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Are you suprised by how good ROTS soundtrack is?


hoby12

Are you surprised by how good the ROTS soundtrack is?  

51 members have voted

  1. 1.

    • Yes
      13
    • No
      34
    • No, 'cuz it stinks.
      4


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hey all, haven't posted in a while been busy. I love the new soundtrack - I hope to get some time to listen to it more this week. I must say i expected this one to stink based upon the leaks and reviews, and the theme. But it has really grown on me (the theme) and it really has some cool stuff on it. I am very happy I waited to get the CD to listen to this!

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I don't know.  How good is it?

Neil

Its good man, dont be such a downer.

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its good....although i do like the "across the stars" theme better......i can definitely tell how the movie is going to open....this new theme has influence from church music or something....i can't figure out where he got his inspiration for the new theme, but it sounds a lot like church music....

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No.. John Williams is always inspired by Star Wars..

cough, aotc, cough.

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No; quite frankly I was a little surprised that it wasn't better.

Ray Barnsbury - who quite enjoys parts of it, and hopes that seeing the movie will make the rest of it hit home

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No; quite frankly I was a little surprised that it wasn't better.

Ray Barnsbury - who quite enjoys parts of it, and hopes that seeing the movie will make the rest of it hit home

I agree with this statement.I like BotH a lot though(track 3).

K.M.

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Yeah, I think that if BotH were combined with the terrific variations of the theme in "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan," it would be significantly better. The concert arrangement, if it is in fact one, is great but somewhat lacking when compared to classic Williams SW pieces. Its renditions in "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan" really spice the theme up, but the ESB quotes in that track are a huge detriment, imo. Really takes me out of the piece.

Ray Barnsbury

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It is good but not as great as I had hoped.

As others have said, I really need to see the film before I can make my final judgement on the score.

:P The Lost World - Jurassic Park: The Lost World - John Williams :music:

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No.. John Williams is always inspired by Star Wars..

cough, aotc, cough.

Well, this is a typical case where the film derserves its soundtrack.

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I was underwhelmed by the leaked mp3s. I seriously thought it was a rather bland score. But now that I've got the CD, I'm hearing things in the score I previously never heard. It's amazing what better sound quality can do for music.

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I'm actually surprised at how deep "General Grievous" is compared to what it sounds like at first. At first, it sounds like stock, but then you listen to it and hear a lot more than you do in the stock.

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i can't figure out where he got his inspiration for the new theme, but it sounds a lot like church music....

What church do you go to? ROTFLMAO

Ray Barnsbury

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No.. John Williams is always inspired by Star Wars..

cough, aotc, cough.

Well, this is a typical case where the film derserves its soundtrack.

I see it as a case where the score is worse than the movie.

I still haven't figured out how good ROTS is, I like it alot, I play it alot. Like Ray and KM I think it could be better, but I also want to see the movie, and see and hear how it plays in the film.

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i can't figure out where he got his inspiration for the new theme, but it sounds a lot like church music....

What church do you go to? :joy:

Ray Barnsbury

:baaa:

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I'm not suprised, but I think I was expecting to hear more themes incorporated into the score, and not just the Force Theme and the AotC love theme. More Emperor, more Anakin transitional material into the Emperial March, more Droid Landing theme...etc.

Tim, who continues to understand that the CD is not the complete score, but believes it is an accurate representation of what the whole is...

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The music is absolutely terrific and it's getting closer and closer to the level of The Empire Strikes Back for me. Just fantastic stuff in there!

I'm REALLY hoping for a full release of this score...THE WAY WILLIAMS MEANT IT. Not the way some editor, Lucas or another nitwit 'meant' it to be. People that don't understand or fully appreciate the masterfull creativity of music.

But I'm still somewhat disappointed by some of the decisionmaking. Some of it sounds quite amateuristic, when going from one section to the other. The transitions sometimes sound like edits to me. Very weird, especially since the music is so incredibly good. It sometimes sounds as if it were a work-in-progress. That this isn't the finalized product. That either Williams still was in the midst of finishing this, or that it was rushed for lack of time, or that someone screwed up by releasing the wrong cues, or something. Were it not for those seemlike 'errors' it perhaps would've already shared its first place with TESB score.

But I have to say I'm less bothered by it then I was before. Now I just listen to the godlike material that's in there.

