SCORE: Man Of Steel

[gkgyver 1,645]

Well, I guess it was inevitable. Ever since it became clear that Christopher Nolan was involved in Man Of Steel, there was a high probability Hans Zimmer was going to score the picture. And people, even some of those who absolutely detest his music, gave him the benefit of the doubt because it is widely known that Zimmer is a huge John Williams fan, and hope remained that he would break out of his box somehow and deliver something unique. However, there was one critical obstacle that stood between Hans Zimmer and a great Superman score: Hans Zimmer.

When scoring a new film, Zimmer is, as of late, not very shy about letting the world know what his creative process is, which leads to comments about Man Of Steel like this one:

"And in a funny way, it went from being absolutely, completely intimidated by the baggage of the John Williams tune to being completely liberating by thinking, 'What did he do? Lots of snare drums and trumpets, and it's a fanfare, a very objective thing', so if I start off by taking away some of those things from the palette and create my own, I'm already going to do something different." To which the directors added, in their wisdom "But Hans, it's just another movie. Get real!"

So, off he went, and proceeded to do all these things, take away the snare drums, the trumpets, the fanfare, added the french horns, the droning bass, the horrible synths, a steel pedal guitar ... and proceeded to do exactly the same thing he always does. Gosh, it must feel great to have the director and producers liberate you from the duty of creating anything special. The result is something I can only call one of the most obnoxious scores of Zimmer's carreer.

Now, this is a new Superman franchise, you can wipe the sound palette clean, that is a good thing. But the point of wiping a palette clean is to create something new and unique, and not to create music that sounds like a mixture between Dark Knight leftovers and DaVinci Code. He apparently failed to see that by throwing away Williams' music, they threw away a part of Superman's soul that must be replaced. More damning, however, is the fact that even though Superman, even this new one, is a heroic character, Zimmer refuses to infuse the score with any heroic, major-moded undertones. There is not even a trumpet heard anywhere in the score, it's the usual mushy sound of 20 french horns blasting an uninteresting theme. But, Zimmer has a solution for that. He says, we should "forget the notes". He wanted to create the same kind of unique soundscape for Superman like he did for Batman. If he wanted that, he failed, because both sound absolutely the same - Superman Rises. So, Zimmer went from a two note theme over a one note sound to "forget the notes". I hope he realises he is a film composer and not a sound designer. If I didn't know better, I would say Zimmer shows signs of delusion.

The whole score is full of the same drum patterns, the same string chopping, the same brass farts he always does, paired with some synth effects that sound frightfully old. There, Man Of Steel and Jablonsky's Battleship share some ghastly similarities. When asked about the inspiration for Man Of Steel, Zimmer says: "I wanted the epic sound of the fields and farms stretching past the horizon, of the wind humming in the telephone wires."
About the tone of the film, he says it's a lot more good-natured and fun than Batman.

How anything, note ANYTHING, in Man Of Steel reflects fun, or has to do with the sound of fields and farms, is frankly beyond mortal comprehension.
I have always liked Hans Zimmer as a person, he is just a very pleasant guy, but ever since he got more and more mainstream media attention, he manages to do more and more mental masturbation, spouting comments that have nothing, zero, to do with the work he does. When I read interviews of him now, I keep thinking it's either my sanity or his that is deteriorating at mindboggling speed.

The interesting question is, where did it all go wrong with Zimmer? His music always had the ability to divide the masses, and drive film music lovers mad, but in the past few years, it all went into overdrive.

The music for Man Of Steel is irritating; it's either boring or overbearing, and switches rapidly between the two, so that listening to the whole album at once is more than just a little strain on the ears. The balance of the sound is so off that the much advertised unique drum circle adds nothing to the music and sounds like any other regular percussion churning out Zimmer's monotone rhythms. The apparent main theme sounds like a direct, slightly tweaked, copy of Chevaliers De Sangreal, which becomes very apparent in "I Have So Many Questions", where you think they accidentally pressed a DaVinci Code track on the CD.

In effect there is little to none originality in Man Of Steel, and if you keep "Hans' Sketchbook", and delete all the rest, you effectively lose nothing worthwhile.

But the problems of Man Of Steel run deeper than a lackluster theme and are more profound than intensely annoying drum pounding. It is about the inborn ability of a film composer to read a movie and its pace and moments, it's something that goes way beyond a craftsmanship you can learn hands-on.

During sequences like Superman's first flight, my stomach turns. And that is not because it isn't John Williams. While watching the film, you can clearly hear there is a composer at work who lost it, whatever "it" was, and covers it up with some of the very worst musical clichees known to mankind.

It's not just the usual madness surrounding a new Zimmer score that kind of pushes me over the edge while dealing with Man Of Steel, it's the fact that Zimmer apparently can't even do a good power anthem anymore and the rather worrying - and as of late intensifying - trend to detach himself from the picture.

All of that being said, should I really blame Hans Zimmer for the dreadful music that was written for Superman? In the end, it was the director and especially the producers who wanted Zimmer, and they knew what they would get.
One star for the atrocious music, plus half a bonus star for the presentation, which the music really doesn't deserve, and in effect makes the score a chore to listen to.

* 1/2 out of *****

[Incanus 5,714]

You were generous Georg. You gave the score ½ a star more than most others.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

WHAT?!

[Brónach 1,302]

You were generous Georg. You gave the score ½ a star more than most others.

When I first saw the post, it had two stars...

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Maybe tomorrow, it will have only one star left.

[Brónach 1,302]

I can see that.

[gkgyver 1,645]

I posted the review on Amazon, and gave it - gasp! - two stars there because they do not allow half stars.

[Brónach 1,302]

Why not give it one instead!

Mwahahaha EVIL! Koray can't stop us now!