Jump to content

The Force Awakens - Score Reactions from Reviews, etc


Lewya

Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, Mr. Big said:

I hate... people.  

"The weakest score of the franchise... and the year"

What a fucking moron.  

 

I've seen worse.  Some think Victory Celebration is the most memorable theme in ROTJ.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, someonefun124 said:

 

I've seen worse.  Some think Victory Celebration is the most memorable theme in ROTJ.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of opinions like that in the oozing mass of sewage The Force.net prequel boards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone wants edgy, non-descript sounds for a score, or they want exactly what they've heard before. No casual viewer is going to love TFA except for the fact that they remember the main titles theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is merely the burden that we special few must bear, we who know the secret ways.  To watch the rest of the world toil on in ignorance is the price of such knowledge.  Do not hate those whose eyes are clouded, but pity them, and envy them for their blissful unknowing, for we alone suffer for what they lack.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, crumbs said:

My favourite YouTube comment so far was someone lamenting that they couldn't hum any of Williams' new themes as they left the cinema. Instead, they claimed they always leave the cinema humming any theme that Hans Zimmer writes for his films.

 

Yeah, that Joker theme from The Dark Knight is so hummable! And I often catch myself humming the Inception siren in the shower.

 Who laments this kind of stuff anymore? You don't see people lambasting other films for lack of hummability? 

 

How does one argue with people who aren't willing to have their perspectives changed? Every youtube video comment section is riddled with this crap about tge quality of the score being lesser than that of the prequels. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, crumbs said:

My favourite YouTube comment so far was someone lamenting that they couldn't hum any of Williams' new themes as they left the cinema. Instead, they claimed they always leave the cinema humming any theme that Hans Zimmer writes for his films.

 

Yeah, that Joker theme from The Dark Knight is so hummable! And I often catch myself humming the Inception siren in the shower.

 

I did see one comment that was upset about the hummability factor, then said "Not like Mad Max: Fury Road and Interstellar where I was humming all their themes on the car ride home!"

 

I love both of those scores too but perhaps Williams' tunes are just too damn long these days...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes!!! That was the EXACT comment I was referring to. I'm guessing it's in the comments section of Rey's Theme or Jedi Steps on Disney's official YouTube channel.

 

I mean, humming Interstellar.... yeah... I don't know. Maybe? 

 

But Mad Max?! Like, what in the actual hell can you hum from that score? I appreciate it's an effective score in-film but it's literally as far removed from a symphonic Star Wars score as you can get. That someone actually expected something like that from a Star Wars score is both frightening and depressing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A flaming guitarist strapped to the front of the Millennium Falcon while traveling at lightspeed.

 

George Miller's Star Wars Anthology: Bounty Hunters!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

Yes!!! That was the EXACT comment I was referring to. I'm guessing it's in the comments section of Rey's Theme or Jedi Steps on Disney's official YouTube channel.

 

I mean, humming Interstellar.... yeah... I don't know. Maybe? 

 

But Mad Max?! Like, what in the actual hell can you hum from that score? I appreciate it's an effective score in-film but it's literally as far removed from a symphonic Star Wars score as you can get. That someone actually expected something like that from a Star Wars score is both frightening and depressing.

Link me to that comment so I can tell them they're an idiot!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few randomly selected comments about Rey's Theme on YouTube:

 

Quote

This song reminds me of that movie “the terminal" with tom hanks,  even though it is anonther awesome song from John Williams, as always

 

Quote

The beginning is catch me if you can meets harry potter. Then it's the theme for Rohan from LoTR

 

Quote

Hope Howard Shore gets some royalties for lifting passages from the Two Towers (specifically the theme for Edoras)

 

Quote

this soundtrack sounds too much like War Horse, I know its also made by John Williams, but still, he didn't do his best on this 

 

Quote

It makes me think of Nobuo Uematsu's tracks for Final Fantasy 9, especially "Terra" and "The Souless Village Bran Bal"

 

Quote

Reminds me of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It also sounds a little like the Torchwood theme from Doctor Who.

 

Quote

Why did half of this piece sound like the avengers? 

 

Quote

it sounds like music fitting for a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

 

Quote

Reminds me of Kung Fu Panda. ARE WE SURE HANS ZIMMER IS NOT INVOLVED IN THIS

 

Quote

I'll break it down.. 0:14 Harry potter (POA) ..  0:52  Jane Eyre 1:21 Artificial Intelligence main theme 1:31 Jane Eyre.  It may be a "masterpiece" but it doesn't sound like SW. 

 

Quote

Total fucking Beauty and the Beast rip off!

