Best Non-Williams sequel score?

[WampaRat 1,105]

Williams is the master at scoring sequels for sure. But what do you consider the best NON-Williams scored sequel? Preferably the same composer worked on the first film as well ( i.e. “Batman” and “Batman Returns”)

 

Along with that, what makes a great sequel score for you? Does it need to have everything the first score had plus a bit of new? Does it need to be mostly new music with a sprinkling of familiar?  A bold new sound for the sequel? A complete copy and paste?

[publicist 4,643]

The Final Conflict

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

I immediately jumped to Solo, although does that count as he wrote a specific theme for it? Of the Harry Potter sequels, the only one I think is really close to that level is Patrick Doyle's Goblet of Fire. I can't get into Jerry Fielding's Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (but then never got into Williams' original). Neither of the latter Jaws sequels excited me as much as I hoped, although for cheesy sequels, Superman VI: The Quest for Peace by Alexander Courage is pretty great, although again Williams wrote original material for that. I haven't heard any of the later Home Alone scores but I can't imagine they are a patch on the originals.

 

Well that was startling inconclusive... and I'm also now wondering if I missed the angle of the original question.

[Jay 37,353]

Brian Tyler's Now You See Me 2 - nothing in the first score is as good as this cue from the sequel

 

 

Michael Giacchino's Spider-man: Far From Home - the film itself was lame but the sequel has great action music that I like more than Homecoming's action music

 

 

I think Michael Kamen's work on the Die Hard sequels was better than his original score

 

 

Joe Kraemer's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is the best score in the series after Elfman's original

 

 

 

And then of course there all of Howard Shore's entries in Middle Earth, all of which are fantastic

 

And as already mentioned, Elfman's Batman Returns is one of the best scores he ever wrote!

 

James Horner's The Search For Spock is amazing as well

 

 

And oooh boy, David Arnold's THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH!

 

 

[Linae 11]

A good question to pose even if I am not overly keen on Williams's sequel scores - none of my favourite Williams scores are for sequels.

 

What makes a great sequel score is impossible to say, but I generally prefer it to have as much fresh material as possible.

 

Leonard Rosenman didn't score the first Planet of the Apes - Jerry Goldsmith did. I maybe consider Rosenman's Beneath the Planet of the Apes to be the best sequel score of all time. It took the adventurous spirit of the first score to new heights. It is certainly a high point for avant-garde scoring in film music history, Rosenman proved that he could hold his own next to the best of the best when post-serial composition was at its peak in the late 1960s.

 

Similarly, Elliot Goldenthal took the adventurous spirit of Jerry Goldsmith's Alien score to new heights with his score for Alien 3. I am aware that some people will disagree that Rosenman and Goldenthal wrote better scores than the original entry.

 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Rosenman and Alien 3 by Goldenthal are my answers - they both continued the adventurous spirit of the first score, but took it to new heights, it also felt like the natural continuation of the series's music and it wasn't overly reliant on previously composed material.

[WampaRat 1,105]

Wow. Can’t believe I blanked on Howard Shores LOTR scores haha. But yeah. That’s the pinnacle of writing for sequels I would say.

 

I would also toss in Powell’s HTTYD sequel scores. I love how he builds on those themes but adds plenty of new material in the second and third films. Hidden World had everything I ever wanted for a finale track of the whole series (Once there were dragons) Yes, HTTYD 3 skews towards newer material. But the DNA of the past two scores are all over it. Fantastic sequel scores all around.

[Jay 37,353]

 

Oh, and James Horner's ALIENS

 

 

And I like both of Giacchino's Star Trek sequel scores more than the original

 

 

 

[Thor 7,495]

Do you mean that the sequel score supersedes the original score, or is just generally good? The first is a bit easier to answer, the second is very broad.

[Jurassic Shark 12,067]

TLC

TESB

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[Jay 37,353]

I can't believe I forgot Don Davis' Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions!

 

 

 

 

I also like Alan Silvestri's Predator 2 more than the original

 

 

And his Back To The Future sequel scores are excellent too

 

 

 

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

Twilight 2 by Alexandre Desplat

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,357]

Christopher Young's The Fly II.

Elliot Goldenthal's Batman Forever

 

[Jay 37,353]

I also like Marc Shaiman's City Slick II: The Legend of Curley's Gold

 

 

And I like Giacchino's Fallen Kingdom more than his first Jurassic World

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,357]

There are sometimes sequel scores that seem to make the album of the score of the first film unnecessary. Like Hellraiser 2 or the score for the 2nd season of Penny Dreadful. 