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No I'm not surprised at how good it is, because first I don't think it's that good, and second I was prepared for this by the horrible AOTC score. IMO I think ROTS is a slight improvement on AOTC, but let's face it this music is in a different league from the scores to the original films. Williams is a very different composer now. What I hear in his most recent scores (with a few notable exceptions) is a man who has spent his life writing superb music and in doing so has learnt a few "tricks of the trade". Now in his declining years as a film composer he seems to be utilising these "tricks" instead of writing more meaningful music. That's not to say that Williams' "tricks of the trade" aren't more musical and intricate than most composers' entire output (Shore, Zimmer, Arnold etc) but nontheless I still feel a little meloncholy for the lost old days. He was and is a great composer and has rightfully earned his place in the history books, and a good rest! I no longer expect him to devote the time and energy to each score that he did in his youth. Why should he? Films have changed over the years, and the art of film-scoring has really declined in the last 15 years or so. I can't remember the last film score to win best picture that was actually reasonably good (with the exception of the superb "The Red Violin"). ROTS has some good moments: I love General Grievous. Battle of the Heroes is a fun piece. The music from Empire is distracting. It only serves to remind me how much better the Empire score was. I hope it's inclusion is justified when we see how it's used in film on May 19th. I really can't stand the Finale. I've always hated that suite version of Throne Room. The endless clunky repetitions (lets have a cadence and then repeat it up a half-step... YEUCH!) and transitions. Really horrible. Having said that there's enough good music here to make it an enjoyable listen. It's just that I used to expect more than that from a Williams score.

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I agree with what Pixie has to say.

When comparing the OT to the PT, you can easily see that a) He is no longer inspired by Star Wars series, B) He has lost a step, i.e. His creative juices, c) His style has changed dramatically.

I think it is a bit of all three. We could also attribute it to the ADD way of editing films now days.

I think this album is good, but I would really like to hear all 130 minutes or so of this score. It has a so much potential that is not reached on the OST.

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That's a decent theory, but it doesn't explain where the score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came from. That was written between TPM and AOTC and sounds like something he would have written in the 1980's. It's the style and sound that AOTC needs. So he clearly still has "it" in him.

Neil

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That's a decent theory, but it doesn't explain where the score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came from.  That was written between TPM and AOTC and sounds like something he would have written in the 1980's.  It's the style and sound that AOTC needs.  So he clearly still has "it" in him.

Neil

When I mentioned "notable exceptions" in my post above I was primarily thinking about HPPS :thumbup:

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Or you could both be kidding yourselves and AOTC is just about as good as HP1.

AotC is far from "horrible" or "boring" or "mind-numbing" or whatever, but it's definitely not as good as HPPS.

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And HP PoA... and even Terminal... Compare those to the last 2 Star Wars scores.. I know they are not the same kind of movie... But the 1st and the 3rd HP movies show that John Williams is still in step... And is creating great music, appropriate for the films he scores.

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I hate the re-recorded ESB music in track 9 more and more.

k.M.

I do not hate cause hate leads to the Dark Side :thumbup:, but the truth is that I do not really enjoy these parts on track 9. I think it will sound great in the film but when I´m listening to the soundtrack all I wanna listen is new music, and in track 9 I can´t wait until the ESB music finishes and BotH comes back

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I hate the re-recorded ESB music in track 9 more and more.

k.M.

I do not hate cause hate leads to the Dark Side :music:, but the truth is that I do not really enjoy these parts on track 9. I think it will sound great in the film but when I´m listening to the soundtrack all I wanna listen is new music, and in track 9 I can´t wait until the ESB music finishes and BotH comes back

It's the opposite for me. It makes me want to put the ESB soundtrack in the CD player instead. ;)

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I hate the re-recorded ESB music in track 9 more and more.

k.M.

I do not hate cause hate leads to the Dark Side ;), but the truth is that I do not really enjoy these parts on track 9. I think it will sound great in the film but when I´m listening to the soundtrack all I wanna listen is new music, and in track 9 I can´t wait until the ESB music finishes and BotH comes back

I think I will edit out the whole middle segment.

K.M.

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What most surprised me was how much it was improved by putting it in chronological order. I know Williams has always had this interest in creating albums that are a unique listening experience, but honestly, is there going to be anybody who liked the music enough to buy the album but not enough to remember the basic order it came in? Especially Williams's music, which is so good that, as Spielberg likes to say, you can listen to it and still get the movie. When it's all out of order I'm sorry but it sounds out of order.

I thought this album was okay when I first listened to it, but once I put it in order and, equally importantly, added Duel of the Fates in where it belonged off my EpI CD, I fell in love with the score and have been listening to it for the last week evey chance I get. This certainly wasn't the case with AOTC, which I listened to three or four times, then promptly consigned to my Williams shelf.

The album as bought doesn't grab me, but the reorganized CD I burned is one of my favorite score albums in years.

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Or you could both be kidding yourselves and AOTC is just about as good as HP1.

No, Philosopher's Stone is not that bad.