 

Quote

Trash compared to the old ones 

 

Quote

great film, shit music from JW.

 

Quote

the tracks that they scored for the trailers had a much better tone and that tone should have been used in the film.

 

Quote

you people are stupid as fuck 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing that I find funny scrolling through YouTube is that even though a lot of people say the score was a disappointment for them, there's pretty much always a single exception that they'll mention...but there's absolutely no consensus among the haters on what that one "good" track from TFA actually is.

 

"The score really sucks aside from Rey's Theme" (always the most confusing comment)

 

"Starkiller is the only good track from this film"

 

"I really love Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle but everything else is BAD for John Williams"

 

"The Jedi Steps is utterly fantastic but the rest? Huge disappointment"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, loert423 said:

 

Was that last comment written by Williams?

 

John's great-grandson was introducing him to YouTube when they decided to search for his new music. "Look, Pops, they're all talking about your music in the comments section!" 

 

After scrolling through several pages of comments, Williams composed himself and politely asked, "Angel grandson baby, how does Pops make a comment on here too?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's curious how people keep saying hasn't written a memorable theme in the last 20 years or so, but all these people know about The Terminal, Double Trouble, War Horse, Catch Me If You Can and more... It's strangely contradictory for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll translate some of the comments:

 

- Wait a minute! Rey's Theme uses flute! What a total rip-off of War Horse. I swear that used flutes too!

 

- It's fast music. So was Catch Me If You Can! Williams has gone crap.

 

- Hans Zimmer is the greatest composer of all time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People on reddit are getting very sassy with me when I tell them the "Burning Homestead" quote was tracked in.  I think it is because they do not want to think that their favorite moment of the score, which was an awkward inclusion in the film anyways, was something crammed in by the film makers against Williams intentions.  Oy, why do I bother.  I just wanna stop the spread of misinformation!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Michael said:

It's curious how people keep saying hasn't written a memorable theme in the last 20 years or so, but all these people know about The Terminal, Double Trouble, War Horse, Catch Me If You Can and more... It's strangely contradictory for me.


Was thinking the same thing. People who seemingly appreciate the scores to Catch Me If You Can and War Horse would seem to definitely be able to appreciate the TFA score. The fact that some don't is a little surprising to me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How does one respond to this?

 

Quote

Although the film was great and the score equally great, I feel that Abrams didn't push him enough to bring out the simpler, more memorable themes. In his words, "I didn't have to direct John Williams", we see one of his greatest mistakes with the film. Other directors like Lucas and Spielberg would offer constructive criticism and have conversations about what they did and didn't like.

A similar scenario is Jerry Goldsmith's main title theme for Star Trek The Motion Picture (later used for TNG and other films). The first attempt was hardly memorable, and though Robert Wise couldn't tell him specifically what he didn't like, he told him "there's no theme". Once he voiced his complaints, Goldsmith reworked his composition into one of the most well-known themes in sci-fi history. Williams doesn't need to be directed as much as other composers, but a critical ear and conversation can bring out the best in his work, and Abrams was simply afraid to do that.

 

This is unbelievable. Just unbelievable, and yet there you have it.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really want to respond to this stupidity, but how far do you go? End of the day, they're convinced it's a failing of John Williams' ability to write music when it clearly isn't.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Taikomochi said:

People on reddit are getting very sassy with me when I tell them the "Burning Homestead" quote was tracked in.  I think it is because they do not want to think that their favorite moment of the score, which was an awkward inclusion in the film anyways, was something crammed in by the film makers against Williams intentions.  Oy, why do I bother.  I just wanna stop the spread of misinformation!

 

If it wasn't tracked in then it may as well have been since the orchestration sounded exactly the same.  They must have made this decision after the sessions were completed.  I'm not sure why some people are thinking otherwise? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Williams worst score of the decade, most underwhelming of his SW albums, and one of the weakest in his career. Much like Kasdan and Lucas, It's time for him to retire now. Although not using the LSO contributed a lot to do this and was a bone headed move for sure. "

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL at the review that comment was posted on:

 

Quote

Though we may not have gotten an “epic theme” like for a lightsaber duel or something, and some tracks are harder than others to enjoy outside of the setting of the film, this is in no way a bad score.

 

Is this journalism?  Is this published writing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/01/2016 at 8:32 PM, Taikomochi said:

People on reddit are getting very sassy with me when I tell them the "Burning Homestead" quote was tracked in.  I think it is because they do not want to think that their favorite moment of the score, which was an awkward inclusion in the film anyways, was something crammed in by the film makers against Williams intentions.  

 

What's awkward about it? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.