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Looking back now, which John Williams boxset did you get more enjoyment out of? Jurassic Park or Harry Potter?


Josh500

Which John Williams boxset did you get more enjoyment out of?   

74 members have voted

  1. 1. Which John Williams boxset did you get more enjoyment out of?

    • The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection
    • Harry Potter - The John Williams Soundtrack Collection


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Yeah, I know one set contains 2 movies, the other 3, etc. etc. But I'm not talking about the superficial stuff, but really the music itself, the whole scores from start to finish. John Williams's creativity and originality, his musical storytelling ability, the creation of pure art. Which set did you or do you still enjoy more? 

 

I may be in the minority here but I've found that for me, it's Jurassic Park. Especially The Lost World contains so much great, previously unreleased, shockingly effective stuff, it beats even Azkaban - at least for me. I feel like I can really dive into the Jurassic scores and go on an adventure of the mind, escape into another, fantastic world... While I still adore the Harry Potter scores, of course, I may have finally outgrown the subject matter a bit.

 

How about you? 

 

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JP/TLW, purely because those films were my childhood and I spent so much longer yearning for a complete release of TLW (nearly two decades!)

 

I wore out that TLW OST to the point it no longer plays. I'm certain the inexplicable microedit in Rescuing Sarah (which forever annoyed me, because it was my favourite scene in the film), combined with my confusion over a mysterious track called The Hunt, ignited my interest in JW's music and the concept of score expansions -- before I was even old enough to understand why music would be missing from the soundtrack.

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Just because you prefer one thing doesn't mean you have to absolutely hate the other!

 

Like I said, I love them both, I just prefer listening to the music on the Jurassic Park Collection slightly more for the reasons stated. :)

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9 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

 

I wore out that TLW OST to the point it no longer plays. I'm certain the inexplicable microedit in Rescuing Sarah (which forever annoyed me, because it was my favourite part of the film), combined with my confusion over a mysterious track called The Hunt, ignited my interest in JW's music and the concept of score expansions (before I was even old enough to understand why music would be missing from a soundtrack).

Funny as a lifelong JW fan TLW is the one I cared the least about an expanded release among his franchise scores. I saw the movie a few times but none of the unreleased music struck me as  must have cues, including those missing portions of Rescuing Sarah

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1 minute ago, crumbs said:

Probably JP/TLW, purely because that series was my childhood and I spent so much longer yearning for a complete release of TLW (nearly two decades!)

 

 

Yes, exactly! Took the words right out of my mouth. 

 

When I saw Jurassic Park in the theater, I was twelve. That movie pretty much defined my teenage years, and those years are probably the most impressionable years for most people.... 

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4 minutes ago, crumbs said:

I'm certain the inexplicable microedit in Rescuing Sarah (which forever annoyed me, because it was my favourite part of the film), combined with my confusion over a mysterious track called The Hunt, ignited my interest in JW's music and the concept of score expansions (before I was even old enough to understand why music would be missing from a soundtrack).

Weren't you confused by "Ludlow's Demise" as well, a track that has parts playing at three different spots in the movie?

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6 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

Weren't you confused by "Ludlow's Demise" as well, a track that has parts playing at three different spots in the movie.

 

Absolutely! And why all the music was out of order from how I remembered it in the film. And why the TLW track was used all over the film, and had a different opening in the end credits (also missing from the soundtrack).

 

It sparked my curiosity in a way that no other score did, ironically because the score was such a butchered mess in the film (simultaneously introducing me to the concepts of music being recorded but unused, cues being tracked over places they weren't intended, and soundtracks not being chronological).

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12 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

How do you wear out a CD?

 

Have you seen the cardboard sleeve that CD slotted into? Not hard for a 10 year old to scratch a disc when sliding it in & out and playing it on every CD player in the house.

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Just now, crumbs said:

 

Have you seen that cardboard sleeve the disc slots into? Not hard for a 10 year old to scratch a CD when sliding it in and out hundreds of times.

