Jump to content

Modern Sci-Fi by Spielberg and Williams (and Silvestri)


Jay

Modern Sci-Fi by Spielberg and Williams (and Silvestri)  

54 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of these films do you like the most?

    • A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
    • Minority Report (2002)
    • War of the Worlds (2005)
    • Ready Player One (2018)
      0
    • I don't like or haven't seen any of these films
  2. 2. Which of these scores do you like the most?

    • Williams' A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
    • Williams' Minority Report (2002)
    • Williams' War of the Worlds (2005)
    • Silvestri's Ready Player One (2018)
    • I don't like or haven't heard any of these scores
      0


Recommended Posts

A.I. wins both categories easily. When people ask me what I consider the best film after the millennium turnover, I tend to say A.I. Same goes for score. The blending of cold Kubrickian observation and warm Spielbergian emotion was a match made in heaven. These two 'forces' are constantly in rotation during the film, visible in everything from mise-en-scene to music. Deep, philosophical ideas mirrored not only in the story and dialogue, but in a plethora of visual and aural/musical details. There are elements of Williams' 90s style in the melodies, but also some spellbindingly, beautiful minimalist pieces; exploratory chord progressions in the style of John Adams.

 

I should point out that I think MINORITY REPORT and WAR OF THE WORLDS are fantastic films/scores too, but not on that iconic masterpiece level, at least not to me. READY PLAYER ONE was pretty good; I believe it was among my honourable mentions that year, but still another step down on the ladder. Silvestri's music is one of his better efforts in recent years, but I needed to whittle it down to about 40-50 minutes on album in order for it to work alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprised at the praise for MR- the film!

JW wrote two his best ever themes, but I only listen to a small selection of the ost.

 

 

Thor,

Henceforth, you are forbidden from using the terms " Kubrickian"

OR " Spielbergian".

You can do better. 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Film: Minority Report

I go back to that one often. I recently watch A.I. Again. I “get” what the film was trying to do. It just never clicked with me.

 

Score: Ready Player one was a lot of fun (if not a taaad overlong on album). I was too late to purchase the expanded A.I. But I only hear tremendous things about it. Words like “revelatory” are often thrown around. I have yet to hear that album though. With it being sold out it looks like a long time before I’ll get to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WampaRat said:

With it being sold out it looks like a long time before I’ll get to.

 

It might get reissued someday. It seemed to sell pretty well.

 

There's only a handful of Spielberg scores left to expand after all; reissues would make sense after that point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Minority Report is the easiest to watch but the depth behind AI shoots it to the top. Score is just no question, no contest there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The action scenes are surprisingly poorly staged.

The big escape/ chase scene where Cruise miraculously gets by a phalanx of cops, is ludicrous.

And, shockingly, even the sfx are totally unconvincing.

Only JW's score stands out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Minority Report is a very entertaining movie despite some flaws. I feel it is bit underrated by the general audience. I do enjoy the other three to some extent as well.

 

A.I. is the best score. No contest there. It is the most interesting conceptually, the richest and packing an emotional punch. It is followed by War of the Worlds.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What we need is a sequel to War of the Worlds

 

- THE RETURN - 

 

Tom Cruise Purchased COVID-19 Safety Robots For 'Mission ...

Put your masks on, or I'll punch you in the face...

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Well I knew AI would win for score but damn, it really won by a lot

 

The film race is much close, with AI And MR pretty close to being tied.

 

Poor Ready Player One, it seems no one likes that movie!  I saw it once and enjoyed it fine for what it was, but I can't say it left any strong lingering memories in my brain, like both AI and MR did after the initial viewing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Jay said:

Poor Ready Player One, it seems no one likes that movie!  I saw it once and enjoyed it fine for what it was, but I can't say it left any strong lingering memories in my brain, like both AI and MR did after the initial viewing

 

I like the movie a lot. It came in 21st in 2018 (of 167 new films viewed). It just doesn't reach up in that particular company.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps Jay means "modern" in approach to film-making techniques, or "modern" in themes, but I suspect that Jay means "modern" as in "closer to 2021 than other films".

To me, CE3K is not "old" but that's because I can remember watching at the cinema on its first release. I am also aware that there are JWfaners who are 20 years younger than CE3K, so I guess that "old", and "modern" are relative terms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Oomoog the Ecstatic said:

I'm not a big fan of the Minority Report film. It feels empty of real meaning or emotion, sloppily executed, kind of silly and shallow.

 

:blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My only two issues with Minority Report were that in general I don't like watching Tom Cruise acting and secondly that I didn't find itvery believable at the end that Anderton's ex-wife gets him out of prison by just walking in there with a gun and pointing it to the doorman. Apart from that I liked the whole thing, the story, but especially how this future world was shown. And the score really is my favourite of those in the poll.

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.