Jump to content

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2?


Zach

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 977
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Well, I renewed my Horner fandom with Avatar, Spiderwick Chronicles and The Four Horsemen

With that I know he could pull of a great Potter score

LEGEND OF ZORRO and NEW WORLD are also winners in my book.

Williams modern action writing really sucks..except for parts of WOTW it's all for the dogs. NO MORE XYLOPHONES!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<br>Well, I renewed my Horner fandom  with Avatar, Spiderwick Chronicles and The Four Horsemen<br><br>With that I know he could pull of  a great Potter score<br>
<br><br>I'd hate a Potter score based on Avatar. For one thing, I think the action material in that score is entirely devoid of any personality.<br><br>Plus I've heard that Horner took <i>Spiderwick</i> because he didn't want to do Potter. Not sure where I read it, but just chucking it in the ring.<br><br>
<br>Williams modern action writing really sucks..except for parts of WOTW it's all for the dogs. NO MORE XYLOPHONES!<br>
<br><br>It's not great, really. Nothing he does sounds serious at all because of those damn xylophones. I think the troll fight in HPPS is inappropriate for the scene because it doesn't even remotely convey the idea that this troll is actually rather life threatening.<br>
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Desplat rocks, period.

Did he compose a superior Potter score to the three Williams' ones? Of course not, but he wrote a damn good film score, something we don't get anymore from these kind of movies. I appreciate he mantained his own peculiar voice and avoided aping Williams' stylings.

A Horner Potter score? Mm, it would have sound like a zillion other things, so thank god we didn't got one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Horner blew his last chance for me with Avatar. As soon as I heard the danger motif over the first shot of Pandora I knew it was going to be the same old same old. I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing so I wouldn't have to explain why I was laughing to the people I was with. :P

Two British composers I really wish had gotten a crack at Potter, both would have been excellent: David Arnold and Murray Gold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Horner blew his last chance for me with Avatar. As soon as I heard the danger motif over the first shot of Pandora I knew it was going to be the same old same old. I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing so I wouldn't have to explain why I was laughing to the people I was with. :P

Same reaction here. I actually find many parts of the score to be rather compelling...and it's not his most directly self-plagiaristic work...but still, it's nothing especially new.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I must say I'm just very disappointed. As someone who is not only a Harry Potter fanatic, but also a John Williams fanatic, this final movie was going be epic for me. I know that it will still be fine, but even if you look at the flaws of the first 3 films, the music still makes them fantastic.

I wanted the ending of the series to feel more or less "full-circle" and had a lot of hope after JW's comments about his interest in the final HP film.

Oh well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Horner's Avatar score quite a bit. I don't really mind the use of the danger motif, because I think the only similarity is a very superficial one - the notes themselves. The harmony, the style, and the use in the score is completely different (correct me if I'm wrong - I'm assuming all the previous uses of the danger motif have been similar to the ones used in Star TRek II?). Does it even represent danger in the film? To me it seemed more like despair. Similarly, I don't mind at all Horner's reuse of his Bicentennial Man in A Beautiful Mind, because the mood it invokes is entirely different.

My favorite part of Avatar is the wonderful love theme, especially as heard in "Becoming One with The People." Absolutely gorgeous, and one of the best Horner cue's I've ever heard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was obvious that if they cant get Williams they will stay with Desplat and i would have supported them but then i heard his Part1 soundtrack..........

After such a dissapointing listening experience i have to say: "What a pity to get Desplat again :P" There would be so many other good choices possible. And after the probably most unmemorable Potter score continuity between Part1 and 2 is for nothing now, makes not even sense anymore. He created nothing memorable worthy of continuity treatment for this soundtrack and now he does the last Part and will probably struggle hard. We all knew before that he can't write action that well.

How shall such a subtle, themeless, unmemorable and boring Desplat underscore work for an action film (2/3 are action) and the finale of an eight movie franchise. I have no idea at all.

Holy shit, just shut up.

