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Grade Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by John Williams


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Grade Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by John Williams  

75 members have voted

  1. 1. Grade Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by John Williams

    • A+ (100%)
      6
    • A (95%)
      12
    • A- (90%)
      17
    • B+ (89%)
      6
    • B (85%)
      10
    • B- (80%)
      7
    • C+ (79%)
      7
    • C (75%)
      4
    • C- (70%)
      2
    • D+ (69%)
      0
    • D (65%)
      0
    • D- (60%)
      0
    • F (0%)
      4


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The movie is out, the score is out, it is time to grade away this new work by John Williams!

Grade away!

Click here to see past and overall poll statistics

Available Press Reviews

Soundtrack.Net - 4/5

MusicFromTheMovies.com - 3.5/5

Soundtrack Express - 4.5/5

MusicFromTheMovies.com - 3.5/5

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I went for B. I really like it, and there's a lot of great stuff on there, and certainly nothing I'd consider bad, but it's just lacking a couple of killer tracks to push it up to an A.

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Yes. I like it very much.

I haven't voted or seen the movie yet, but that is also how I feel after listening to the album several times. The new themes are very good, but the action cues are lacking.

There's just nothing that stands up to the best of the first three, even though The Jungle Chase tries really hard to live up to his big brothers.

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After listening to the album a few more times ,it's growing up from it's initial B status.

I'll vote after I see the film

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A

Just finished listening to the album for the first time. And I'm loving it :mrgreen:

I like the new performance of Raider's March. Marion's theme seems even more lush. New concert pieces are quite good, all three of them. Overall, I like this score more than any of the prequels (yes, TPM included). I'm happy :P

(A+ is only for Jaws, Close Encounters and Superman, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders, Jane Eyre and few others)

Karol

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It's a great score, and I'd say equal with Last Crusade. The other 2 I hold as A+ scores while 3 and 4 are A scores. There was plenty of creepy underscore, which was really more effective than any of the creepy music in Last Crusade. It was more like ROTL in musical tone.

The new "machine" music at the last reel was all fantastic. The new concert suites are evocative and great.

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Once I get the chance to listen to a film edited version of the CD a few times and see the movie again I'd be surprised if my initial B grade doesn't go up.

John- who would rate all three of the other scores A+

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JW did a very good job, IMO. I give it a solid A. I was disappointed that the movie didn't allow for JW to have a bigger role in the storytelling - something that Speilberg did in different ways with the first 3 films. Too much time in the caves in the last hour and that's conveyed on the soundtrack. So it was a good score but less satisfying musically than the other scores, where there was more of a chance to breath life and emotion into their movies. But adjusting for the movie that JW was given, JW gave the movie a very good score with only very minor quibbles.

- Adam

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Final Grade:A- After hearing the score in the film

Points deducted for the rehashed Raiders and LC music ,which I found even more annoying than the ESB music in RotS

Raiders A+

ToD:A+

LC:A

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After only a couple of listens of a preliminary film edit it's already floating into B+/A- territory for me. I wish I had waited to vote.

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A-. Deep respect to come up with such a score for such a movie. And Williams did it again - I can't get Irina Splako's theme out of my head. Only thing is there aren't as many melodic action scherzo's as there were in the prequels.

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After listening to the score several times, watching the film once, then re-ordering the score in chronological order and listening to that, my opinion definitly improved. At first I was surprisingly disappointed, but I'm beginning to like it a lot more. Right now I'll go for B+ with ToD, RotLA and LC rating A+, A and A- respectively. My favourite original Indy score changes every now and then though, but right now I do think that the KotCS OST is slightly below the others as far as quality and instant enjoyability is concerned. I think the score is better in it's complete form though and I might eventually consider it on par with the others.

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I give a C...

Who is responsible of such a mess ? Why any Lucas productions there is a re-use of earlier score ? Why should we have "the map room down" again ? Why there is a track from "A.I." ? Why there is a note for note "War of the worlds" ? Why there is "Flight from Peru" ? Why there is motifs from "Hook" ? Why "grave robbers" sounds like a disguised "riding the lizard"? Why since "jurassic park" all the action cues sounds the same, with its flutes/xylophone punctuations ???

Is it so far the time of Raiders of the Lost Ark ? ...

I haven't disliked the film , is it clear that the film show IJones as a witness of his time , but the quotations of the score are distractive and somewhat disapointing ....

Sorry for who loves the score, but it is my opinion , not the best opinion , simply my opinion ...

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Well having seen the movie, my disappointment with this score bottomed out. I will give it a D+.

This was one of the most unmemorable and yet somehow obtrusive John Williams scores I've heard in a while. And I honestly believe all these A's are just a current novelty.

