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What score do you prefer: Hook or The Philosopher Stone?


Edmilson

JW's fantasy scores  

96 members have voted

  1. 1. What score do you prefer?

    • Hook
    • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone


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Over the last two weekends we watched Hook and HP1(which was too scary for my kid at some parts, something that never crossed my mind because that movie always seemed so kiddy to me).  It pretty much affirmed my positions on the scores - both lovely but somewhat repetitive in parts, Hook much better than Potter.  I did notice some of the music that was new to me in the LLL box which I hadn’t noted on previous viewings all those years ago.

 

My kid did point out the music in one scene, asking if Hagrid was “a mean guy” based on the music played under a scene with him.

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47 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Look for yourself.

 

Geez, just vote already!

 

Would you be a champ, and just let me know? I probably won’t be revisiting this thread, so if you could just PM me, that’d be swell. 😉

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1 hour ago, rough cut said:

 

Would you be a champ, and just let me know? I probably won’t be revisiting this thread, so if you could just PM me, that’d be swell. 😉

 

Never mind the poll. The answer is Hook. :)

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On 6/13/2020 at 6:17 PM, crocodile said:

Hook has a vast array of really strong themes. I used to love this score and still would appreciate a brand new proper expanded album. But I fear listening to it these days might give me diabetes. It's something that's amazing in its richness but it feels like too much. I grew out of it.

 

Philosopher's Stone I didn't love as much when it first came out. It felt at the time like a rehash of many Williams' scores from 1989-1992 era. But it grew on me, especially after the LLL set came out. I can listen to it all the way through and never get tired of it.

 

So Potter wins this time but it is not an easy choice. It just depends on how you look at it.

 

Karol

 

I think this reflects my sentiments exactly. I would say maybe from 2001-middle of 2010s I would have voted for Hook hands down.

 

I think people evolve, tastes evolve etc. I honest to god find Hook to be too treacly in some parts. Bear in mind, it is still absolutely outstanding in every way. But if we are to do a comparison, comparatively - HP1 has slightly more - what's the word - menace - in it that balances the syrupy parts. They are both pretty "extra" as kids today would say. 

 

Hook honest to god is entirely and utterly out of fashion. You are likely not going to see a score or film again like that. You will not see a film again like HP1 today - but you might see a score like that if someone had the skill to compose it which I am not sure they do.

 

So, all in all, ever so slightly - HP1 has aged a little bit better. But Hook remains a masterpiece and is better than the career peaks of most composers.

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Potter for me.

 

Neither score is perfect. SS suffers from Hedwig's theme temp love in the first act; Hook is so saccharine that it can make my teeth hurt if I'm in the wrong mood. Both scores (Hook in particular) are a bit exhausting to get through, and both draw pretty heavily from past works within and without Williams' oeuvre.

 

All that being said, I loooooove both scores. There's a TOD-like level of brash, allusive inventiveness in Hook. SS is a little more refined but no less thrilling, bursting at the seams with some of my favorite Williams melodies. If I want to hear JW in dazzling swashbuckler mode, Hook is the obvious choice. If I want to remember what it was like to be a scrawny, bespectacled 12-year-old with messy black hair, a big imagination, and a growing obsession with film music, SS is always there to take me back. That being the case, I'm well aware that nostalgia is playing a big role here, especially since I didn't really become familiar with Hook till I was older. But I have to give it to SS.

 

No disrespect to Hook, which really is a fantastic score and a treasured part of my collection.

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On 6/15/2020 at 11:16 AM, Borodin said:

I don't understand all these wordy reviews and apologetics from people, "I don't know, I'd say HP has just a bit more 'menace'" or more 'intrigue.' No, just stop, please. I'm gagging.

 

How about: Harry Potter is much more profound, has some of the most-moving themes Williams has ever written. It's simply better, and will be remembered as the Classic it is.

 

and I would piss my pants if I heard the notes soon following after 3:39 in a horror movie.

 

This. Maybe it's because the movie sucks, but Hook is not a classic. HP1 is.

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21 minutes ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

So this thread has become a bunch of embedded YouTube videos and people quoting embedded YouTube videos.

And it makes my browser freeze because of that.

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A follow-up poll that determined what "generation" JW fans hold which in higher esteem would be interesting. Options could be like

 

*JW fan since before 1995, Hook fav

*JW fan since before 1995, HP fav

*JW fan since after 1995, before 2005, Hook fav

*JW fan since after 1995, before 2005, HP fav

 

etc..

 

Could help prove what seems to be a common intuition here that Potter-partisans are more recent or younger fans, while Hook-ites (?) are the old-guard.

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On 6/8/2020 at 7:55 PM, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

Neither is really all that good. Just a load of unrealistic and unrelatable orchestral music to accentuate action and emotion really. But I chose Hook because I love Julia Roberts as she's a great rolemodel for young girls in films like Erin Brockovich and Pretty Woman.

 

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On 6/15/2020 at 6:36 AM, Romão said:

 

 

I get what you are saying about Hook's lack of menace. It feels mostly harmless. But there is a track in it which I find wonderfully evocative and conveys both menace and anticipation for a coming adventure:

 

 

It's one of my favorite moments in the entire score. Works wonders in the film, with the view of the painted panel

 

That's the theme that Hedwig's Theme sounded like.

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I like Hook, and can see why others like it. It has more similarity in details to Williams's other Adventure classics than HP does. HP's best moments seem to be more strictly leitmotif focused. While Hook, I used to prefer it. I loved the variety of tones and the sweeping high-adventure themes and imagination it brings, but after listening now for more years I don't think I would change back.

 

I wonder what another good VS poll would be.

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I chose Hook because it's the closest thing we'll ever get to a John Williams musical.

 

Who will win? HP due to sheer popularity.

Who should win? Hook because it's HP before HP.

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On 6/16/2020 at 10:12 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

It's a bit of a stretch to call any HP movie a classic, though.

 

It’s sort of like Bond in that it’s the franchise as a whole and tropes and quotes and moments that are remembered more than the movies themselves. Films like Goldfinger and Prisoner of Azkaban stand out but they’re not quite considered classic movies outside their realm. They’re great James Bond and Harry Potter films first. 

 

The lazy comparison is Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back which are getting harder to separate these days but do have their own legacies, which none of the others can say starting with ROTJ. Or more recently Mad Max: Fury Road which is talked about much more frequently as an action stunner in its own right over the more limited context as a great sequel or reboot.

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