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Simon Franglen's AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)


LSH

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Honestly, I rather ambivalent about the score for Avatar, but there is some truly amazing moments in it, like the cue below, which I've loved since the movie came out (despite the obvious Gladiator temp track):

 

 

 

And yeah, that one NEEDS an expansion. So many great cues weren't included in the OST, specially from the climax.

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My issue with the Avatar score is, that with its typical world music sound it contributes significantly to the romantic indigenous cliches so that for me the movie feels rather, I said it before, like Disney's Robin Hood with animals (just not as funny), than a science fiction movie on another planet. 

I know. It is not Horner's fault. He was asked to do it that way.

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4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Honestly, I rather ambivalent about the score for Avatar, but there is some truly amazing moments in it

 

 

I preach it since it came out: listen to this 1998 Disney movie and you have all elements (especially percussion, twinkling synth, tribal chorus) from 'Avatar' you need, and imho it's a much better score.

 

 

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I'm really looking forward to hearing Franglen's work but in the meanwhile, here is my complete cover set for this score, with two versions (blue ocean logo and white logo):

Avatar: The Way of Water

image.jpegFor full resolution, click the embedded image album!

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I'm guessing no one among us has a login / credentials for it. Then again it's one more day's wait. 

 

 

 

Tracklist from the site (Had to type it out)

EDIT: 

Horner is credited in the publisher information on only ONE cue as noted. 

 

1. Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength) - Performed by The Weeknd (4:28)
2. Hometree (3:28)
3. Happiness Is Simple (Franglen / Horner) (2:22)
4. A New Star (2:57)
5. Converging Paths (1:45)
6. Rescue and Loss (6:40)
7. Family Is Our Fortress (3:07)
8. Into The Water (3:40)
9. The Way of Water (2:30)
10. Payakan (3:30)
11. Mighty Eywa (4:13)
12. Friends (1:47)
13. Cove of the Ancestors (2:46)
14. The Tulkun Return (2:51)
15. The Hunt (5:48)
16. Na'vi Attack (4:44)
17. Eclipse (3:13)
18. Bad Parents (3:23)
19. Knife Fight (2:48)
20. From Darkness to Light (4:14)
21. The Spirit Tree (2:58)
22. The Songcord - Performed by Zoe Saldana (3:20)

Total Time: 1:16:32

 

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Hard to say with 45 seconds per-track that are playable, and she's singing in the 'Na'vi language at least in that sample. 

It's not too far removed from her speaking voice. 

"The Songcord"

(English Translation of Na’vi language)

I experience Neteyam,
Great Mother, within me
You brought light,
New Life, a new son
Joy within my heart, joy within my heart

We thank you
For the days of our life
We thank you
For the nights of our life
My Eywa! My Eywa!

Welcome, Kiri
I take you to my family
I experience dawn
A miracle arrives, an impossible birth
Joy within a heart, joy within my heart

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The consensus I’m getting from most of these samples is a Thomas Newman synth vibe to everything until maybe around “The Tulkun Return” where I start to hear some orchestra that sounds vaguely similar to Horner for the rest of the score but it’s still not very powerful in these snippets. Haven’t heard any themes beside the danger motif and almost everything sounds like documentary music. Also the human military stuff (I’m assuming that’s what it is) has a terrible synth sound to it. Damn shame if this is what it all actually sounds like. “The Songcord” is interesting. It’s pretty but not memorable.

 

This is obviously just based on the sample but this significantly reduced my excitement for the score. The opening of the new Weeknd song sounds more exciting than what I’ve heard so far.

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2 hours ago, NL197 said:

Tracklist from the site (Had to type it out)

 

 

I wonder if whoever runs the Film Music Reporter site did the same, or just copy/pasted your hard work

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/12/15/avatar-the-way-of-water-soundtrack-album-details/

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

 

I wonder if whoever runs the Film Music Reporter site did the same, or just copy/pasted your hard work

 

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/12/15/avatar-the-way-of-water-soundtrack-album-details/


Not sure, but I didn't add accents to Zoe Saldana's name, and I revised it to add the (Franglen / Horner) name to that track 3. 

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There’s an expanded album coming as well on the 20th!


I saw the movie and it’s brilliant, can’t wait to hear the score but I wonder if the all Horner theme parts will be on the OST. Based on the credits they won’t be which is odd since they’re deeply integrated into the score.

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24 minutes ago, Mr. Who said:

There’s an expanded album coming as well on the 20th!

