HunterTech

I saw a video recently that broke down where they might've had to change things:
 
 

OP arguably broke the "rules" (as if there's actually any) by listing a whole series, so take your smart ass remarks elsewhere

Given what has constituted as popular EDM these past couple of years, I unfortunately can't discredit this particular idea. Especially given Junkie was a bit of a known name in the electronic scene in his earlier days. Plus, those two remixes he did (the Elvis Presley song and the Buble Spider-Man theme cover) certainly put him in the spotlight.
 
I always wondered if the reason RCP has made their brand of scoring particularly popular is because they've made it in a way to where it's considerably more accessible to the average consumer. With how simpler the music constructions are, as well as emphasizing the poppier aspects of sound, it's like they cracked the code to making the regular joe pay regular attention instead of every once and a blue moon.
 
I do feel electronic music is its own art that very much functions on different parameters than regular music does. It kind of mirrors film scores in that sense, in that you have to dig around to find the real gems instead of sticking with whatever the popular offerings tend to be. And in the case of Holkenborg, he definitely fits the "flavor of the week" bill, alright.

Besides, I'm sure there exists plenty of cues where it starts off interesting, before it proceeds to be plodding and dull for the rest of its duration. So really, you have to take each score by its own terms before deciding to apply some arbitrary criteria (that quite frankly makes me wonder how you even got this far to begin with).

One more time.
People who vote for these awards are not score fans or music scholars. They are filmgoers.
The scores that tend to win are the ones that STAND OUT. In other words music that moved people while watching the film.
Scores that may sound " unmusical or " simple" often are the ones that get the viewers attention.
Scores like GRAVITY and JOKER command the listeners attention while more sophisticated/and or subtle scores might not be noticed.
 
 

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most acclaimed action films of the last decade. You know what the plot of that movie is? A woman stole a truck with a couple of other women and they are being chase by crazy people. That is literally the plot. I could have come up with that. But I bet I wouldn’t be able to execute that vision the way George Miller did. Art is not about complexity. It is about execution. If you think R&R didn’t execute correctly, that is fine. But this isn’t a complexity contest. If they claimed to be symphonic concert experts, then you have a point. As of now, they are film composers.

Flawed analogy. The SW example came within the same score where all the material was being introduced, whereas we had full years for us to sit with the BvS material before it got used in WW84.
 
There is a lot of intrigue in trying to figure out what Williams was exactly going for with that particular scene in ANH. Zimmer fully deciding to just keep it from the temp track wholesale because it's the "same universe" leaves little to the imagination, and just makes you wonder how the man goes about making these sorts of decisions often.
 
At least with the Pompeii track at the end, the arrangement is changed enough to where it fits in solidly with the rest of the score. Beautiful Lie essentially is just needle dropped, and I feel it's particularly frustrating because the following track (The Beauty In What Is) manages to capture the exact same emotions of that cue in its own way (particularly the alt version on the complete).

For sure. There's plenty of scores that didn't quite grab me at first that I quite like now. Music is also such a subjective experience even day to day. I could very simply listen to the wrong cue or score at the wrong time and think I hated it, but revisit at a better time to find that I really liked it.
 
And then there's the really special things that transcend that time and place thing. But I think it's silly to expect every score to rise to that level 

Also, there is such a thing as letting the music sit with you before you can really evaluate it. Lord knows how many scores I like that would've made little impression on the first listen. So if I find it just isn't grabbing me after a few tries, that's enough to tell me of the score's quality imo.

Flawed analogy. The SW example came within the same score where all the material was being introduced, whereas we had full years for us to sit with the BvS material before it got used in WW84.
 
There is a lot of intrigue in trying to figure out what Williams was exactly going for with that particular scene in ANH. Zimmer fully deciding to just keep it from the temp track wholesale because it's the "same universe" leaves little to the imagination, and just makes you wonder how the man goes about making these sorts of decisions often.
 
At least with the Pompeii track at the end, the arrangement is changed enough to where it fits in solidly with the rest of the score. Beautiful Lie essentially is just needle dropped, and I feel it's particularly frustrating because the following track (The Beauty In What Is) manages to capture the exact same emotions of that cue in its own way (particularly the alt version on the complete).