 

Yeah, but that cardboard doesn't leave deep scratches.

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1 minute ago, crumbs said:

 

Have you seen that cardboard sleeve the disc slots into? Not hard for a 10 year old to scratch a CD when sliding it in and out hundreds of times.

 

In my early twenties, when I got serious about collecting, I had to rebuy most of the John Williams CDs. As a child, I didn't know how to take care of things... 

4 minutes ago, mstrox said:

JP - I like the scores more.

 

Yeah... 

 

I still love listening to the HP set pieces like Harry's Wondrous World, Hedwig's Theme, The Chamber of Secrets, and Mischief Managed, but overall, the JP scores are more listenable from start to finish, I feel like. 

8 minutes ago, Jay said:

I think the poll results will line up with the age of the voter

 

Meaning the younger generation prefer HP, the more older folks JP? Yeah, probably. 

 

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Didn't get JP box. First it was too expensive for my liking. Now it's sold out.

 

The Potter box is amazing. Such a great release. The amount of little tunes in HP is amazing. 

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I almost let it go because at that time I still haven't clicked onto JP yet, though I loved TLW. Thankfully I ordered it in its last days and surprisingly I've flipped since then: I love JP but TLW sometimes fails to keep my attention!

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28 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

I still love listening to the HP set pieces like Harry's Wondrous World, Hedwig's Theme, The Chamber of Secrets, and Mischief Managed, but overall, the JP scores are more listenable from start to finish, I feel like. 

 

Basically this. While I appreciate the dizzying musical prowess on display in JW's Potter scores, most days I'd still rather listen to JP or TLW.

 

The first two Potters are just so dense with themes, ideas and lush orchestrations in every cue, it's all a bit... much, for extended listens anyway. In fact, I probably listen to disc 3 of HP1 more than the complete score, simply because it sums up all the ideas and is far less fatiguing. Same with POA, where Williams stripped away the flamboyant orchestration and wrote more interesting music.

 

But I'm always in the mood for something from TLW because that score is deliciously diverse. And whenever I need something more lyrical/melodic, I'll find it in JP :)

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56 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Don't forget your Arista SW trilogy box!

 

Damn, you're right. How could I forget? That, then.

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41 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

Yeah... 

 

I still love listening to the HP set pieces like Harry's Wondrous World, Hedwig's Theme, The Chamber of Secrets, and Mischief Managed, but overall, the JP scores are more listenable from start to finish, I feel like. 

 

Meaning the younger generation prefer HP, the more older folks JP? Yeah, probably. 

 

 

Of the five scores, the only one that I feel really benefits from an expanded presentation is The Lost World.  On the face of things, I prefer Prisoner of Azkaban to The Lost World, but prefer JP to all of 'em.

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Definitely Harry Potter. Still discovering the amazing contents of the set even now. The Jurassic Park set is great but is no where near as good as Potter. Truly magical.

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4 hours ago, King Mark said:

Harry Potter by far. It's the best  expanded score release ever. The standard by which Star Wars and Indiana Jones should be released

 

There wasn't that much unreleased music on JP (most of it was released on the  anniversary release earlier) and Lost World is far from a favorite of mine...it's a bit in a category like Minority Report and WotW where I find the action music too loud, frenetic and directionless

 

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I was thinking about this the other day when listening to a few bits of TLW.

 

Given that nothing had leaked from either Jurassic before the anniversary set, and we didn't get the last few JP cues until LLL's box, and we had no idea it was coming, the JP box I'd say was more meaningful.

 

The Potter box is an astounding release, but we had strong evidence it was coming, and its main takeaway for me was PoA.

 

Basing it purely on having the complete scores... Potter probably wins, but for overall effect and meaning, the JP box wins.

 

Plus: I think The Lost World is one of the best concert pieces JW has ever done. The final section from 2:40 is up there for me with the ending of T-Rex Rescue and Finale in sheer :lovethis:.