 

Erik Woods posted a tracklist to the FSM thread, though did not cite a source

 

1. Hometree
2. Songcord Opening
3. Happiness Is Simple
4. A New Star
5. Train Attack
6. Masks Off
7. Converging Paths
8. Rescue and Loss
9. Family Is Our Fortress
10. Sanctuary
11. Into the Water
12. Training Montage
13. The Way of Water
14. Where the Men Hunt
15. Payakan
16. Mighty Eywa
17. Friends
18. Cove of the Ancestors
19. The Tulkun Return
20. The Hunt
21. Kids in Peril
22. Na’vi Attack
23. A Farewell to Arm
24. Eclipse
25. Bad Parents
26. Knife Fight
27. World Upside Down
28. From Darkness to Light
29. Family
30. Songcord Chapter
31. The Spirit Tree
32. The Songcord – Zoë Saldana

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5 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

 

Sounds a bit generic, sadly. 

It's a bit underwhelming for a movie in the works for a decade.

 

Well they had another guy who was supposed to do it.

 

On 13/12/2022 at 5:22 PM, TolkienSS said:

 

😂 Including drive to the theatre, drive back, and commercials, you have to take a day off to watch thing thing.

 

For @Naïve Old Fart, a day might not be enough.

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20 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

 

Sounds a bit generic, sadly. 

It's a bit underwhelming for a movie in the works for a decade.

 

I'll remember this moment: I agree with you. It comes across to me as pleasant, inoffensive background stuff that never really does anything that interesting.

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From my first listen it's a solid 4 out of 5 stars. It suffers a bit from anonymous new themes and unexciting action music, but many great individual moments make up for that. I wonder to what extent seeing the movie will change my opinion of the score for better or for worse. 

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I have seen the movie but haven't listened to the OST yet. There are definitively Horneresque new moments. Some trumpet writing in the action towards the end felt really like Horner.

 

1 hour ago, Bounty95 said:

Yes, but not many. 

The film has a lot of horner moments (some direct quotes as well I think but they might have been re recordings) so I guess the OST focuses on the completely new stuff. The Horner themes are really ingrained into the DNA of the score as heard in the movie, in a good way.

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It’s definitely great to hear the danger theme back but it really pains knowing that Horner should have been scoring this. He would have knocked it out of the park.

Franglen is no James Horner he does a good job for the first 2 hours and a great job for the last hour. Just sucks knowing what Horner could have delivered 

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I didn't really notice the score in the film until some of Horner's themes came in. Franglen used them in the proper places. Otherwise it's a pretty average and serviceable action score that won't win any awards. It's quite sad knowing that James Horner could've been scoring this 3 hour epic.

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Thanks to everyone that has posted their impressions of the score as heard in the film and/or on album. 

 

My question to those that have seen the film, would you recommend first watching it to experience the score in context or should one dive straight into the album?

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4 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Thanks to everyone that has posted their impressions of the score as heard in the film and/or on album. 

 

My question to those that have seen the film, would you recommend first watching it to experience the score in context or should one dive straight into the album?

I have seen the film but haven’t heard the album yet. In general I always prefer going in cold without having listened to the score before and it was great hearing it in context the first time.

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9 hours ago, MaxMovieMan said:

This score is very interesting as it sounds like Horner’s Avatar but there aren’t any memorable new themes for me really

 

 

Personally, I love the new Franglen theme heard in 'The Tulkun Return.' 

 

Very Horner-esque and hummable.

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The album is exactly as I experienced it in the film. Great parts: Whatever is left of the Horner DNA. Bad parts: Most everything else. But I think and hope I can weed the 76 minutes down to some 30-40 minutes of decent stuff.

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So I guess the first major new theme from Franglen is in 'THE TULKUN RETURN.'

 

A Theme:

- 0:17

- 0:51

- 1:58 (Chords of the melody)

 

B Theme:

- 0:38

- 1:02

- 2:21

 

Gorgeous stuff all round.

 

Kind of reminds me of a theme suite presentation that Williams always gives his best themes for concert performance.

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After one listen I can say that I love the score! There are some very nice new themes (Family, Swimming, Healing, The Skypeople military motif and harmonies, The Tulkun and some more motifs that I haven't noted down yet). I think Franglen captured the DNA of the first score and expanded not he musical language without copying Horner. You hear Franglen's musical voice and what he does with the underwater scenes is really magical.

 

The OSt is definitively missing a lot of music and I hope that the extended album will add the most important missing cues. There is a lot more Horner material in the film (including some parts from Destruction of Hometree, Quaritch's final cue from A1 etc). The flute theme that plays at 2:38 in 3m2 Jakes Meets the Na'vi... from the first score is also used quite frequently in the movie but doesn't appear on this first OST at all.

 

I think Cameron made the right choice, naming Franglen as the composer fro the Avatar sequels and it will be interesting to see how he develops the new (and old) themes in the upcoming sequels, given that they are taking a thematic approach with the music

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What I called the Healing theme (plays in the first part of From Darkness to Light before the Family theme comes in and several other tracks) in my previous post, is in fact Kiri's theme, confirmed by Franglen on Twitter.

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