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Hans Zimmer's Man Of Steel


Jay

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A detailed interview with Zimmer on the Man of Steel score.

http://collider.com/hans-zimmer-man-of-steel-interstellar-rush-interview/#more-260449

I like how Zimmer constantly emphasized the fact that he could not live up to John Williams' score and wasn't going to try to out-do Williams' work. He mentioned he was reluctant to take it on for several reasons.

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Well the interviewer in the link several posts up is wrong about one thing, I won't be rushing out to buy the album after seeing the film.

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Is this original score?

The theme, if you can call it that, sounds a bit like Chevaliers De Sangreal.

Everything "inspirational" from modern Zimmer sounds like a mundane, dull, watered down version of Chevaliers de Sangreal these days.

Thank god. I feared that drumkit would be actual score.

You know, the actual score features 12 drumkits right? :P

Coincidentally, I feel the last breath of inspiration Zimmer breathed was on DaVinci Code. Everything after was one long exhale, and the breath is now almost gone.

I know it will feature 12 drumkits, but judging from the samples, I feel they will be so totally drowned in the mix that they might as well have used just regular percussion.

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I quite like that clip actually.

But then the underlying piece (I believe from the second trailer) is growing as a guilty pleasure. Simple and obnoxious as that theme is, there's something very memorable about it.

I think a major problem is also the mix - far too 'wall' like and with synths overbearing the orchestra.

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Coincidentally, I feel the last breath of inspiration Zimmer breathed was on DaVinci Code. Everything after was one long exhale, and the breath is now almost gone.

I agree to some degree. But I found Sherlock Holmes and Frost/Nixon rather refreshing.

I know it will feature 12 drumkits, but judging from the samples, I feel they will be so totally drowned in the mix that they might as well have used just regular percussion.

That's what frustrates me the most. He keeps flaunting this drum circle as if its some of the coolest things anyone's heard, but it ends up sounding almost identical to his usual percussion loop rhythms. From what I've heard, the circle adds nothing, heck you can't even tell 12 drumkits were used.

This was the same problem with the Bane chant in TDKR. Potential wasted.

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Michael's flaws don't make Hans a better composer. If you're right, that just means they both suck. At certain things. Not that this is my personal opinion, mind you.

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What flaws? I'm talking specifically about a composer talking about the musicians they used on a score. Gk and KK are saying/implying that Hans is conceited for constantly talking about this massive percussion section he assembled with some superb drummers while someone like Giacchino consistently talks about how great the orchestras he uses are.

It's just hater bullshit. Anything to take a jab at the man that's done nothing really different than he's always done. I have to listen and review the score for this little gangster crime film called The Iceman. It pains me that people flaunt their hate for Zimmer when truly shit music like this is being written.

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It's not hater bs. I don't quite see your argument here. It's a matter of comparing what we are promised, and what we ultimately get.

Giacchino's talks about using a 120-piece orchestra. The music sounds like he wrote for a 120-piece orchestra.

Zimmer talks about using a cool 12-member drummers' circle and claims its unique. It sounds like a normal, single percussive element, and identical to everything else in his career.

Zimmer has these intriguing ideas but falters in application. Unfortunately, to the eye, it can seem like he's doing it just for the sake of media attention.

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What were you promised? That the drum circle would be the epitome of percussion?

There is no claim, it is unique, regardless of your opinion of how its implemented or sounds in the final score, which I have not heard. The only music from the movie I've heard is that trailer cue that everyone thinks is the main theme when it's not (according to the recent Zimmer interview Matt C posted).

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There are 90 second samples of every cue out and some tracks in whole available. So you can make a fair assessment of how the percussion is being used.

By gathering a large group of prominent percussion artists, you'd think you're trying something new. It would have been cool if he was trying something like the cue from Gordon's Daybreakers score that croc posted above, but from the samples, there appears to be little difference between this circle and Zimmer's usual percussive loops.

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It needs more of that foghorn sound, you know, the one from Inception. That's cool!

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Another interview with Zimmer:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/DTS_HeadphoneX_Debuts_on_Hans_Zimmers_Man_of_Steel_Soundtrack/11905

"One of the first comic book movies I ever did was 'Batman Begins' and one of the things Chris and I were talking about we need to build an autonomous sonic landscape to the world. And I think we did that. Forget the notes, even if you just hear the ambiances, you know this is the Dark Knight. And we tried to do the same with Superman."

"Forget the notes"

:eh:

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Zimmer is a visionary. He went from power anthems to a 2 note Batman theme, then to a 1-note Joker "sound" and now he finally distilled all the unnecessary things out of this music, namely the notes. He was left with purest sound available. Silence. Magnificence itself! It is like looking at the face of the universe.

I think this opened new career options for me too! I am going to be a film composer! It is so easy! Simplicity itself! I'll let the silence do the talking. Don't worry about the notes.