Given what has constituted as popular EDM these past couple of years, I unfortunately can't discredit this particular idea. Especially given Junkie was a bit of a known name in the electronic scene in his earlier days. Plus, those two remixes he did (the Elvis Presley song and the Buble Spider-Man theme cover) certainly put him in the spotlight.
 
I always wondered if the reason RCP has made their brand of scoring particularly popular is because they've made it in a way to where it's considerably more accessible to the average consumer. With how simpler the music constructions are, as well as emphasizing the poppier aspects of sound, it's like they cracked the code to making the regular joe pay regular attention instead of every once and a blue moon.
 
I do feel electronic music is its own art that very much functions on different parameters than regular music does. It kind of mirrors film scores in that sense, in that you have to dig around to find the real gems instead of sticking with whatever the popular offerings tend to be. And in the case of Holkenborg, he definitely fits the "flavor of the week" bill, alright.

That is such an inherently simple idea and progression that it's plausible both of them could've come up with it independently. Not to mention that the TDKR cue uses the established main two note motif for the series, so unless it's a TF3 situation (ironically a Jablonsky effort) where the themes from the score are thrown in to try and hide the temp, I'm sure it's just HZ messing around with his own themes further.

Having actually listened to Spirit recently for the first time, I'm not sure if I agree. WW84 definitely uses plenty of old HZ tricks, but I don't think it quite hit the 90s sensibilities that I explicitly got with S:SOTC.

I always figured themes C & D were supposed to be the motifs that defined the character, given their main presence at the end after Superman was written to have been fully formed. However, given Snyder then decided that the character suddenly wasn't gonna be himself until 4 films later, they basically have taken a backseat in BvS and ZSJL.

So really, themes A & B are probably the motifs of the character for the time being, though I'd argue people would more notice Clark's theme. Heck, that's where most of the re-interpretations of the MoS material are rooted in with ZSJL, as it gets more triumphant renditions there.

What Lara's theme is supposed to signify is beyond me, given its sudden usage in the climax of ZSJL. I suppose it's one that is designed to embody the wonder aspect of the character, given the emotion Kal is having for the main sequence it's used in with MoS. It definitely makes for an effective reintroduction of the character to the audience.

I can't help but wonder if the writer of that blogpost is being a bit charitable with some of these theme distinctions, given A and B are pretty much the same idea, just adjusted a bit. I will say that I can at least finally see where Zimmer was doing his "world of sounds" trick that endeared me to his Nolan Batman work so much with Superman.

EDIT: Thinking about it some more, I can see why C & D haven't gotten the usage that I feel they should, given it almost seems like they only really fit within action sequences or end titles. Part of the issue is the lack of any real variants with them, as they're completely absent in BvS, and C only gets a minor usage with ZSJL that basically is copy and pasted. So what I'd like to be the Superman theme basically just isn't within the current crop of the films.

For motifs (because that's what they actually are) that are so simple, this is a weirdly difficult question. We just might not know unless we get more Snyderverse films, or if someone bugs Zimmer or Holkenborg on what they intended as the center point of the scores.

Fascinating choice. There was the rumor that he was gonna do Scream 5, but I feel a project like this would probably transition him better to the mainstream (plus I'd rather that franchise keep being consistent with Beltrami at the helm).

If Beale Street Could Talk was decent when I watched the film and listened to the score, so I'm interested to see where he goes.

I actually found his unaltered AoU to be his strongest effort as a whole product, but I definitely feel IM3 and TDW have the stronger singular moments. Kind of like what I think of the Snyderverse scores, though those are definitely better than Tyler's general works.
 

IM1 has like 4 good cues in it, but I honestly didn't mind IM2. Definitely the most underrated main theme of the MCU, which makes it quite unfortunate it's not utilized a bit more within the score itself.

That's a fair assessment. It's nothing one could consider great, but Junkie put so much more effort here than anything else I've heard from him so far (Alita and ME can change that) that I do ultimately have to applaud him for making me actually like a RCP Snyderverse score.

I don't really get the Nolan Batman hate on this forum. Those movies really aren't that depressing aside from certain plot points, there's plenty of banter to lighten the mood every now and then, and not really sure what you mean by antiheroes? Every villain is pretty obviously crazy/evil, and Batman is pretty much comic book dark, but heroic Batman (not including the fucking awful voice in TDK and TDKR). 
 