Neil

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I remember back in 2002 when both scores Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and A.I. Artificial Intelligence were nominated for Oscars, I saw most Williams fans really wanted A.I. to win, but gradually, people have gone soft on Potter.

Why is that?

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Although the best writing of HP1 is probably more emotional than AOTC (Harry's Wondrous World), HP 1 is far more repetetive, with its many similar statements of Hedwig's theme earlier on. Both movies have comparable action music and the Love theme is written with the same skill in orchestration and line as Hedwig's theme. One could pick favorites based on their love or hate of the films or their expectations beforehand. But a true JWFan would see both scores as the composer in his typical high quality busy mode, writing a great mix of Romantic and Modern orchestra music. The movie fans are the ones who divide the two scores into highly different realms of quality.

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Or you could both be kidding yourselves and AOTC is just about as good as HP1.

definately not kidding myself, AOTC is not as good as Harry Potter, even HPCOS is a better score than AOTC, even if they share some of the same music.

AOTC is John's worst modern score.

A. He wasn't inspired.

B. He probably thought he had lost it.

c. He had no reason to use his 70's or 80' style as nothing in AOTC warranted it.

I remember back in 2002 when both scores Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and A.I. Artificial Intelligence were nominated for Oscars, I saw most Williams fans really wanted A.I. to win, but gradually, people have gone soft on Potter.  

Why is that?

becuase it didn't happen that way, it was nearly 50/50 with a slight edge to Harry Potter, and we still have Harry Potter, while A.I. is just a bad memory of a film, and a fine dust collector as a score.

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while A.I. is just a bad memory of a film, and a fine dust collector as a score.

Really?

K.M.For whom A.I. is in his 15 top Williams scores

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Most of the criticisms of AotC seem based on people’s listening experience. But I know that there are also a lot of people who really like listening to it. And you can find lots of positive reviews at the time when it came out. But these kinds of personal reactions don’t tell us a lot - everyone is different.

So the crucial question is how the score worked with the film and I can think of only a couple concrete cases where somebody has singled out JW’s music as not working for the film. Those may even be legitimate examples but its striking and revealing that there aren’t more examples cited because that is really the crucial basis on which to judge a score unless we take the view that JW’s job is to write a score that pleases me (whoever that is) and if he falls short, its a sign that he wasn’t inspired or is deteriorating or something like that.

He wrote a love theme that conveys the tragedy and romance that was intended with the scenes. He wrote music to capture the mystery aspect of the story. And he payed attention to all the details that he usually does, both compositionally and in the specifics of the film. In short, he wrote a score that invokes Lucas's vision of AotC, for better or worse, with all of the unique limitations and opportunites that the film provided.

If it were true this was a worse effort for JW (which I disagree with but am open minded about), my opinion of him would probably increase even more with the realization that an uninspired JW still writes such rich, complicated music that I can enjoy listening to so much.

- Adam

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No.. John Williams is always inspired by Star Wars..

cough, aotc, cough.

Well, this is a typical case where the film derserves its soundtrack.

I see it as a case where the score is worse than the movie.

I don't agree. The film offers many moments of pure putridity (New word!) while I can't really remember more than a single element of the film that I really enjoyed. (The mystery behind Jango Fett was enjoyable if clumsily done.)

While the score has Across the Stars even if nowhere near the class of Princess Leia's theme is none the less a solid theme. The action music suffers but it still has The Chase Through Couruscant which (whether you like it or not) is imediatly identifiable as the music from AOTC.

IMO, of course. :wave:

However, you are correct. The score is suprisingly weak when compared with the other two prequels it is sandwhiched with. Although I still see at least 15 minutes of wonderful music on the album.

I see perhaps 10 minutes of servicable film and at least the score doesn't have Yoda jumping around like an idiot.

Justin - Who thinks it's mainly a matter of opinion.

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For me, the AOTC score evokes bad memories of the film and stops me from enjoying it. AOTC is certainly not one of JW's strongest scores IMO, but I think that the fact that every time I hear Anakin and Padme or The Meadow Picnic, I remember the awkward scenes that the music underscores.

:wave: The Pink Panther Theme - The Pink Panther - Henry Mancini :P

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For me, the AOTC score evokes bad memories of the film and stops me from enjoying it. AOTC is certainly not one of JW's strongest scores IMO, but I think that the fact that every time I hear Anakin and Padme or The Meadow Picnic, I remember the awkward scenes that the music underscores.

Very honest. I believe this is where most of the score bashing comes from.

I have a feeling that the people (myself included) who think Minority Report is a classic JW score (not dust collector) are also the ones in the pro AOTC score camp. I'll start a poll right now.

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