Recent Viewing Part IV

The Terraforming cue. It's destroying the world engine.

I will vehemently defend the cue Flight, on album and in film. The scene is not as much a "Making of Superman" scene as, in Snyder's take, Clark Kent accepting Kal-El. It's the Kal-El theme that soars when he flies over the planet. Superman thematic statement is a literally failed one, he can't be Superman unless he accepts who he REALLY is. And I think the thematic statements there are very apt and to me it was the best moment of a very flawed score.

Contrary to Martijn's opinion, I believe Man of Steel is a very flawed execution of Hans' strongest musical concept for quite a while. The score shoots itself in the foot in terms of the structurally irrelevant action music, which Martijn aptly described in his review and by underplaying (ironically) Zod's three-dimensionality (the villain's flaw isn't as much in the performance, which is amazing, as it is in the writing, basically the movie is a speech after speech after speech and then suddenly destruction) the three dimensions by resorting to an evil faux-fanfare. For a composer who is a master of the villain theme (Broken Arrow - yes!, Hannibal...., Crimson Tide, Gladiator, The Peacemaker, The Rock and many others, most of them playing with the three-dimensional villains, except Broken Arrow, which is not far from a Commando-type bad guy, all these characters can be even, to an extent, understood), this was my biggest disappointment with the score.

On the other levels? Some points I'd like to make and defend:

1. Earth and Krypton have separate-yet-the-same-motifs which nicely plays with the identity issue at heart of the movie: Krypton is minor-key, Earth is major-key.
2. Giving each of Superman's identities a theme: Kal-El has a theme, which is more-less pronounced quite often and Clark Kent has a theme, developing from the Earth motif. The element of genesis in the Superman identity issue is an important one and having that material stemming quite directly from the four-note motifs for the separate environments was an inspired choice.
3. The fact that the Superman develops in key moments, twice from the Krypton motif (the beginning of the film and the birth scene hums the beginning of the Superman theme, THEN the flight cue is a failed attempt, because the first flight is a failure, it just mimics the action both in literal and subtextual terms, full statement at the end - he IS Superman, alright).

So I would say that structurally and melodically it was the best concept Hans had for years, with the film's theme striking home with him, perhaps even being the reason for him to take on the project (he has been a foreigner, first in the UK, then in the US, for most of his life), but the execution, especially in the form of very tired-sounding action music (not just the mix) and a misinformed theme for the villain makes the score such a letdown and, quite often, stick out like a sore thumb in the movie.