THE OFFICIAL 2012 SHH! MOVIE AWARDS: Best Score

[mclay18]

Bane's theme alone was better than anything found in The Avengers' soundtrack. Not one track was memorable in my opinion.

Ultimately, the TDKR vs. Avengers score debate is my preference. I like the more orchestral and bombastic approach Silvestri took better.

And let me put it this way. Silvestri wrote and conducted the entire Avengers score by himself, with only a little temp-tracking involved. The approach to the movie and score is entirely different than what Zimmer did with TDKR. It's apples and oranges.

What's really sad is how lazy the TDKR score is. Not how good it is or how it compares to Silvestri, but the amount of effort put into it. Honestly, go back to the BB and TDK soundtracks... and count how many times those tracks have been grafted, rearranged and cut into TDKR. Some of the best moments in the film are underscored with the exact same material from the previous movies with little to no cuts.

Zimmer has done far better (and deserves better treatment) than what he's contributed to the Batman franchise. He could've pulled out all the stops for TDKR, score-wise, but instead he was content to let Nolan subject the film to temp-track hell. And whenever the new material surfaced, it gets repetitive. He could've done another Da Vinci Code for TDKR in terms of grandeur and scope. But it went out with a wimper.

And Twilight? Really?

Burwell's score is fantastic, his most accessible work to date. The movie itself... not great or good at all.

There's a clear difference.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I know I'm alone in this but I thought Newman's work on Skyfall was better than either of Zimmer or Silvestri's respective efforts.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I think Skyfall's score is underrated.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Mclay, you can continue to tell me how lazy TDKR score/soundtrack was constructed and how much more you preferred Silvestri's score over Zimmer's repetitive work, but the fact of the matter is Silvestri's score didn't stand out compared to Zimmer's. Hans' themes, while not groundbreaking, had an identity to the character and film -- something that Silvestri never accomplished with The Avengers. Call it what you want but, to me, Alan phoned it in and the end result was obvious.

Serviceable, at best.

 

[Brain Damage]

The Dark Knight Rises - Hans Zimmer
Lincoln - John Williams
Moonrise Kingdom - Alexander Desplat

 

[Hawkingbird]

The Avengers
Skyfall
Hunger Games

 

[ddddeeee]

Brave - Patrick Doyle
Frankenweenie - Danny Elfman
John Carter - Michael Giacchino

HMs to Rise of the Guardians, The Amazing Spider-Man and Life of Pi.

 

[Evil Twin]

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Moonrise Kingdom
The Hobbit

 

[jf300]

The Hobbit. (Howard Shore is a god).
The Avengers.
The Dark Knight Rises.

Re: Hans Zimmer - his work on Pirates of the Caribbean is amazing, especially the third film.

 

[jacobed]

Dark knight rises
Lincoln
Hobbit

 

[Project862006]

John Carter had an epic score

 

[Spider-Aziz]

The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit
Amazing Spider-Man

 

[QBComics]

Skyfall
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Dark Knight Rises

 

[Elevator Man]

Ultimately, the TDKR vs. Avengers score debate is my preference. I like the more orchestral and bombastic approach Silvestri took better.

And let me put it this way. Silvestri wrote and conducted the entire Avengers score by himself, with only a little temp-tracking involved. The approach to the movie and score is entirely different than what Zimmer did with TDKR. It's apples and oranges.

What's really sad is how lazy the TDKR score is. Not how good it is or how it compares to Silvestri, but the amount of effort put into it. Honestly, go back to the BB and TDK soundtracks... and count how many times those tracks have been grafted, rearranged and cut into TDKR. Some of the best moments in the film are underscored with the exact same material from the previous movies with little to no cuts.

Zimmer has done far better (and deserves better treatment) than what he's contributed to the Batman franchise. He could've pulled out all the stops for TDKR, score-wise, but instead he was content to let Nolan subject the film to temp-track hell. And whenever the new material surfaced, it gets repetitive. He could've done another Da Vinci Code for TDKR in terms of grandeur and scope. But it went out with a wimper.

I thought I'd chime in on this. When I first saw The Avengers in theaters the score didn't leave much of an impression on me. I don't know if it was b/c I was too caught up in the movie to notice or if the score was just there. It took me a few days to remember the theme after my first viewing, but I somehow I actually recalled the theme. Tbh, I couldn't recall the main theme when I first saw it. After repeated viewings I noticed some other themes and cues. I think the film having memorable scenes helped me notice some things in the score on the Intrada album. I found the score to be good but really nothing special from Silvestri. My main problem with the score just like with Silvestri's CA:TFA score was that it felt like leftovers of his GI Joe:TROC and A-team scores. Which was what I feared he would do when he signed on to score Avengers. I also think he had the perfect opportunity to give some of the members motifs/themes but missed it. The score has it's moments but I think it could've been a lot better. I honestly think Giachinno would've hit this out of the park. I agree it's a heck of a lot better than Zimmer's TDKR. Though I've yet to hear Zimmer's score seperate from the film.