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it's worth much more than a D+ .You don't seem like a Williams fan at all sometimes because you only post about how much you hate his music except for PoA.

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and Star Wars...

and Empire Strikes Back....

and Return of the Jedi....

and Images...

and Raiders of the Lost Ark

and The Temple of Doom

and The Last Crusade

and The Lost World

and Seven Years in Tibet

and Schindler's List

and The Phantom Menace

and The Sorcerer's Stone

and Far and Away

and Superman

and E.T.

and The Towering Inferno

and Nixon

and The Fury....

and JFK...

I look at film music as a story-telling device and analyse it as such...if the shoe does not fit...it sucks.

What is the composers' goal, is it a worthy goal, and does he achieve the goal?

This score as a film score is no better than a media ventures effort. It has no charm, no unique qualities, it's merely interchangeable with half a dozen other JW films. It's only saving grace is the complexity with which it was written, and that's about the only thing that sets it apart from being a MV score.

Otherwise, you know you're listening to a lame score when you're getting flashbacks to tripods from War of the Worlds in an Indiana Jones film. Or you're watching a motorcycle chase in the 50s while wondering why you keep thinking of Harry Potter or Viktor Navorski and young Anakin Skywalker. Or there is a chase sequence, and you're going through football strategy.

Where is the Russian flavor? Where is the Mesoamerican flavor? Hell it's a soup without even salt.

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I dunno,KotCS album keeps getting better and better with each listen for some reason.

Here's where it stands in post 2000 Williams

1-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2-Revenge of the Sith

3-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban

*4-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*

5-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

6-The Patriot

7-Attack of the Clones

8-The Terminal

9-Memoirs of a Geisha

10-Munich

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I dunno,KotCS album keeps getting better and better with each listen for some reason.

Here's where it stands in post 2000 Williams

1-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2-Revenge of the Sith

3-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban

*4-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*

5-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

6-The Patriot

7-Attack of the Clones

8-The Terminal

9-Memoirs of a Geisha

10-Munich

And A.I....

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I'd say it goes:

1. Prisoner of Azkaban

2. Sorcerer's Stone

3. Catch Me If You Can

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

5. Chamber of Secrets

6. Revenge of the Sith

7. The Terminal

8. Attack of the Clones

9. Minority Report

10. A.I.

Numbers 4, 5, and 6 are pretty interchangable at the moment, but they're all brilliant.

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  • 9 months later...

I rated it a 90. IMO, it's a good score, but seems to be missing something to put it over the top. Like most of Williams' newer efforts, they're good, but lack a thematic unity that they used to have for the most part. Still, I like them, they're just different. Oddly, my opinion of the movie is that it was pretty good, until it started feeling more like a bastardized sequel to CEot3K than an Indy sequel.

If we're going 0-100, then:

Raiders: 97

Temple: 95

Crusade: 95

Crystal: 90

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I see my grade was floating around a lot, which is not surprising when digesting a new score. Now that we've had some time I'll stick with my original B vote, though it's closer to B- than B+.

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it's worth much more than a D+ .You don't seem like a Williams fan at all sometimes because you only post about how much you hate his music except for PoA.

To be a fan shouldn't means that we have to be deaf , in my opinion I like the 70 ~ 84 period, Williams did consitant unforgottable scores, our days there is just only few ... :lol: And KOCS isn't one of them ...

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I'm being nice and gave it a C+. It pales in comparison to the other three though.

I concur. My long-term opinion is that it has some really nice set pieces, but also some parts I find incredibly boring and uneventful (no matter how technically dazzling it may be), and all of that brings down its overall rating.

It's also the only one of the four scores that I rearranged, edited and renamed to hell and back.

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I dunno,KotCS album keeps getting better and better with each listen for some reason.

Here's where it stands in post 2000 Williams

1-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2-Revenge of the Sith

3-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcaban

*4-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull*

5-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

6-The Patriot

7-Attack of the Clones

8-The Terminal

9-Memoirs of a Geisha

10-Munich

at least you put HPSS where is belongs, above POA.

I gave IJKOTCS a C. Its a perfectly ok score, not great not bad. It has a few outstanding moments but mostly it is a forgettable store, it still stands tall compared to s**t like Munich, but I will probably never listen to it much. Like Neil, I'm tired of Raiders, and TOD is the only one I really want to listen too. Im giving one copy of KOTCS to my sister, I hope she forgives me.

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A solid B for me. I don't find it to be true greatness when compared to Williams' best work, but I certainly enjoy it more than most composers' stuff - especially in complete form.

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Gave it a B-, which is probably a bit unfair given its quality compared to scores out there like "300", but whereas I listen to the first three scores all the time, I very rarely go back to "Crystal Skull"; it simply doesn't have many highlights for me...

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