HANS ZIMMER

Yeah, RCP is what was the studio system back in the Golden Age. Also, we have to bear in mind, that right now (a main composer with a lot of assistants on his crew being hired by his own company) is the ruling business model in the film music industry, ranging from former RCP composers (Harry Gregson-Williams' Wavecrest) to the likes of Michael Giacchino (Chris Tilton, Chad Seiter and so on).

Trust me, it was Newman calling the shots in the thirties and forties. Pretty much single-handedly!

Oh I think we all have a pretty good idea of what it will sound like

That's only if Brian Tyler isn't buisy scoring every single friggin' movie being made. And when they're not busy, Giacchino and Desplat swoop in and take the remainders.

James Horner was never going to score Spider-Man 2 - he didn't want to do the first one, only did it as a favour to the director - but I'm astonished that Zimmer is doing it because Marc Webb (the director) has rather strong views about film music and they are not favourable to Hans Zimmer - he must have been hired by someone other than the director.

Bite your tongue.

No. I just got it confirmed that it was the director who wanted to work with Hans.

The power of PR.

I'd have preferred a swap, Dark Knight would have been better if it had a good score.

To be uncharacteristically serious, the reason I think Zimmer is ill-suited to this film (and comic book films in general) is that I don't think he has ever shown any particular aptitude for scoring straightforward dramatic narrative films. His best scores have come in the early days on the big action movies where he could afford to be outlandish throughout without the music overpowering the film, and later (a) on more complex films without that straightforward narrative - Thin Red Line obviously, but also things like Black Hawk Down, films where he could take a strong idea and apply it throughout the film - and (b) more lighthearted films, Pirates of the Caribbean and some of the animations and comedies, where again the tendency to start overblown and continue overblown isn't an issue.

By contrast these comic book films really seem quite simple - a theme for the good guy, a theme for the bad guy, a number of action set pieces, something more tender for the inevitable backstory - that's really all you need, and that's a style of scoring that Zimmer has rarely done, and never done particularly well - he's just not interested in that. The attempt to be modern and hip and fill the score (and film) with moody atmosphere, which seems like a conscious effort to do the very opposite of what logic would dictate is the right way of scoring it, just doesn't work. Well, I don't think it does anyway.

But that's a lighthearted film. Dramatic subtlety not required. So he can do it.

Hear bloody hear!
For all the over-the-top set pieces, the tone, quite unfittingly, was far less fun than the previous installments.
Terrible film. Very enjoyable score.

It did have a good score. An excellent score actually!

-Erik-

It's official.

My interest in this film has completely evaporated.