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I think I'm going to stop trying to understand what Zimmer is saying in interviews...

Hans Zimmer could write voice overs for Malick movies.

ROTFLMAO

I can see that!

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Inky, there are times that I love you.

Liberal American culture must be bringing out your gay side

Come on! He was just inquiring about cheap hookers in another thread in the last hour. I assume he meant women.

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Zimmer is a visionary. He went from power anthems to a 2 note Batman theme, then to a 1-note Joker "sound" and now he finally distilled all the unnecessary things out of this music, namely the notes. He was left with purest sound available. Silence. Magnificence itself! It is like looking at the face of the universe.

I think this opened new career options for me too! I am going to be a film composer! It is so easy! Simplicity itself! I'll let the silence do the talking. Don't worry about the notes.

ROTFLMAO

Gold star for you!

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Inky, there are times that I love you.

Liberal American culture must be bringing out your gay side

Come on! He was just inquiring about cheap hookers in another thread in the last hour. I assume he meant women.

Everybody's talking at me, I don't hear a word they're sayin'...

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What flaws? I'm talking specifically about a composer talking about the musicians they used on a score. Gk and KK are saying/implying that Hans is conceited for constantly talking about this massive percussion section he assembled with some superb drummers while someone like Giacchino consistently talks about how great the orchestras he uses are.

It's just hater bullshit. Anything to take a jab at the man that's done nothing really different than he's always done. I have to listen and review the score for this little gangster crime film called The Iceman. It pains me that people flaunt their hate for Zimmer when truly shit music like this is being written.

Most composers don't make a big deal of trying something new or innovative for every score. And in Zimmer's case, it always sounds generally the same, regardless of using musicians from Romania or using a one-note theme. Zimmer's a celebrity and he knows it, and these 'gimmicks' just draw more attention to what turns out to just be another standard Zimmer score.

The guy who wrote the 'truly shit' music you have to review probably isn't claiming to be the second coming.

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Listened to some tracks, and I must say it got boring so fast. The theme is extremely banal - the Clark Kent "theme". It gets banal because it is so simplistic that there couldn't possibly variation or anything like that. Just two note phrases.

from (0:46 onwards)

Is this what passes for a theme these days?

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It's an archetypal 80's tune, a revamped Faltermeyer or Levay synthie hymn. Stuff like this passed as musical main frame in films like TOP GUN or DAYS OF THUNDER, so it will work here, too. At least it's more 'inspiring' than the dour BATMAN stuff.

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It plays to most common denominator. It's a very base emotional reaction that a million composers could have achieved. I hate to keep comparing Williams to Zimmer, but something like this just shows you why Williams is an painter and Zimmer is a colorist.

Tim

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Well I've heard the score in its entirety. I liked it. I guess I'll go ahead and come out of the closet on this forum as a Zimmer fan.

-The themes are agreeable. Yes, agreeable. I don't listen to Hans' music for the elegant craftsmanship: I listen to it because I enjoy it. And these are enjoyable themes, to my ears. Although Zod's motive is somewhat underwhelming... your usual bad guy minor rumblings. Oh well.

-The noise/"sound design" is really at a minimum, with the exception of some weirdness in "Are You Listening, Clark?" that can at least be understood in context.

-The whole drum circle thing doesn't exactly come through, no. It's there, but maybe not as much of a centerpiece as one would think.

-The electronics/synths are handled well as always with Zimmer; things are appropriately spacey and extraterrestrial for the story. That is, if you can deal with electronics and synths. Some folks just can't.

-The album can drag a bit, as Hans' albums are wont to do, and things are certainly not in order. Another oh well.

-Finally, there are some surprisingly fresh, complex (relatively) moments, and more than a few instances of really vintage 90's Zimmer sound that made me smirk.

I don't think this is a bad score, or a disappointing score. I think it has its own identity which will be even more pronounced when coupled with the film. Banal? Not really. What I assume is Clark's theme is appropriately humble and human. What I assume is the main Superman theme isn't anything groundbreaking, but it doesn't offend me, and I don't see it as a depressing sign of the times or the death of good film music. I can dig it. I think it'll work well in the context of the film, and like many Zimmer scores (for me), it'll have its share of moments worth replaying outside the film. Perhaps I'm just less refined than some?

As I plan on sticking around here, I suppose it's good to get this out of the way. Add another pro-Zimmer name to the board. :) And just to earn some musical credibility, my listening of this score was preceded by some Goldsmith and was followed by Copland's 3rd Symphony and his Clarinet Concerto. So don't fear, I'm not one of those "epic" fanboys.

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Inky, there are times that I love you.

Liberal American culture must be bringing out your gay side

Liberal?

Compared to The Netherlands? Please...

The Boston Pride parade I saw had no angry feminist lezzers flashing that boobs in an act of retribution for thousands of years of persecution, or oiled up bears in tight leather and big moustaches french kissing each other in public.

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