TDKR was definitely a rehash of the other two (already generic) scores. Nothing amazing or special about it. I mean this was the "Epic Conclusion" and Zimmer mostly phoned it in. The rehash material made some scenes predictable for me. I could feel JNH's absence in the score. Which is probably why the score was lacking the emotional weight it needed. The Zimmer bootlickers will accept the score for what it is and call it a "masterpiece" anyway. When deep down they know Zimmer's score was running on fumes. They're blinded by their love of his music and can't face the facts that TDKR score was the laziest of the three. The bane theme (if that's what they wanna call it) and catwoman theme is all they'll use to prove that the score wasn't a rehash. Those "themes" were nothing special. I didn't recall Catwoman having a theme until someone pointing it out to me after viewing some clips featuring her character on YT back in August.

I actually think Horner's TAS-M score is the best of the three superhero scores of 2012. It had a lot of things that I found was lacking in Silvestri's Avengers and Zimmer's TDKR scores. One of 'ems emotion. The main theme was memorable and really captured the heart of the character. As well as what Webb was trying to bring to the franchise. I think the score has a great blend of action and drama in it. None of that MV/RC nonsense. I already doubt Zimmer's MOS score will be half as good as this.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The Grey
Prometheus
The Dark Knight Rises

 

[kaijunexus]

The Avengers
Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises

 

[Warhammer]

Skyfall

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Syfall
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hunger Games

 

[TheIrishAvenger]

The Dark Knight Rises

Skyfall

The Avengers

 

[mclay18]

but the fact of the matter is Silvestri's score didn't stand out compared to Zimmer's. Hans' themes, while not groundbreaking, had an identity to the character and film -- something that Silvestri never accomplished with The Avengers.

Okay, now you lost me on that one. You just don't care for the more orchestral sound of The Avengers, I get that, but no overarching identity to the story and film? The main theme gets serious playtime during the last half of the film (and gets developed throughout), Silvestri's motifs for the Tesseract and Captain America reappear and several new motifs are present in that score. You don't like it, but the film definitely had a theme and its own identity.

Zimmer does maintain a certain sound for Batman, but he doesn't develop it much in TDKR. Seriously, go back to the BB and TDK soundtracks and count how many times TDKR uses tracks from both with little to no cuts. That's not creative or inspired. If Zimmer was given more leeway to write more new material, I wouldn't be debating this.

 

[lime]

Life of Pi - Mychael Dana
The Hobbit - Howard Shore
Argo - Alexandre Desplat

 

[jmc]

I'll say this in favour of The Avengers score, it's the only Marvel movie with some form of recognizable theme, the rest are generic pieces of blandness.

 

[Elevator Man]

You're obviously in the minority that believes that.

 

[jmc]

You're obviously in the minority that believes that.

I'm seriously doubtful of that.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Okay, now you lost me on that one. You just don't care for the more orchestral sound of The Avengers, I get that, but no overarching identity to the story and film? The main theme gets serious playtime during the last half of the film (and gets developed throughout), Silvestri's motifs for the Tesseract and Captain America reappear and several new motifs are present in that score. You don't like it, but the film definitely had a theme and its own identity.

No, it did not, in my opinion. The main theme was the problem. Not once did I say to myself: "Yes, this is the theme for The Avengers." Not a single track spoke to me. It felt as if Alan was neglected in being told what type of film the score was going to employed in. It had zero identity to me -- I didn't think of Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. To put it simply, the score didn't sound generic but it didn't distinguish itself from other soundtracks.

Zimmer does maintain a certain sound for Batman, but he doesn't develop it much in TDKR. Seriously, go back to the BB and TDK soundtracks and count how many times TDKR uses tracks from both with little to no cuts. That's not creative or inspired. If Zimmer was given more leeway to write more new material, I wouldn't be debating this.

It's obvious Zimmer didn't add much to score since BB and TDK, but whether it was Bane's theme or the climb, his tracks radiated of identity (something Silvestri missed on). Deshi Basara and A Fire will Rise are arguably two of the trilogy's greatest tracks, and he added elements and motifs from previous works to give these tracks an identity to the trilogy while giving the audience something new.





Silvestri came short of delivering something of this caliber. Thus why the score was ignored in numerous reviews. As I put it, Alan's work was comparable to elevator music.