[WampaRat 1,105]

I’d submit Silvestri’s “The Mummy Returns” as a terrific example of a sequel in which the themes from the first film are pretty much abandoned. Yet I never listen to it lamenting the fact that Goldsmith didn’t score it. (Although his take on the sequel WOULD be something worth hearing)But Silvestri stays true to the genre and you can tell he’s just having a blast in that world.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,520]

Easy peasy:

STAR TREK V, followed by STAR TREK III, and ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.

@publicist, a curious choice, but I always thought of the The Omen trilogy, as one story, divided into three parts. Having said that, THE FINAL CONFLICT is my favourite Jerry score, so...it's in 

[Thor 7,495]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Do you mean that the sequel score supersedes the original score, or is just generally good? The first is a bit easier to answer, the second is very broad.

 

I got no answer to this, so I'll just rattle off some great sequel scores in general by perusing my iTunes collection. I don't like endless Youtube embeds; they clog up my loading and I never listen to them, so you'll get this in good ol' fashioned WRITING, imagine that!

 

Sequel scores that I prefer over the original are bolded.

 

Back to the Future III (Silvestri)

Predator 2 (Silvestri)

Young Guns 2 (Silvestri)

The Mummy Returns (Silvestri)

The Rescuers Down Under (Broughton)

Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country (Edelman)

Free Willy 3 (Edelman)

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Rahman & Armstrong)

Tron: Legacy (Daft Punk)

Ocean's 8 (Pemberton)

Army of Darkness (Loduca & Elfman)

Batman Returns (Elfman)

Red Dragon (Elfman)

Spider-Man 2 (Elfman)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Arnold)

Alien 3 (Goldenthal)

Batman Forever (Goldenthal)

Batman & Robin (Goldenthal)

Il Ritorno di Ringo (Morricone)

The Bride of Frankenstein (Waxman)

The Crow: City of Angels (Revell)

Mission: Impossible 2 (Zimmer)

Hannibal (Zimmer)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Zimmer)

Blade Runner 2049 (Zimmer & Wallfisch)

Beverly Hills Cop II (Faltermeyer)

Fletch Lives (Faltermeyer)

The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Mancini)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Shore)

Star Trek 2 and 3 (Horner)

Aliens (Horner)

Cocoon: The Return (Horner)

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (Horner)

The Legend of Zorro (Horner)

Alien: Covenant (Kurzel)

The Final Conflict (Goldsmith)

Star Trek V (Goldsmith)

Gremlins 2 (Goldsmith)

Star Trek: First Contact (Goldsmith)

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Kyd)

Alien: Ressurection (Frizzell)

The Bourne Ultimatum (Powell)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Powell)

Solo (Powell)

Mad Max: Fury Road (Junkie XL)

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer (Haugen)

Mary Poppins Returns (Shaiman)

Prometheus (Streitenfeld)

Scream 2 (Beltrami)

Tale of a Lake (Aaltio)

Harry Potter 4 (Doyle)

Histoire d’O No. 2 (Myers & Zimmer)

Trials of the Blood Dragon (Power Glove)

The Neverending Story 2 (Folk)

Lawnmower Man 2 (Folk)

Rocky IV (DiCola)

Blanc & Rouge (Preisner)

 

That's a start!

[Jay 37,353]

Oooh I forgot about Ocean's 8, I love that one 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo

[Datameister 2,042]

For me, one of the things that can easily kill a sequel score is excessive quoting of the original. I'm all for themes being brought back and developed, and I even think verbatim quotes occasionally have their place too. But they can very quickly start to give the film a "been there, done that" flavor I find very off-putting. Two Williams examples that come to mind are COS and (to a lesser degree) TLJ.

 

So yes, my ideal sequel score focuses mostly on new writing, while taking past themes in new and interesting directions as well. When I was younger I hated sequel scores that took a very different overall tone or approach, but that doesn't bother me anymore.

[artguy360 1,843]

The Two Towers is a pitch perfect score that flows seamlessly as an extension of FOTR but also expands the musical vocabulary of the trilogy, adds new textures, and ups the epic quality of the music. 

 

Also, for such a long score, at no point do I get the sense that Shore wrote any filler music or was anything let than inspired, which I do hear hints of in ROTK.

[Datameister 2,042]

Although FOTR is easily my favorite of those three scores, I still agree with all of that. Damn fine sequel score, even if it's not one I care to listen to very often.

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

No Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco?