

I saw Munich in the theater, yea. Only listened to that OST once as well.

You only listened to Munich once?

I loved that score. It was quite a powerful Williams score and one of my favourites of that year. It captured some of the gravity of Schindler's List (although not as powerful) and turned out to be a great score. 2005 was a stellar year for the maestro. Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich and Star Wars III were fantastic scores!!!! I even appreciate War of the Worlds to some degree.

- KK

Tintin is a fantastic score and one of the favourite of the decade! But I've been fond of all of Williams scores in the 00's. However, I prefer the 3 Potter scores and the SW prequels over Tintin. While I adore AI (fantastic score!), I think I might have to put Tintin a bit above that.....

I respect Minority Report and War of the Worlds because they're intelligent scores and I completely understand what Williams was going for. It may not have translated as well as it could have on album, but they had moments and I appreciate them. Indy 4 had moments, but Tintin surpasses it greatly. I've got to say that Tintin is one of the best Williams scores of the decade.

- KK

[indy4]

Score I like more than Tintin:
Phantom Menace
AI
AotC
Sorcerer's Stone
PoA
RotS
KotCS (this was the closest race for me)

Scores I like less than Tintin:
Minority Report
War of the Worlds
CoS

It looks bad for Tintin, but especially with complex music like JW's, it usually takes a few weeks for me to really start to appreciate the music.

[Romão]

Looking at this list made me think about how great the last decade was in term of JW's output, and the list doesn't even include his stunning dramatic material (specially Memoirs and Munich, of which I am very fond)

[Josh500]

Wow, RotS and Tintin are now tied!

But RotS has its moments, yeah. I am especially fond of the first track (the expanded one). Haven't listened to that one for a while...

You only listened to Munich once?

I loved that score. It was quite a powerful Williams score and one of my favourites of that year. It captured some of the gravity of Schindler's List (although not as powerful) and turned out to be a great score. 2005 was a stellar year for the maestro. Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich and Star Wars III were fantastic scores!!!! I even appreciate War of the Worlds to some degree.

- KK

Tintin is a fantastic score and one of the favourite of the decade! But I've been fond of all of Williams scores in the 00's. However, I prefer the 3 Potter scores and the SW prequels over Tintin. While I adore AI (fantastic score!), I think I might have to put Tintin a bit above that.....

I respect Minority Report and War of the Worlds because they're intelligent scores and I completely understand what Williams was going for. It may not have translated as well as it could have on album, but they had moments and I appreciate them. Indy 4 had moments, but Tintin surpasses it greatly. I've got to say that Tintin is one of the best Williams scores of the decade.

- KK

Well said!

[nightscape94]

This is actually quite hard because I like many of the scores for different reasons. The Star Wars scores are in a different league as far as I'm concerned, and the first Potter score is something absolutely special.

I think that Tintin is probably his best since Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone overall, but PoA as some really great thematic stuff going on. Tintin just seems to work better start to finish as a cohesive album presentation and film score, and the way he weaves and threads his leitmotif is wonderful in Tintin.

But some of his scores in the last 10 years have a specific theme that is more amazing as an isolated idea then anything in Tintin, except for maybe Snowy's Theme, such as A.I (monica's theme) or Terminal (love theme).

[Josh500]

This is actually quite hard...

Nobody said this is gonna be easy.

____

Okay now RotS overtook Tintin! WTH!

And A.I. and Tintin are now tied!

[Ricard]

OK I just voted based on the album presentations.

[king mark]

what did you vote?

I'm curious how you rate recent JW scores

[Stefancos]

Ricard naturally hates it. It's a confirmation of the nagging fear he's had for the last few years that the Williams he fell in love with is truly dead, and that it's time to close JWFAN and move on.

Or maybe he likes it.....

[Josh500]

Okay, now 4 scores are doing better than Tintin:

RotS (!), TPM, Philosopher's Stone, and PoA. A.I. and Tintin are tied.

Gotta say, RotS surprises me. Is this really so highly regarded here?

[Jason LeBlanc]

Not by me.

[Stefancos]

Same here.

[indy4]

RotS is one of Williams' best scores of the 2000s, and even of his careers. It'd probably make my list of top 10 Williams scores, definietly top 15.

[king mark]

With RotS it's mostly OST construction problems

I'm not sure what goes on in Williams head to include a re-recording of The Throne Room instead or original cues that are highlights of the scores

[Stefancos]

I don't like any of the General Grievous material, and Battle Of The Heroes is weaker then DOTF.

