[Closed] Now Playing XLVI

Well I have to say that Divergent is actually quite a pleasant surprise. Maybe it's just that after the awful 300 score my expectations for any of Junkie XL's film scores were subterranean, but this is not half bad. He still has trouble distancing himself from the tired Man of Steel percussion and synth brass in the action music (the fourteen-minute (!!!!) cue towards the end, "You're Not Gonna Like This", is a hell of a slog). But the quieter portions of the score are surprisingly nice. There's a main theme which is admittedly based on the four chords of pop, but because it's performed in quite a pop-ish style (the slow, soothing, soft kind...you know, with echoing guitars...I wish I knew what to actually call it ), it works better and feels less forced than, say, your average Brian Tyler theme.

If you put together an album out of "Tris", "Capture the Flag", "Ferris Wheel", "I Am Divergent", "A Friend", "Conspiracy", "Faction Before Blood", "Final Test", "The March" (rad Vangelis stylistics in this one!), "Fight the Dauntless" and "Everywhere and Nowhere" you'd have a nice, reasonably varied three-star 45 minutes or so. Okay, Junkie XL...you win this round. You've made me not completely hate the fact that you got three plum assignments out of nowhere this year when there are literally hundreds of more deserving composers. Damn it.

Thor, I think there are some parts of this that you'd particularly like. Then again, it's a ninety-minute album...

NP: Grand Piano - Victor Reyes

I got this as an impulse by, after hearing some sparse praise about here. Very enjoyable symphonic score, in every meaning of that score. I really like that the symphonic movements are intrinsic to the narrative while functioning as source music. However, I hate that there are times when the music sounds so synthesized and detract from the experience.

Speaking of which, Seen Gravity last week. It was entertaining for sure, but essentially plot-less. Expecting more from a director of Alfonso Cuaron's size next time. Cinematography was breathtaking, a marvel of modern cinema. But the movie essentially felt like a beautifully-shot cinematography commercial. However, i expected it, in some ways... i mean, Cuaron's cinematography was phenomenal in CHILDREN OF MEN too (remember the car chase scene?) and perhaps this came as no surprise for me at all when watching Gravity. It was expected, he's a master of cinematography. But where Children of Men kept me gripping at the entire duration and had an unsettling cold feeling all over it, Gravity didn't even come close to this; it was plain awe (technological) and tension during the debris hits and just simple anticipation for the ending after those hits; no stirs, no intense feelings, and 2 cheesy scenes as well (Clooney in soyuz and the ending) which i didn't expect to see at a Cuaron flick.


And the small appreciation i had for the Oscar Winning score, dropped even more after seeing the movie. The only two moments it was actually as gripping as the buzz described it, was the two first major debris hit scenes. The rest was - at times, intruding. Where's the emptiness, vastness of space with female vocals and synths? What the magnificent sound design department achieved during the first part of the film (as well as the music which was pretty spot-on during the debris hits as i said earlier) was spoiled by the music afterwards, when Bullock escapes the debris field and until the last scene.

NP: Tarzan (2014) - David Newman
On Spotify

Well, the first cue sounds very Zimmerish. Let's see ...

Volker

EDIT: There is a lot of RC/MV in this score, which David Newman probably was told to deliver. Still, there are moments of pure Newman style beauty. Anyway, I think I have enough of that type of score music in my collection already and it suffices to listen to this online.

Are you drunk?

-Erik-

They're barely noticeable.

-Erik-

Wrong. Best ending is unanimously The Empire Strikes Back. FACT! But ID4 and CutThroat aren't too far behind.

-Erik-

Which is why is doesn't beat them all.

-Erik-

Hmm, yes, that one's not too shabby either.

Today is six plus hours of power anthems. Playing my Zimmer playlist. So good! Actually, it's not all power anthems. I just finished with the brilliant main title theme to True Romance.

-Erik-

Not for me it doesn't! I know it's not a popular opinion among the more connoisseur film music fan, but I'm with Edmund on this one. Arnold's End Credits suite for ID4 floors me every time, without fail.

NP : MISSION TO MARS - Ennio Morricone



Magnificent!

Only by half witted cretins.

Yup!