This is truly the most pathetic attempt at creating a franchise I can think of. Three film's that to my knowledge have literately nothing in common other than adding the word Cloverfield in the title and some forced triangulation.
That's the beauty of this particular franchse!
Exactly. I hear the name Cloverfield I know exactly what it means, even if the installment is vaguely related to other parts. While the score to Paradox isn't (yet...I haven't finished the show yet) on part with 10 Cloverfield, it has some dynamite moments -- the actual main title is very pretty and the music for their final attempt to start the accelerator is glorious. It's not all gloom and doom. And one aggressive action cue so far. I look forward to hearing the score on its own.
I agree with Roger, the score is great!
The Film on the other hand is a royal mess, it feels like a first draft that no one really thought through very well.
Also, it doesn't answer any of the questions of the first two films as the trailer said it would.
It was such a boss move for Netflix to announce a franchise movie with a surprise Super Bowl commercial and drop the movie at the same time. If the movie's not any good, it's a real crap capper on that masterful advertising.
A real bummer that the movie isn't being well received. I look forward to watching it next weekend, although with tempered expectations based on what I'm hearing.
It was such a boss move for Netflix to announce a franchise movie with a surprise Super Bowl commercial and drop the movie at the same time. If the movie's not any good, it's a real crap capper on that masterful advertising.
Totally agree. Someone at Bad Robot really earned their office meeting bagel leftovers with that marketing coup.
Soundtrack is out on iTunes. 76 minutes. There isn't nearly that much music in the movie so now I'm excited to hear Bear's original conception for the film.
Just listened to this and it's... Frustrating, but definitely merits a listen - Albeit one with caveats and reservations.
Let's start by acknowledging that of all the music I've heard from McCreary, this is probably the best score he's written, and sounds most like an actual full-blooded "symphonic score" of the ilk most of us so badly crave. There are even - wait for it - WOODWINDS! (Holy moly! Call Jerry Bruckheimer, he'll put a stop to that nonsense immediately!) And the score of the orchestral writing, by any standard at all, is often quite enormous.
"Cassiopeia" is by and far the most musically satisfying cue with its swells of awe and wonder (and some interesting instrumental textures early on), "A Message for Ava" has some nice choral swells later on, even if I can't remember a note of it right now as I write (and why are the crescendos fattened by synth hits instead of an actual percussion accent? Very annoying). The finale of "Magno-Putty" is genuinely dramatic and imposing in the way Chris Young's genre work can sometime be, "Spacewalk" has got some really fun and expansive ideas and comes as close as any cue to sounding like traditional action-adventure music - In fact, I might even go as far as to call this cue "pretty great" and maybe the best thing I've heard from McCreary so far. The brass stabs at the end of "Launch Sequence" are pretty monstrous and towering, and the final two cues follow suit with satisfyingly dramatic, swelling modern sci-fi music.
Note that I say "modern sci-fi" music, however.
And that's the problem I have with this score. Every moment of genuinely impressive music (and make no mistake, those abound here - this really and truly is McCreary's best score of his career thus far) are either doubled or followed in short succession by throbbing electronics and chopping ostinatos of the most deeply cliche and unsatisfying kind throughout, with loads of generic brass slurs/stabs you've heard a million times before in generic scores from generic composers for generic sci-fi/horror films, long sustained passages where nothing of even the most remote musical interest happens...
I'm frustrated and really don't know what to think. There really is a lot of well done, dramatic, lofty and large-scale stuff here for JJ's newest film (and make no mistake - this IS a JJ Abrams film, he reshot 90% of it himself in his own studio when the original director's work wasn't proving effective at all), but it never lets you quite forget your watching a modern sci-fier, with constant annoying throbbing electronics and whatnot...
I'm going to have to listen a few more times before making a real assessment, and while I'm thrilled to see a composer being allowed to go so "big" and orchestral, I wish JJ, a purported lover of traditional orchestral film scores, had either given McCreary freedom to leave the cheesy throbbing bass lines, chopping ostinatos and "Horn of doom" at home.