[Sandor]

I don't like any of the General Grievous material, and Battle Of The Heroes is weaker then DOTF.

However; the 'trio' Anakin's Betrayal, Anakin's Dark Deeds and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan makes a pretty awesome suite.

[publicist]

Battle Of The Heroes is weaker then DOTF.

I always found it agreeably rough around the edges, whereas i shamefully admit that DOTF never scored more than 6.5 on my 'lame Orff-clones' radar. Just like that choirpiece from FIRST KNIGHT. Most people fall for this stuff, why i don't know...

[king mark]

I like Battle of the Heroes more than Duel of the Fates

[publicist]

I like Battle of the Heroes more than Duel of the Fates

Good boy!

[Jason LeBlanc]

You people are out of your minds

[nightscape94]

I prefer Battle of the Heroes in action mode during the saber battle. When it's slowed down as presented in the concert arrangement, then it doesn't sound as strong as Duel of Fates.

[JamieC]

I've got a JW soundtrack here called Star Wars, I think it is. Would that be right ? Is that the same John Williams that we're all talking about here ?

Anyway... I just wanted to say that having seen Tintin on the big screen last week I can confidently say that the cd presentation of the music really does capture the spirit of the film.

Inevitably, things change but it's quite interesting now, and exciting too, that we perhaps consider the music written to be part of a film as an increasingly aesthetic experience in its own right (it's been that for a long time of course but it's becoming even more legitimate I think).

I wish we'd had the internet in the 1980s when I was growing up and falling in love with film. Funny to think this: I never used to tell folks I listened to film music.

What I'm getting around to noting here is that the excellence with which the Tintin soundtrack presentation captures the tone of the film has reminded me how a soundtrack album functioned in an age when you couldn't watch the film whenever you liked. The soundtrack to a movie was a musical passport to get you back into the world of a film that you could only see on the big screen or, if you were lucky, perhaps rent out on VHS to watch at home...eventually.

In many ways only being able to 'rewatch' a movie via its soundtrack album was perhaps a better than actually watching the film, allowing the images you recalled to play again in your memory, but somehow connecting to your own original images that riffed on the movie starting point.

(As I write this I am listening to the marvellous film music of British composer Brian Easdale who composed music for the films of Michael Powell. Now there's a director, who, like Steven Spielberg, understood the deep connection between music and movies and the way in which a film's score could live and breath legitimately beyond the viewing of a given movie. )


Thanks for listening.

James

[Maurizio]

Great post, Jamie. I agree with you!

[JamieC]

I'm glad what I was trying to say made some sense.

[gkgyver]

Not by me.

Same here.

And here as well.

RotS is one of Williams' best scores of the 2000s, and even of his careers. It'd probably make my list of top 10 Williams scores, definietly top 15.

I don't think it's one of his best of the 2000s, and most definitely not of his carreer, good lord! I could immediately come up with 10 Williams scores I'd rather listen to. If you take the three Indys (KOTCS is mostly a George Lucas film that happens to feature Harrison Ford with a hat) and any two Potters, you already have 5.
Then Star Wars, Close Encounters, ET, Geisha, Far and Away, Superman ...

With RotS it's mostly OST construction problems

I'm not sure what goes on in Williams head to include a re-recording of The Throne Room instead or original cues that are highlights of the scores

Oddly, I think the OST is more listenable than the complete score. It's cutting the fat, of which there is plenty in all the prequels. Of course there are highlights not included, but those are far and between in my book.
I don't need filler like "Death Of Dooku".

What other highlights of the score are you talking about that you would rather have as end credit suite material? I already find Battle Of The Heroes out of place between the opening fanfare and the closing. Including that twice on one album is testing my patience. I'd rather have him drop BotH than the throne room bit.

You people are out of your minds

+1

[king mark]

What other highlights of the score are you talking about that you would rather have as end credit suite material? I already find Battle Of The Heroes out of place between the opening fanfare and the closing. Including that twice on one album is testing my patience. I'd rather have him drop BotH than the throne room bit.

Here's the list of cues that are better than some on the OST:

Battle Over Coruscant missing cues
Another Happy Landing
Be Careful of your Friend
Palpatine's Big Pitch
Goodbye Old Friend
Going to Utapau
I am the Senate
Bail's Escape/News of the Attack/Yoda Farewell
It Can't Be missing sections
Padme's Visit
The Boys Continue
Cue after Immolation Scene on Pollis Massa
Plans for the Twins
Padme's Funeral and Finale

[Faleel]

Do not forget Goodbye Old Friend.


