Michael Giacchino WILL score The Batman

[Brother Jack]

Shirley Walker is still the GOAT of Batman music, and Giacchino seems to be channeling her more than anything else. That's a good thing in my book, even though the overtly theatrical and "old school" aesthetic does seem at odds with the tone of the film as far as we know it. I mean, the trailers have all been riffing on Nirvana. I had assumed the score would sound similar to Howard Shore's work with Fincher. But Giacchino's bread and butter is lush orchestral scoring, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[chintai80]

this would be perfect. i can see Battinson
listening to this while thinking about his sadness.

 

[Erik Lensherr]

Watching Apocalypse Now right now and realized how perfect this is for The Batman

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

Hans Zimmer’s work on Batman is iconic, but I don’t like it that much as Batman themed music. It’s just cool on its own.

Giacchino’s work is the best since Elfman. It blows Zimmer and Junkie XL out of the park. Unbelievable. It belongs in an elite class along with Elfman and Shirley Walker. PURE Batman. I ****ing adore this. And the whole Nirvana thing (my favorite band) is the cherry on top.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

Some songs I’d like to hear through the trilogy:

 

[BatLobster]

Hans Zimmer’s work on Batman is iconic, but I don’t like it that much as Batman themed music. It’s just cool on its own.

Giacchino’s work is the best since Elfman. It blows Zimmer and Junkie XL out of the park. Unbelievable. It belongs in an elite class along with Elfman and Shirley Walker. PURE Batman. I ****ing adore this. And the whole Nirvana thing (my favorite band) is the cherry on top.

So far, I disagree, respectfully. I like Giacchino's Batman theme, and The Riddler theme starts off promosing enough before falling off into generic cookie cutter villain music to me, unfortunately. Yes, there is a bit of an Elfman, Walker influence there, but it's simply nowhere in the same league as the things it's taking inspiration from and it feels a bit like a discount version to me. For that style of composition both Elfman and Walker (and Goldenthal) had so much more movement, variation and development of their motifs. We have a lot to hear yet and I hope I can retract that once I've heard the whole score, but so far nothing has really wowed me. It's in this middle ground where it's evoking the SOUND of those older scores, without backing it up with the brilliant composition to match. It's solid, but nothing I feel incredibly pumped about yet.

Zimmer's music IS cool on its own, but it also is fantastic Batman music IMO. And honestly it influenced Batman music as a whole (his influence is all over the Akham scores and a lot of DC Animated films for example), as well as simply influencing modern film scores. I just think it was a fresher and more original approach that found its own way to become iconic. And his villain themes? Forget it. Any of those blow this cliche Riddler theme out of the water, if you ask me.

And it remains to be seen, but while Zimmer didn't have that one iconic Batman theme, he made up for that by having a variety of awesome Bat-motifs evolved and got more epic with the films. Right now we've only got the one, tbh very repetitive theme from Giacchino to go by. For me, he's got a very long way to go before I can agree that he's even matched any of the greats that came before him, let alone blown them out of the water.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

I prefer more gothic theatricality in my Batman themes, and Giacchino has brought that back. An admittedly reductionist view of Zimmer’s work is that it is mainly a series of clicking percussive sounds and droning notes. I like having a more traditional score.

Zimmer’s work was perfect for that version of Batman, but Nolan’s Batman is not all that close to my ideal version of the character. So far The Batman seems to be more in line with what I like about the character,

 

[BatLobster]

I prefer more gothic theatricality in my Batman themes, and Giacchino has brought that back. An admittedly reductionist view of Zimmer’s work is that it is mainly a series of clicking percussive sounds and droning notes. I like having a more traditional score.

Zimmer’s work was perfect for that version of Batman, but Nolan’s Batman is not all that close to my ideal version of the character. So far The Batman seems to be more in line with what I like about the character,

That's fair. I think a more traditional score is the right move, for what this movie is going for. I'm just trying to evaluate it on those terms. I love me some Elfman/Walker, but so far I haven't heard anything that puts Mikey G on that level. But then again he's never been high on my list of favorite modern composers, so I'm biased. And keep in mind that I'm a mega-fan of both Elfman and Zimmer, I've seen them both live in concert, which obviously includes their Batman music. Both have given me a whole lot of goosebumps in my life, haha. So they're a very high water mark for me.

I would've loved to hear what someone like Ludwig Goransson could've done with a Batman score. I think his work on Mandalorian/Book of Boba Fett shows that he can handle the traditional orchestral elements, as well as putting a unique/fresh modern twist on those things. And then something like Tenet shows he can go bonkers with a super modern/electronic-based score too.

I think a blend of traditional with a modern twist here and there would've been a cool way to go to make this feel like something familiar but fresh, rather than something we've heard before. That said-- I'll reserve final judgement until I've seen the film obviously. Whenever the actual score is radically different than the music used in the advertising of the film, it tends to really throw me for a loop. So I may just need to readjust my expectations.

 

[Sawyer]

!!!!!!

 

[pixen]

I need the Selina Kyle/Catwoman theme next please!

 

[Sharkboy]

New music Friday, I wonder if today is the day we’ll get Selina’s theme.

 

[Sawyer]

New music Friday, I wonder if today is the day we’ll get Selina’s theme.

Doesn’t look like it. Next week, probably.

 

[Kane52630]

The most underrated track from Zimmer's Batman.



Dat slow build up.

 

[Sawyer]

 

[Sawyer]

Catwoman’s Theme is up. Feels the most noir to me. With a splash of Bond score.

 

[Invader Joker]

Very noir but Batman's theme is still my favorite.

 

[Art Vandelay]

I actually might like her theme the best so far. Not at all what I was expecting, though.

 

[LoganGambit87]

its like those 1930's femme fatal noir type music

i like it alot

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

 

[The Panhandler]

I think I actually prefer Catwoman's theme the best so far. Honestly sounds like something from the Godfather or Klute.

 

[Sharkboy]

I agree with many here, this theme is the first one out of the three that have actually hit me hard, and the riddler theme has actually grown on me loads, but this one has immediately become a fave.

 

[ironwez20]

I wish there was an original song preformed by someone. The days of people making songs for Batman are over I guess.

 

[Sharkboy]

I wish there was an original song preformed by someone. The days of people making songs for Batman are over I guess.

It’s becoming rarer and rarer for films to do that, strange because Batman always had the best in music.

 

[Rick190293]

As I said in the general thread, I don't think there's a memorable note about this, like Batman and riddler's theme. Is a beautiful track, very noir, elegant and classy, although
.

 

[Nemeres]

I wish there was an original song preformed by someone. The days of people making songs for Batman are over I guess.

Same! I miss that.