We all knew he can't write action well? Seriously?! You confessed you haven't heard a SINGLE other score by him. Listen to Hostage or Fantastic Mr. Fox. Fuck, listen to ANYTHING by him. You don't have the right to talk shit based on 1 hour of music out of a long career.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it couldn't be Williams, i'm happy its Desplat. Nay-sayers be damned, part 1 is a fine score and i look forward to hearing how the many motifs and thematic ideas are expanded into part 2.

Also Sky battle is the best action HP cue since PoA, and one of the highlights of the DH score. Open your ears people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted John to score it, but he's not so it's easy to deal with it. At least Desplate has talent unlike some cough zimmer cough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was away for the weekend so I'll just make some quick points.

Richard, Williams was so enamored with the book for Geisha he had planned on approaching Yo Yo Ma and writing a piece based on the book alone for Ma to perform with him.

Bruce Broughton would have been a great choice for Potter

I've always felt that a Horner styled Potter might sound like his score to Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holy shit, just shut up.

We all knew he can't write action well? Seriously?! You confessed you haven't heard a SINGLE other score by him. Listen to Hostage or Fantastic Mr. Fox. Fuck, listen to ANYTHING by him. You don't have the right to talk shit based on 1 hour of music out of a long career.

Oh boy :P, you should better say:

I'm such a Desplat fanboy that i can't cope with critic and as i have no proper arguments myself for serious discussion i start shouting and using bad language.

In short: Get your things together and accept this score is a huge waste of opportunities and dissapointment for me. I have seen some Desplat scored films in the cinema and i never even noticed anything worthy of relistening before. The scores fit these films like gloves (which is positive) but never shine on their own or take center stage (which is bad cause it's no fun to listen to them outside of the movie).

For me there obviously is no desire (after this Potter) to check out more Desplat in the near future (except DHpart2). Sky battle is a well orchestrated, enjoyable mish mash and probably one of the best tracks on this album but i would take JW on action autopilot every time over this track.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sky battle is a well orchestrated, enjoyable mish mash and probably one of the best tracks on this album but i would take JW on action autopilot every time over this track.

Why? Neither SKY BATTLE nor THE WEREWOLF SCENE (to take a random Williams pick) are anything to write home about.

At the risk of arousing KM's wrath again, Williams isn't that great in the action department at present. The resident courtiers will disagree, of course, but apart from moments in WOTW and the odd set piece here and there in the prequels, which scene-specific action music by JW wasn't a clustered, sometimes downright messy, affair? (let's say since LOST WORLD)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not many weren't, but in both Desplat's and Williams' defenses, most action scenes these days are weak and lazily conceived, even if they appear to be "setpieces".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was watching a bit of Avatar last night and I swear I heard John Barry King Kong in there.

There is a video on youtube that compares the two but I think it's a bit of a stretch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the recent premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 1, this information has come about:

On John Williams not returning for Deathly Hallows - Part 2, director David Yates said that in order for John to have returned, he would've needed to provide John with a rough cut of the film sooner than was possible. Their schedules simply did not align, but he did make it clear both Williams and Yates wanted to work with each other.

Source: http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/3948

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sky battle is a well orchestrated, enjoyable mish mash and probably one of the best tracks on this album but i would take JW on action autopilot every time over this track.

Why? Neither SKY BATTLE nor THE WEREWOLF SCENE (to take a random Williams pick) are anything to write home about.

At the risk of arousing KM's wrath again, Williams isn't that great in the action department at present. The resident courtiers will disagree, of course, but apart from moments in WOTW and the odd set piece here and there in the prequels, which scene-specific action music by JW wasn't a clustered, sometimes downright messy, affair? (let's say since LOST WORLD)

Messy is the word I'd use for some of JW's recent action material. He shoves xylophones, woodwinds and pretty random brass bursts which really take the music out of the film for me.

The Werewolf Scene actually make me cringe a bit during the part where Lupin actually transformers. The music descends into a load of timpani hits and metal clangs that ruin for me some pretty neat stuff going on with the actual orchestra. Then when it's actually meant to be serious (there's like, a werewolf running around trying to kill them, John?), we get some rather bright percussion, followed by what I'd describe as 4 brass players improvising for 10 seconds.