I prefer DOTF to BOTH, BUT only the version with more percussion, or when played in theme statement form.

[Ricard]

what did you vote?

I'm curious how you rate recent JW scores

As I said, I didn't rate the scores but the music as presented on the albums, since I have not heard the complete Tintin score.

I rate them all above Tintin, except for MR and WotW.

[gkgyver]

Battle Over Coruscant missing cues
Another Happy Landing
Be Careful of your Friend
Palpatine's Big Pitch
Goodbye Old Friend
Going to Utapau
I am the Senate
Bail's Escape/News of the Attack/Yoda Farewell
It Can't Be missing sections
Padme's Visit
The Boys Continue
Cue after Immolation Scene on Pollis Massa
Plans for the Twins
Padme's Funeral and Finale

Padme's Visit is the only think I would have added to the album.
The renditions of the force theme and other themes (Leia's for instance) I can live without, there is plenty of that, and more vibrant too, in the original trilogy.
And it makes no sense, too, because Williams treats them like they were there before the prequels were made, when in "reality" they should build towards, ahem, "Episode IV".

None of the above stuck in my mind after repeated views of the movie. I find the album mostly sufficient and a proper representation of what the rest sounds like.

[Josh500]

So, after 43 members have cast their votes, the average ranking of the post-1999 JW blockbusters scores among jwfan.net members seems to be thus:

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
3. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
4. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
5. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
6. The Adventures of Tintin
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
8. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
9. Minority Report
10. War of the Worlds

Surprised? I am only surprised that RotS does so much better than Tintin...

[king mark]

Well, I don't think you can make that list from your poll

Seems about right but probably be

1)HPSS
2)TPM
3)PoA
4)Sith
5)AI

I prefer Sith to PoA

[Josh500]

Well, I don't think you can make that list from your poll

You kidding? Of course you can!

Just look at the results (so far). Every score is up against the same score... you just need to count the votes to draw up the list!

[Luke Skywalker]

and how do you rate tintin?

since its an option to all polls.

[Josh500]

and how do you rate tintin?

since its an option to all polls.

This poll/thread is about ranking/comparing scores.

Not rating them!

[tpigeon]

I enjoy the Tintin album very much, but I am puzzled by Williams' choice of concert arrangements. The dueling pirates theme is fun and whimsical but should it close the album? And why not a three or four minute suite for Haddock's theme and Tintin's theme? I know we're supposed to judge an album based on what's there rather than what we wish was there, but I have trouble getting over Williams' decisions, particularly considering that he put so much effort into coming up with so many unique themes.

If we're ranking based on albums, I'm putting this behind The Phantom Menace, Minority Report, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. A.I. is a better score and Williams' best in this time period, but the album is awful.

[Stefancos]

Actually it is one of the better albums. Enjoyable all the way though, no reprises, no big highlights missing.

[Josh500]

I enjoy the Tintin album very much, but I am puzzled by Williams' choice of concert arrangements. The dueling pirates theme is fun and whimsical but should it close the album? And why not a three or four minute suite for Haddock's theme and Tintin's theme? I know we're supposed to judge an album based on what's there rather than what we wish was there, but I have trouble getting over Williams' decisions, particularly considering that he put so much effort into coming up with so many unique themes.

I think you're overthinking it.

Yes, many of us were slightly disappointed that there is no concert arrangement of Tintin's Theme (myself included), but once you get past that, it's an enjoyable listen from start to finish!

[Jason LeBlanc]

I know we're supposed to judge an album based on what's there rather than what we wish was there

So do that...

[Stefancos]

The understated nature of Tintin's theme fits the character like a glove.

[tpigeon]

Actually it is one of the better albums. Enjoyable all the way though, no reprises, no big highlights missing.

That is a good description of the album. Williams really outdid himself in terms of thematic development and each track offers something a little bit different. Having said that, I wish we had an end credits suite or individual tracks for some of the major themes. In short, I want a Harry's Wondrous World or Hedwig's Theme that ties it all together. I really enjoy "The Adventure Continues" in its own right, but I have to wonder why Williams chose this piece to develop into a concert suite and not Haddock's or Tintin's theme.

Now, I should point out that I haven't seen the film yet, so maybe you're right and Tintin's theme is better suited to more modest statements throughout the album rather than a grand version like The Raiders March. So maybe there was good reason for Williams' decisions on the suites. But that is my only area of concern on this otherwise terrific soundtrack.