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Smeltington

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Everything posted by Smeltington

  1. Smeltington
    I'm sure PJ made Thorin into a flawed character in the first film so he could have more of a character arc by the end of the trilogy. Although he already sort of had one just within the first film itself, when he learned to appreciate Bilbo at the end. But I guess he can still learn the same valuable lesson about the elves. Like many of the elements in the new films, there's a clear parallel to the old films - Thorin is more or less an equivalent to Aragorn, who needs to "come into his own," become a true hero, and reclaim his rightful kingdom. I think PJ felt he had to introduce some more character flaws to make that into more of a personal journey for him. It's interesting because reading the Hobbit book, Bard felt a lot like a prototype for the Aragorn character, so now the Hobbit films will have two Aragorn-like characters.
  2. Smeltington
    Dude! I need to go check out that library cue, then. Thanks for the info.
  3. Smeltington
    Thanks for posting, Jason! Your enthusiasm is great This reminds me I need to give a listen to the concert recording.
  4. Smeltington
    This is true for me too. I want everything I can get from all the Star Wars, Indy, and HP movies, plus other favorite scores like Hook or JP. When deciding what new Williams scores to buy, a complete score release makes it more tempting, perhaps because I know I probably won't have to buy another release of the score down the road if I do end up loving it. But I don't buy every Williams release, only those that I expect to ACTUALLY listen to. I buy a ton of non-film score music as well, and there's always so much I want to listen to that inevitably there are lower-priority albums I'll buy and not get around to listening to much. So I have to try and be realistic in deciding how much I really want a new CD before buying it. I haven't bought any of the recent releases for this reason - I listened to a few tracks from Missouri Breaks and it didn't seem like something I would honestly ever be in the mood for. I also have more music by John Williams than by any other artist, so it seems to make sense to only add to the collection when there's something I'm excited about.
  5. Smeltington
    Thanks for all the info, Prometheus and Incanus. Very interesting to know that he has written with such specific synth sounds in mind, even if it was only in rare instances.
  6. Smeltington
    Williams gives a loose description i.e. 'synth boob bam', 'sinister strings with slight phase', 'MIDI - Piano + Strings' etc. and Randy Kerber finds the sounds. Makes sense, although I wonder how he decides he wants synth for a specific part at all. How does he know what kinds of sounds are out there? For example, in HP, how did he know he wanted a synth celeste vs a real one? Maybe I'm not giving him enough credit, but it just seems a bit high-tech for his sensibilities. If memory serves, he did that for the brief 'techno' outburst in A.I. (although I can't remember who off the top of my head). I'm not sure what he did on, say, "Training Montage" from SPACECAMP and other examples. Williams has always been far more reserved than, say, Goldsmith in his use of synths (thankfully so, Goldsmith had no clue about what he was doing), but I would think it was mapped out beforehand. For A.I., was that part of Joseph Williams' contribution? I'll give "Training Montage" a listen. Ok, wow, Training Montage is like no John Williams cue I've ever heard before!
  7. Smeltington
    I'm curious how Williams would end up selecting such things as synth samples in his scores. It seems awfully "modern" for him. Is this the kind of thing he would consult with an engineer or somebody about during the composing process?
  8. Smeltington
    That would be great to see. I just now saw the video of Lyons playing for the first time and really enjoyed it - thanks for that, while we're on the subject
  9. Smeltington
    You typically hear the Fellowship theme during all Legolas's over-the-top action moments in LotR, which is the only worrisome thing. It could be one of those things like with the Nazgul theme - "oh it sounds awesome, throw it in!" But hopefully BloodBoal is right and he gets his own theme, or can just borrow a general Mirkwood elf theme. I also hope the Lothlorien theme doesn't crop up again, like it did in Hobbit 1. But I can wait and complain about that if it happens!
  10. Smeltington
    I wonder if there's any LotR music he'll insist on for Legolas. He wouldn't try and ask for the Fellowship theme... would he??
  11. Smeltington
    Get this... I ate Wheaties TODAY! Lately I've been eating them with dried fruit, it's rather nice.
  12. Smeltington
    "Vernon Gathers Family" turned out to be even more like "No Ticket" than Gilderoy Lockhart's theme. It's definitely rare to get such a carbon copy from Williams. There are plenty of examples where he seems to have gotten a similar idea to one he had in the past, but very few where he seems to be deliberately copying an older composition.
  13. Smeltington
    Saw this last night. I liked the Krypton scenes, and the origin story was handled well enough, but it was very point A to point B. It felt like they hit all the usual points of the story without making it flow naturally. I liked the visuals better than I expected, but even so, the last third of the film had some pretty low emotional stakes, with a bunch of invincible people battling each other and getting nowhere. The film could have used a clever Lex Luthor type to at least present Superman with some kind of intellectual challenge. The script was bland, and in spite of the "serious" tone, there were quite a few cheesy lines, especially from the villains - but without the sense of fun and wit that would have taken it into more enjoyable, campy territory in the vein of the Christopher Reeve films. Superman didn't get too many lines after the origin story finished, leaving him racing around doing what was expected of him without really commenting or reacting as events unfolded. This lent to the point A to point B feel mentioned earlier and made it even harder to stay engaged through the prolonged battle scenes. I haven't seen Superman Returns since its release, but if memory serves, I'd put this film on par with that one. Not a disaster, but not inspired either.
  14. Smeltington
    Azog is one ugly bug!
  15. Smeltington
    Wow, fascinating quotes... thanks for curating those, scallenger.
  16. Smeltington
    Some of my favourite variations on the theme in the Prequels. I also love the way he uses the Force Theme specifically for Obi Wan a lot more in the Episode III. I always thought Jango's Escape from Episode II could have used some more Force Theme but I guess Lucas was in his "let's do a slightly oriental percussion based action" mode so the ostinato driven action music was the result. Interesting, I didn't notice he was associating it more with Obi-Wan in RotS. I kind of figured he used the theme a lot in RotS because of all the "chosen one" destiny fulfillment going on - bringing balance to the Force, etc. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I watch the movie.
  17. Smeltington
    So many shots of the actors look like CG, I'm starting to wonder if a few of the shots might use real actors with some kind of processing that gives them that same smooth, plastic look. For example, toward the end when Legolas is firing arrows, or some of the shots of the dwarves in barrels.
  18. Smeltington
    That would be great to see, and very appropriate for this film especially.
  19. Smeltington
    I was speaking about the entire film in regard to the Force theme, but I will have to give this cue another listen sometime.
  20. Smeltington
    0:26 Bilbo in the butterflies. Nice shot I like Smaug so far, as well, and you still can't see him too clearly since he's silhouetted. So they gave away more than I expected, but there's still a lot more to reveal, including his voice.
  21. Smeltington
    The shot of the dudes walking on the huge dwarf statue is nice, though it's kinda the Argonath again. The shots of the Mirkwood elfy stuff are also nice, though it looks a lot like Lothlorien again.
  22. Smeltington
    There's a heavy focus on action scenes in this trailer, and they look good in a lot of ways... easier to tell what's going on than some of your typical PJ action scenes. But they seem to use almost exclusively CG actors in them :'(
  23. Smeltington
    I just realized, if this trilogy mirrors the first one, that means AUJ will end up being my favorite. And that's not good!
  24. Smeltington
    Here a Legolas, there a Legolas, everywhere a Legolas
  25. Smeltington
    Great pics, Jason. Looks like a lot of fun!
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