MikeH

Same reason why, generally, some people are still wearing masks in public: They might be concerned about losing work (if they catch COVID), especially as session musicians who don’t always have a predictable and stable income. Some are older, have a weaker immune system or have other underlying conditions and want to take an extra precaution for themselves. I don’t see any issue with it, it’s a personal choice for them to make.

You don't show your face around here for a bit and this is the respect I get...
 
This is why I need you to defend my good name!

I picked up 4k Avatar 1 and 2 for my home theater room. Started 1 tonight. I’m impressed at how well it has aged, from a technical/visual standpoint. There are so many gorgeous shots, it makes me wish Cameron would have lingered on them longer. Dolby atmos is enthralling from the first few seconds. Horner’s score is still goosebump inducing. When Jake first transfers to his Avatar and is running, I feel it with him, the new world that’s just been opened up to him. The score makes this Wizard of Oz esque about face, from black and white milataristic hopelessness, to full color audio, organic and full of life. 
 
I can’t wait to watch Way of Water again. My first viewing at my rural, crappy, under-maintained theater was a let down. I’m sure the experience will be better at home. I think  Tom Cruise would even understand if he saw what I had to put up with at the local cinema… 

I cannot fathom how anyone can get mad at anybody for an interview blurb. Kathleen Kennedy can call Spielberg Steve instead of Steven and y'all will act like she kicked your grandma, your puppy, and your groin in that order.

star wars fans go a thread without mentioning star wars challenge: impossible.

The big problem with this discussion is that people refuse to engage with the actual information that exists. The artistry of the film composer is so romanticized here that the notion that it could be a team effort is not given any modicum of respect. I can understand being underwhelmed with the end result much of the time, but when you ignore times when the composing process and difficulties with the studio is actually discussed from credible sources, it speaks of someone who has a serious grudge instead of having any legitimate grievances with the system. If this sounds too unreasonable as an observation, then I really don't know what to say that wouldn't be us regurgitating the same points.

Not true, dude.
I would say that the "John Williams sound", as we know it, started with the likes of HOW TO STEAL A MILLION, and HEIDI, and continued with THE REIVERS, and THE COWBOYS.
As I've said; there are traces of THE TOWERING INFERNO in THE EIGER SANCTION, THE FURY, and DRACULA, as well as STAR WARS and SUPERMAN.
 
The Disaster box is worth getting, @Trope, even if it's an investment.
 
Nice to see you back, @MikeH.
Great avatar, as always 

New video with closeups
 
https://twitter.com/michaelwarbur17/status/1669341420195397632

Yes, I thought was interesting too! Glad he had the cataracts removed. I hear from others who have had that it is truly altering to see more colors. I hope JW is getting the joy of that experience.
 
 
Thanks.
 
Really, there was way too much going on to even process everything. With my fellow IndyCasters who I have not seen since 2020 (or even longer ago), being out on the red carpet. Getting to meet Ke Huy Quan (Short Round) after the movie. The person who organizes these events for Disney is married to one of my former students, and that person spotted me in photos from the organizer and then told him to go meet me, to being steps from one of the actresses in the film. 
 
Still, while I had predicted the appearance of the Maestro to play music, by the time the event started, I had forgotten about that and then the curtain rose to reveal him and 80+ musicians. 
 
In terms of the music in the film and without giving spoilers (other than locations but all of which are in the trailer): First off, it's generally audible most of the time it plays. There is a lot of it as Mangold has told us, and still there are some action sequences where no music was used (not dissimilar to Star Wars when the music drops out). I do suspect those moments had music scored for them and the absence now was editorial. (I'm already pining for unreleased music!) The first 20% of the which takes place in the 40s is pretty much all scored and many old themes and motifs from the franchise can be heard winding their way through the action. I'm not entirely sure when we get to hear this separately (if we do) that it will feel very coherent though as I got a sense of jumping around a bit. It works in the movie though, and I wonder about it as a listening experience without the film.
 