On most occasions he's musically excellent, but sometimes not very appropriate for the scene. He ruins both for me with this cue.

The medieval stuff and Buckbeak's material is great, but the action stuff is why I think PoA is really overrated. It's messy and almost never conveys the real emotions of the scene. Add this to the fact that I think his golden days are well behind him, and you can see why I'm not a huge fan these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love modern Williams action music. While its more complex and more frantic than some of his other stuff, I never think of it as random hits, particularly not the stuff from the Potter films. "Quidditch, Third Year," "The Quidditch Match," and "The Chess Game" are amongst his finest action cues IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love modern Williams action music. While its more complex and more frantic than some of his other stuff, I never think of it as random hits, particularly not the stuff from the Potter films. "Quidditch, Third Year," "The Quidditch Match," and "The Chess Game" are amongst his finest action cues IMO.

The first one is really a fugue, classical in form, the second one is basically a theme showpiece (albeit rather bumpy in spots) and the third one uses a steady rhythm (and Alex North) as basing ground - all not characteristic for modern Williams action writing. Not that there is anything wrong with complex and frantic but i have my quivering little doubts that anyone on this board would go off on this stuff if it wasn't for the big looming credit "Composed and Conducted by John Williams". The other thing is that cues like the werewolf scene mentioned do not even work that great in the movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish I were more interested in Potter music if only to get involved with the bitching goin' on in here.

As it is, I'm far more excited about the upcoming Williams Tintin score (action! adventure! comedy! suspense!) than I am disappointed that he's not returning to Potter. Which I'm not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love modern Williams action music. While its more complex and more frantic than some of his other stuff, I never think of it as random hits, particularly not the stuff from the Potter films. "Quidditch, Third Year," "The Quidditch Match," and "The Chess Game" are amongst his finest action cues IMO.

The first one is really a fugue, classical in form, the second one is basically a theme showpiece (albeit rather bumpy in spots) and the third one uses a steady rhythm (and Alex North) as basing ground - all not characteristic for modern Williams action writing. Not that there is anything wrong with complex and frantic but i have my quivering little doubts that anyone on this board would go off on this stuff if it wasn't for the big looming credit "Composed and Conducted by John Williams". The other thing is that cues like the werewolf scene mentioned do not even work that great in the movie.

I agree that "Werewolf Scene" isn't a great cue, but I think that's the exception rather than the other action cues I mentioned I loved. For instance, I think most modern action cues use rhythm as a basing ground - it is then developed throughout. Cues that come to mind that do this include "General Greivous," "Chase Through Couruscant," "Jango's Escape," "John Anderton's Excape," etc...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish I were more interested in Potter music if only to get involved with the bitching goin' on in here.

As it is, I'm far more excited about the upcoming Williams Tintin score (action! adventure! comedy! suspense!) than I am disappointed that he's not returning to Potter. Which I'm not.

Same here.

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I guess, for the 1000th time, we can put this to rest.

5,264th time by last count. ;)

Even so, it still felt like a little something died when I read that.

It wasn't such a long shot after all. Just scheduling conflicts.

Que sera, sera.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For instance, I think most modern action cues use rhythm as a basing ground - it is then developed throughout. Cues that come to mind that do this include "General Greivous," "Chase Through Couruscant," "Jango's Escape," "John Anderton's Excape," etc...

Some of them are good (who's denied that), but by and large Williams' writing often is not very coherent for those scenes (the Grievous cues would be a typical example of his overly busy and fragmented action style of late)...additionally, those pieces often awkwardly segue into each other on the soundtrack.

I listen to a lot of stuff, so the intrinsicate study of some random action music by John Williams is not high on my priority list, my general impression is that either modern editing techniques or just a lack of direction prevent him from finding more convincing musical solutions for this stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the recent premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 1, this information has come about:

Their schedules simply did not align, but he did make it clear both Williams and Yates wanted to work with each other.