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Damn, tough one. These were two of my most eagerly-awaited expansions and I've absolutely loved having them in my collection. Let me break down the pros for each...

 

Jurassic Park

  • No missing music...as far as I can tell, literally every bit is there! The Potter set is incredible but there are some bits and bobs left out.
  • TLW is incredibly re-listenable for me. I can't think of an expanded release I've revisited more often.
  • I have problems with the sequencing of both OSTs, and I find this to be a big improvement. I didn't find the need to do much re-editing for my own listening, either. (POA is tough in terms of sequencing...chronological order has some real weak spots, but I'm also not real big on its sequencing in this release.)
  • Without any bootlegs or session leaks, this was truly the first time a lot of the music (for TLW, at least) was heard on its own.
  • Neither score is overwhelmingly long for me. (SS and COS are a little intimidating in their runtimes, even though I like the music.)
  • Minimal redundancy of material. If you really felt like it, you could listen to the whole box set straight through. (COS by nature has a lot of stuff lifted straight from SS.)
  • The series doesn't happen to be associated with an author who's been really disappointing me recently as a person.

Harry Potter

  • There were more surprises here. The harp version of Hedwig's theme...the vocal version of Hogwarts Forever...stuff we didn't even know existed.
  • All three scores sound great. (I like the way TLW sounds but for JP, I prefer the brighter sound and subtler compression of the OST.)
  • In terms of sheer amount of material, there's an obvious advantage here. Not only are there three scores instead of two, the ample concert suites, the trailer cues, the alternates, the original source music, and the Children's Suite really sweeten the deal.
  • All three scores had huge amounts of material that was officially unreleased before. (TLW had a lot, but JP was of course mostly available already.)
  • No toothless Dan Radcliffe in the album art! :lol:

Ultimately, I'm going to vote mostly based on the degree of unmet potential in each release. I can think of very little that would improve the JP set, whereas there are still (small) gaps in the HP set I'd love to see filled in someday. I'll vote for the JP box, which is a truly definitive release - gummy T-rex aside.

 

(Oh, and if the disaster movie box were included, my vote wouldn't change. I like that set but the scores themselves are just not in the same echelon for me.)

 

P.S. For what it's worth, if someone were to guess my vote based solely on my age, Potter would have been the rather more logical guess.

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3 minutes ago, Datameister said:

The series doesn't happen to be associated with an author who's been really disappointing me recently as a person.

 

Well, Michael Crichton died. How disappointing is that?

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1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Well, Michael Crichton died. How disappointing is that?

 

Don't get me wrong, I still haven't forgiven him for it...but at least that wound has had a little more time for me to heal!

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HP, easily.  Was never big on TLW, and still am not.  JP is my favorite individual score from either box set, but there wasn’t much missing from JP to begin with.  Just getting the full children’s HP suite from SS alone makes that set more enjoyable to me.

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2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

 

 

The Potter box is an astounding release, but we had strong evidence it was coming, and its main takeaway for me was PoA.

 

we "kind " of had strong evidence but I didn't really believe it until the day it was announced, and was worried they might retroactively cancel it before I had a chance to buy it!

 

am i the only one who cares nothing about the missing Schwam cue or whatever.We have the underscore for that scene anyways

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19 minutes ago, Jay said:

It's a joke man, no one's really that upset they couldn't include it.

 

It's for lols

I'm definitely not upset about missing it, but I was endlessly fascinated with the shawm cue as a 10-year-old for some reason. I still have a habbit of humming it subconsciously from time to time (my boyfriend knows it well by now, haha).

 

It probably started my interest in the art of combining source music and score. If I get to direct some movies in the future that's something I'd love to play around with.

 

It's a source cue I love and I wish was included, but not a loss that affected my enjoyment of the release in any way.

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It sounds cool in the film but I don't know how exciting it'd be to listen isolated from everything else

 

And yea it's pretty neat the way it weaves in and out of the score cue.  I'm glad they replicated it for the LTP concerts

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