TDKR hate I get because there's a lot of stupid lines/decisions, weird plot points, and a lame Talia Al Ghul. But I always thought BB and TDK were pretty solid in terms of capturing the Batman tone. Even Arkham Asylum, City and Origins aped quite a lot from the first 2 Nolan Batman movies. 

I ought to listen to that soon, given how much I didn't mind the few bits I heard. In the pantheon of Spidey themes, it's not particularly high. It's better than Pemberton's, but I think I get more of a kick out of Giacchino's and even Zimmer's theme. Granted, I had more time to sit with those, but at its core, Paesano's theme feels a bit more like standard superhero fare. But that's only one aspect, so I'll try to get my hands on the OST soon, given how massive the game rip is (with its own cue numbers, weirdly enough).

Marvel's Spider-Man by Joe Paesano. It is probably not the most distinctive of scores as far as the concept goes. Similarily to Arkham game scores, it seems to bring together the elements of different sounds from the big screen interpretations of the character - notably Elfman and MCU sound. The main theme isn't that distinctive but Paesano manages to create enough variations throughout to make it work. And it is quite memorable. The 80+ minute album is a big of a slog as you don't really need all of this but, for the most part, it feels more solid than the majority of current superhero music. So yeah, probably the least stylistically specific of Spider-Man scores but quite a pleasant one nonetheless.
 
And yes, it took me 2 and a half year to finally give it a listen. But I've found a high-res promo sitting on my hard drive the other day while looking for something else so decided to give it a chance.
 
 
Karol

For a bunch that all claim to hate modern cinema, you’re all miserable fucks. 

It was a movie that definitely appealed to me when I saw it in theaters as a little kid. But as I got older, and saw a lot of the criticism thrown at it, it's a film I only really have a slight nostalgic connection to at this point. The music is definitely the one thing I keep taking from it, as I find it incredibly appealing in spite of technically not being anything special (though I prefer X2 at this point). Otherwise, not a lot of incentive to revisit this one, besides if I ever do another Reeves marathon.

i think often composers include their own intended music on albums whereas the films have lot of tracking and  micro editing.

For one thing, do we have to pick one or the other? Why can't Marvel be the "popcorn" films that I don't need my brain for while DC is also something else that isn't a disaster? Marvel doesn't have to be more like DC to be enjoyable. And vice versa. I don't see anything wrong with liking both, but I don't think that is what you're saying necessarily but it's something on my mind.
 
Personally, I'd prefer a competent film, however mediocre. Marvel films are very competent at storytelling and growing their characters. Disasters never feel as good in my eyes, even if they have a vision. Ryan Gosling's Lost River, for example, has a very distinct vision and style, but is utterly incompetent at pulling it off. Therefore I will likely never watch it again. It's so much worse to see squandered potential to me than something that knows what it is and pulls it off well. At some point, the vision isn't worth a damn if I don't care an ounce about the characters and the story is utter nonsense. A "vision" means nothing to me if it is not pulled off with any sense of competency in the writing. Might as well have not had one at all. That's my thoughts on vision.
 
Back up that vision with solid writing and filmmaking and you've got a winner. Otherwise you have much farther to fall. I think Snyder's Justice League pulls off what Batman V Superman failed at.

Well. 1.) Just to make it clear: I don't think any Marvel film is a masterpiece. Even the best Marvel film in my eyes only really reaches a 7 or 8 on my overall scale. 2.) I'm not sure about the pandering. What kind of pandering are you meaning? To comic book fans? If so, I would never pick-up on that. I've never read a single Superhero comic in my life. The MCU is my only experience with most of these characters.
 
Sure, the overused plot devices can be eye-rolling, but I'd rather that than whatever convoluted bullshit that was Batman V Superman. It's a god damn superhero movie. I'm fine with them being more accessible for more ages. I think my thing is, I have no issues with Marvel doing their thing the way they do it and I also don't have an issue with DC taking their own darker more stylistic approach, but they still have to abide by some standards of decent writing and good character development. There's a reason why I feel so much more connected to the Marvel characters of the current series vs the DC ones. I grew up with DC. Not through the comics, but I had the old Superman films and had the cartoons and other stuff. You'd think I'd be more excited by the DCEU, but I can't get past the poor character development, convoluted stories, and silly writing. 
 
Marvel has silly writing too, but it doesn't feel as out of place in their world as it does in DC, where they demand to be taken more seriously.