Source: http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/3948

If this was close to being true, the booklet of the OST didn't say that Yates offered Desplat part 2 during recording sessions.

Way more likely is that he liked Desplat and offered him part 2. Both Yates as well as Williams probably didn't want it, so they decided on "schedule conflict".

Like Shore and Jackson decided on "creative differences".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even so, it still felt like a little something died when I read that.

You took out your frustration on some poor defenseless little animal, didn't you?

Uncool, bro. :)

Well, let's hope for his sake it was an animal.

I... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead. Every single one of them... and not just the men, but the women and the children too.

They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals! I hate them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead. Every single one of them... and not just the men, but the women and the children too.

They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals! I hate them!

*cue inappropriate Imperial March*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More information about why Williams did not end up scoring Part 2:

This is the first film directed by composer Alexandre Desplat, who has a wide range of films under his belt already. One reporter asked Yates how they went from Nicholas Hooper to Alexandre Desplat. It led Yates to also talk about their attempt to bring John Williams back for Part 2:

"Nick basically needed to have a lie down after the first two films. He was exhausted. I'm such a noodler when it comes to music, and I don't sort of say 'Right, here's the film, go and score it.' I sit with the composer and change things and we move things around and I get them to do several drafts of something because it's so much fun and it's such an important part of the storytelling. And Nick, who's my dear friend, I wanted him to come back. And unfortunately he said 'I'm too tired'. And Alexandre, who's lovely, stepped on board. He'll be doing Part 2. I was hoping to get John Williams, and he wanted to do it, but the only way he could do it was if he scored a rough cut because of his schedule. So I would've had to have given him a rough cut and I need to get the film in a proper state before I present it to anybody. I'm a huge fan of John Williams. I grew up on John Williams. He's a God to me. The thought of showing John Williams a rough cut is "ugh, I can't do that". And so unfortunately even though he wanted to do it and I wanted him to do it, the schedules just didn't fit."

Source: http://www.mugglenet.com/movies/movie7/junket.shtml

Well... we can at least say this... thank goodness Hooper was "too tired" to do the final 2 films! That would have been awful, imo. Desplat may be generic in his action music, it seems, but Hooper couldn't even write action music! lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Williams is Yates god he hopefully will force both Yates and Desplat to use more of Hedwig's Theme, write memorable own themes and hopefully cameo at least one other classic Potter theme like family or window to the past!

(Either Yates is lying here in his praise for Williams or he just completely lacks any sense of music . Because if he has so much praise for Williams how can he value Hooper so much. I mean friendship is good and well but seriously considering to let his friend Hooper butcher another two movies is extremely strange.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't figure out who ticks me off more.

John Williams for being so unmalleable (this is the guy who worked with Lucas, who handed him shit cuts that looked nothing like the final movie). Or David Yates for being so stupid.

You get your god offering to score a movie for you, and you reject him because you don't want to show him a rough cut? I hate to sound the conspiracy alarm, but there's more to this.

Oh well. Desplat did a wonderful job on the first part. But still, getting Williams back would have been a great treat. Too bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh man, how depressing.

Once again, Spielberg's schedule interferes with good scores Williams would have made for other directors. Blarg.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More information about why Williams did not end up scoring Part 2:

I was hoping to get John Williams, and he wanted to do it, but the only way he could do it was if he scored a rough cut because of his schedule. So I would've had to have given him a rough cut and I need to get the film in a proper state before I present it to anybody. I'm a huge fan of John Williams. I grew up on John Williams. He's a God to me. The thought of showing John Williams a rough cut is "ugh, I can't do that". And so unfortunately even though he wanted to do it and I wanted him to do it, the schedules just didn't fit."

Source: http://www.mugglenet.com/movies/movie7/junket.shtml

Careful not to step in the bullshit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why are people sounding the conspiracy and B.S. alarms? Yates provided a sound explanation -- and despite what the liner notes said, it seems like Desplat was offered Part 2 after Williams turned it down.

Let it go, people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.