Still - Compared to DUNKIRK or BATMAN VS. VENOM or whatever else has come out of late, it's a damn-near modern masterpiece I guess...
It's not a film, but I'm surprised you don't rate McCreary's amazing work on Outlander. It's fantastic, thematic, orchestral, well-developed. Nothing synthetic or modern about it, really. Unless you just hate anything with bagpipes? But I find his usage the most brilliant treatment the instrument(s) -- he uses several different kinds -- have ever gotten in film music.
I think it's by far his best, though I'm intrigued by this and was really impressed by his previous Cloverfield score.
This movie is epicly bad. The only reason I kept watching was because seeing half a train wreck is no fun. The most instant Mystery Science Theater material I've seen in a while.
Listening to the soundtrack just makes me realize how poor the music was mixed in the film. There is a lot of *very* accomplished writing here and the orchestra sounds absolutely gigantic. However, the album is way too long. There's a really terrific fifty minute album lurking in here somewhere, with long stretches of suspense cues in the middle that should have been pruned out. But honestly, given the source material, it's a credit to McCreary that he was able to write something so engaging the majority of the time. The thematic material that I've identified so far (1: The upward scale patterns of the main title, usually used as an action ostinato, 2: A pretty family theme for the main character, often heard from the chorus, sometimes accompanied by its own ostinato (c, d, e-flat, c, e-flat) as Bear often does, 3: A bitonal brass motif, ala The Matrix, often used in situations of danger. ex: 2:23 of Magno-Putty) is also much easier to make out away from the film.
(And yeah, when I first started the movie, the very liberal use of the Horn of Doom (tm) in the main titles was deeply worrying but as with all the other concessions to modern film scoring, McCreary makes it his own.)
I'm very happy to hear there's a liberal amount of electronics in the score! I haven't heard it yet, but as a self-professed lover of electronics in film music -- and as someone who found McCreary's work on Revolt to be my favorite of his outside TWD -- one bobbengan's frustration happens to be another Deputy's elation. Looking forward to it even more now!
It's funny, but I felt sort of opposite of Mr. bobbengan about the 10 Cloverfield Lane score, in a way -- I was frustrated by the barely-hinted at presence of the blaster beam, seemingly the only electronic element in that score. However, I didn't have as much criticism of the non-synth aspects of 10CL as bobbengan does about this new score's use of electronics, though. I thought 10CL was wonderful but it could've used a less-reserved presence of the beam and a more reserved use of the main theme -- which is terrific, but you're assaulted senseless with its repetition.
I enjoyed the movie despite its predictable juggling of old ideas - but the score lifted it up big time. McCreary really is one of the great composers working right now.
I really liked the first two movies (and am a fan of McCreary's scoring for WD). I keep hearing bad things about this third installment, though. Really bad, which is disappointing.
I really liked the first two movies (and am a fan of McCreary's scoring for WD). I keep hearing bad things about this third installment, though. Really bad, which is disappointing.
I'd say it is at least fun bad. The cast, effects, photography and score make for a very polished turd. If you go in with the right mindset (one step above Syfy Channel) and lowered expectations it might be a good time. Plus it's not like you're shelling out $12 plus the time to drive to and from a theater. Punching it up on Netflix is the perfect way to... enjoy? this.
It's one of those films where all the blame is placed on the script. The rest of the production is actually quite good. But it's a real turd of a script. It would have been completely unwatchable with a less talented cast.
I’ve been a fan of Bear’s since Human Target and 10 Cloverfield Lane was one of my favorite scores of that year.
This definitely isn’t the most melodic of scores — instead focusing on that up-action ostinato and a bitonal motif (Don Davis would blush). There is a lovely family that reaches astounding heights in “A Message for Ava.”
I cannot get over that track. It is such a well-written progression of an idea, slowly unfolding over 6 minutes, until it hits a climax that doesn’t feel overbearing but totally earned.
Speaking of overbearing, Bear’s use of electronics is thankfully a bit toned down here.
Most of "A Message of Ava" is dialed out in the film. Either that or it was written for a different cut of the film (which seems more likely). Kinda a shame given how beautiful it is. Only the first two or so minutes are used.