As I hoped and guessed on our recent podcast, the sound and music of the era made appearances at times including one key early moment as the movie transitioned to 1969. That is not at all a decision by JW - it was clearly in the script as the music diegetic - but in terms of the overall score of the picture it worked. Generally after that the score charted to some new areas and themes. Helena's music is very differently used than say Marion's theme and different pieces of it the suite we have heard since last summer show up in the right spots with varying orchestrations, tempos and blends with other themes. I liked that. This felt similar to how the Solo suite was used as a basis for numerous moments in that film. Of course the difference being JW's own use of his themes vs. Powell's (which was still quite good).
 
There are plenty of action sequences and one in particular was scored in a manner that JW would have done in the late 60's or early 70's. I felt vibes of Lalo Schifrin and some amount of homage to The French Connection and similar films set in NY in that era. I found that refreshing although perhaps a bit of an oddity compared to to the rest of the score.
 
Definitely heard shades of Tintin when the film was in North Africa which was either how JW scores all those locales or was his own homage to his past work. I suspect the former. It was not a straight lift or anything blatant and worked with the action.
 
Probably missing for me was a clear statement of themes for the Dial itself (although I think it is there) or Voller, the main bad guy. 
 
A few times, clearly Mangold just let the music dominate as much as the visuals would allow. Not to the level of Spielberg (e.g. the Truck Chase, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra, the jungle chase stuff in Skull), but not as infrequent as in the recent Star Wars films.
 
Overall, highly satisfied and looking forward to whatever we get on the soundtrack (which is going to woefully inadequate unless there is a surprised deluxe digital version) and looking forward to deciding where this sits amongst the other 4 films. 
 
 

Williams's quip about the musicians: "you can discover they are actually people".
 
I wonder if that was a sly barb against the current (over)reliance on synthetics to score films. 

I don't know if I'd even agree with the list of who you are saying had sizzling careers then blew out.  Just because they aren't scoring the blockbusters doesn't mean they blew out.  The composers you mentioned are all in fact very successful.  Honestly the answer comes down to a simple detail that to be scoring big blockbusters, you have to be a very good businessman and have that networking, socializing temperament.  Many composers don't really care for that and would rather be selective and picky but do projects that resonate with them artistically and sacrifice some income to gain more creative freedom and some form of a life.  Some of those you mentioned were former employers or teachers of mine and they are doing very well, just might not be in the sort of projects you care about or that catapult them to A list territory.  

THE TOWERING INFERNO sounds absolutely brilliant!
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE is much improved, and it has the first release of the score (as heard in the film) of EARTHQUAKE.
Obviously, the sound won't compare with a score recorded yesterday, but they are all very good scores.
THE TOWERING INFERNO is my third favourite JW score, and if that's not a recommendation, then I don't know what is 
Buy it, if you can!!!
 
 
It's easy to trace the lineage of these scores, through to THE EIGER SANCTION, BLACK SUNDAY, and beyond, all the way to THE FURY and DRACULA.

"What are those strange sounding things? The things that sound like musical instruments? How disorienting!"
 
 

Dude ain't use to woodwinds in a feature score.  

I take it as "The Imperial March is the best Star Wars song". I laughed at his comment, Pieter.

Why does putting a piece of plastic in a player overwrite what you wrote before that?

Love this cue !
 
 

Once Spielberg was out and Mangold was in, I fully had my defenses up that John Williams wouldn't do it and the movie probably wouldn't be that great anyway so whatever, I just tried to get ready not to care too much if he didn't do it. 
 
Also I already went through the whole process of listening to Rise of Skywalker as though it would be the last time we got a score as loaded as this. Not to mention looking forward to every score through the 2010s and just hoping for his good health as he marched through his 80s. We say this kind of shit all the time but it bears repeating, it's really unfathomable on all levels to me that we're here. 

I’m not sure I like the attitude emanating from this thread. After everything JW has given us in his eight-decade-spanning career, hasn’t he earned the benefit of the doubt? Can’t we wait until we see the film or listen to the OST before worrying that JW has somehow let us down? And even if it turns out a couple minutes in his two-hour pencil-on-paper score are lifted, does that diminish the fact that that lifted music stands head and shoulders above what nearly anyone else on the planet could write?
 
We continue to get so much from the man and somehow it’s never quite enough. Fucking ingrates.