Leaderboard

Praising Nolan's action? Sigh. "LOL OMG real stuff=gr8 ackshun!" Skyfall had wonderfully directed action.

Oh, we agree on that, but then don't say it fits very well with LOTR look wise, that's all. The general look and feel of Middle Earth, the set design do match. Many character designs have a different, lighter vibe too it. It works for me.

No its great. PJ maintained the general look and feel of Middle Earth, but detailed The Hobbit so it works on its own terms. Bombur looks right for The Hobbit. It doesnt matter if the look would not have worked for LOTR.

Actually i find it one of the movies strengths. It does fit very well with LOTR, looks wise.

Its quite a wonderful film actually, but it doesnt seem to appeal to middle America. Oh well, i'm sure they will love Planes!

The Misty Mountains Theme (=The Company Theme) really transforms from a song melody into a fully fledged theme the instant the dwarves and Bilbo leave the Shire. I would say the song in itself is a motto that the dwarves have been obsessing over for a long time and would make sense that their intention and goal would be readily realized in full form when they begin their journey, the diegetic music transforming into score and finding a new very solid subtext immediately. This is actually an interesting move from the film makers. Whether or not the integration is entirely succesful is up to each listener of course. I feel that sometimes it works in the first film sometimes it doesn't. It feels to me as well that the song wasn't the first option for the Company Theme when they started to craft the score but after the overwhelmingly good reaction when used in the first trailer PJ must have felt that it had the right resonance with the audience.

Of course he does. Moon Runes is just one example. The White Council another. Even those statements simply seem like obligatory references to the theme. Never do we hear fragmented statements in any of the action sequences or the emotional moments as you would hear in the original trilogy. Except the Fellowship was fragmented in TTT and part of ROTK. I don't think you should take the music so literally. You make it sound like you can only make fragmented statements of the theme when the fellowship/company is fragmented. That's an irrelevant detail to me. If all I get to hear is the bold Misty Mountains theme shouting out heroically all the time, then it sounds static and soon begins to wear out its welcome. Its why the Fellowship Theme is so successful, because it's always there in different forms, evolving. It feels like its PART of the ever-changing story. The Plan 9 theme just pops in to say hello every now and then for the obligatory heroism. Does it sound awesome? Yes. But it doesn't last. I thought Bilbo's Adventure was the theme from A Very Repectable Hobbit? Same theme my friend. Bilbo's Adventure plays out for the first 40 seconds of "A Very Respectable Hobbit". It is then further expanded into a more robust, adventurous variation in "Erebor".

Not all Bonds are action films, although that became the norm once Harry Saltzman left.

Those are two fine cues. I finally have an original copy of the score in the mail. I hope you didn't skip the fantastic Hallelujah Trail ouverture.

The drone of the world engine is a fascinating sound. From what I've gleaned from this thread at Gearslutz it's partly sampled from acoustic sources (possibly things like car engines or the buzz of a wasp) and partly synthesised. The synthetic part is created through granular synthesis, an exciting and relatively unexplored (in film scores and pop music) means of sound creation. Here, sound is reduced to tiny grains, and the density, size and overlapping of these grains can all be controlled in real-time. The world engine effect is also randomly autopanned (explaining how it quickly swoops from one ear to the other), time-stretched, pitched down, and has a couple of LFOs at work (some for pitch, others for filter cutoff). An LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) is basically a low soundwave (usually a sinewave) below the threshold of human hearing, and like a ripple, it can create tremolo, vibrato or 'wah wah' effects. @ 2:08 If I were to notate it, I'd have it in 12/8, with the C-Eb-C octave figure in the bass taking up 3 dotted semiquavers (1 1/2 bars), with the world engine motif on the last two beats of the second bar - 3 Eb/Ab triplet quavers to same dotted crotchet. Although Zimmer didn't create this sound himself, the way he uses it as a signature for Zod and his cohorts' ruthless efficiency and their inhumanity, is quite ingenious. IIRC, it's used in the following moments: - Zod storms the Kyrptonian council - Zod kills Jor-El - Faora fights Kal-El in Smallville - Zod activates his heat vision

Yes I am really impressed by your combined sleuthing and information gathering every time Thor and Miguel. Great stuff.

A few things amigo. First, I appreciate the time and thought you've taken to rip me a new one. Seeing that I'm just starting out at this, that's probably the most attention anyone's given to the site yet. Way to go you! Second, no I don't have a rating system that makes sense... honestly I don't think rating systems really can make perfect sense. Or at least there will always be holes to pick in them. I look at each score individually and go with my gut for a rating. If I like it, it's okay in my book and it doesn't matter if it's Williams or Djawadi. If you try to compare 4 star reviews... sure it's going to piss you off. And my credibility? None whatsoever. I'm not someone who has studied this academically nor someone who's spent time working in the industry. I'm just a 19 year old kid from the East Coast who's been obsessed with film music for as long as I can remember and has listened to a lot of it. It's my passion and that's why I started this site. Not to please everyone. (You've also mentioned just a few of my favorites, like Star Trek: The Motion Picture... “The Enterprise" is my ringtone.) Happy listening and thanks to everyone who's been supportive!