Where the Marvel scores succeed are in moments, and not really the overall IMO. There are good moments in most of them. The main title in Incredible Hulk, the helicarrier in Avengers, the 1960s end credits of Iron Man 3, the Viking funeral in Thor 2, the Groot/spores scene in Guardians, Vision awakening in Avengers 2. These are all interesting, unique, well scored moments. But if you take an action track from one of the movies, even one that uses the movie's theme, and play it for me blind, I likely won't be able to tell you which movie it's from.
Onscreen, I think they suit just fine. On album - a lot of generic, even from some of the "old pros" in the series like Silvestri, Doyle, and Elfman.
It's telling that the most striking use of music in all of the current crop of Marvel films is when Wanda (Scarlett Witch) rips ultron's heart out underscored by the haunting choral Berliner Masse by Arvo Part. I thought it was an amazing moment. I thought Tyler/Elfman really went somewhere else with that cue- until I learned it was actually Part. Oh well.
Where the Marvel scores succeed are in moments, and not really the overall IMO. There are good moments in most of them. The main title in Incredible Hulk, the helicarrier in Avengers, the 1960s end credits of Iron Man 3, the Viking funeral in Thor 2, the Groot/spores scene in Guardians, Vision awakening in Avengers 2. These are all interesting, unique, well scored moments. But if you take an action track from one of the movies, even one that uses the movie's theme, and play it for me blind, I likely won't be able to tell you which movie it's from.
Onscreen, I think they suit just fine. On album - a lot of generic, even from some of the "old pros" in the series like Silvestri, Doyle, and Elfman.
Yeah I did like quite a bit of Guardians of the Galaxy at least in the context of the film. Haven't listened to it much out of the picture and not sure I could hum it but it was effective.
Captain America Winter Soldier has its moments but his "theme" is really a brass chord suspension and that's about it, compared to Silvestri's fleshed out melody which could have been adapted if the producers/fllmmakers had let their composer give it a shot. Remember Jackman did compose a nice theme for Kick Ass so he is capable....
Captain America Winter Soldier has its moments but his "theme" is really a brass chord suspension and that's about it, ....
There was a funny video -- it's gone now -- on youtube of Jackman cursing about it, at his computer, saying there was a theme (and he played it) but the producers or director kept wanting him to remove this and that, with him cursing something like, "That's just the fucking bass line!"
Marvel has the most homogeneous, brand-restricted sound of movie any franchise going. The scores are almost interchangeable with one another.
Yes, because Thor 1 has the same score as The Dark World. Captain America The First Avengers is the same as Winter Soldier and Civil War. And Avengers has the same score as Age Of Ultron. Same with Iron Man 1, 2, 3, plus The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Jessica Jones, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Daredevil.
Also, complaining about the Marvel scores having the lack of thematic consistency and at the same time of being interchangeable is kind of hypocrite. You people did the same with Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. When they keep the themes or go through new territories, you always find a excuse to complain.
I would rather have the Marvel scores as messy as they are in the thematic department (seems like Giacchino has becomed into the new composer for Marvel after they threw Brian Tyler and his themes), than DC's scores that they actually sound the same (and Zimmer lied about making composers to use their themes since Price didn't used the Batman theme in Suicide Squad). If you people keep expecting to the scores to be like Star Wars with 10.000 themes and 100 piece orchestras, then you'll be stuck in the same. The rest of the people will keep enjoying them.
Come on. No love for Christophe Beck's Ant-man theme?
Over 3 million views for the Avenger's Theme
I'm still bitter that the Captain America March was an Amazon bonus track:
And all of these are unique in their own way. And the way Elfman reconstructed the Avengers theme and made it more heroic and Jackman turned the noisy Winter Soldier motif into a orchestral theme was great. Also, McCreary's development of his themes in Agents Of Shield through the course of 3 seasons is more of what most of modern composers have done in the past years.
Also, last year's Academy Awards, they played several of Brian Tyler's themes for Marvel and people recognized them right away.
Captain America Winter Soldier has its moments but his "theme" is really a brass chord suspension and that's about it, ....
There was a funny video -- it's gone now -- on youtube of Jackman cursing about it, at his computer, saying there was a theme (and he played it) but the producers or director kept wanting him to remove this and that, with him cursing something like, "That's just the fucking bass line!"
Yes I remember that! But I thought it was an interview about X Men First Class actually. I don't think it was for Captain America.
If you people keep expecting to the scores to be like Star Wars with 10.000 themes and 100 piece orchestras, then you'll be stuck in the same. The rest of the people will keep enjoying them.
Freedom of speech brother, and the right to like or dislike whatever we choose.
BTW- thematic breadth doesn't mean you have to have 10,000 themes- just a salient couple that are developed. And I don't think anyone is blaming the composers. It's the production company the makes these demands and if the composer wants to get paid, they follow suit.
]Come on. No love for Christophe Beck's Ant-man theme?
I do like this theme- I don't care for the tutti part but everything else is great. I'm also one of the few people who really liked what Beck did with Elektra. Nice theme written on celli.
The biggest issue with the MCU, musically, is thematic consistency. If each character had only one theme and not three like Iron Man... and if those themes were carried over to the other films, I think you would find that people would have an easier time recalling the melodies.
I can whistle Patrick Doyle's Thor Theme at least. Probably my favorite MCU score.
Personally I find it rather disappointing not to have more continuity in terms of themes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Granted, Alan Silvestri's Cap theme recurs now and then in other movies as well as variations of his Avengers theme. Oh, and Brian Tyler sneaked his theme from Iron Man 3 into Age of Ultron. If I remember correctly Henry Jackman was the first composer who was able to build a sequel score on his previous effort. But I guess this is what you get, if you hire one composer after another.
The closest Marvel has ever come to producing a memorable score is Henry Jackman's (et al., of course) for "The Winter Soldier", and only because it pounded its way through the soundscape during certain action sequences that you couldn't help but notice it.
Alan Silvestri's score for the first Captain America film was powerful (and very good!) as well, just less in-your-face.
