Now Playing L

Now Playing - Every Giacchino Score in my Album

I've had time to think, and I truly believe that Giacchino may be the greatest film composer, not of this year, or this decade, but really of all time. Who else combines scintillating flutes with triumphant brass with percussion so jaw-dropping it transcends time and space and finds its place in amongst the kettle-drums of the cosmos, playing in time with nebulae and stardust.

Wipe them out. All of them.

Nosferatu! Unholy! Unholy!

I love Jupiter Ascending. But I had to make my own edit for maximum enjoyment. The existing album: too long, too inconsistent, too much bland material. I actually put the entire suite as the final cues. Works much better.

I think you are doomed.

That strikes me as a pretty reasonable ranking, although you have Civil War a bit high and The First Avenger a bit low IMO (certainly I think of the two Silvestri scores, The Avengers is the weaker).

I think the MCU music taken as a whole is average, or maybe a little above. Some individually very fine scores but they don't add up to a coherent franchise, which is where the disappointment stems from. Then again, expecting any single composer to keep up with two to three big superhero flicks a year is a fools' errand, as is expecting multiple composers to work with each others' identities in a way that doesn't sound forced and inorganic...in other words, Marvel simply makes too many damn movies for the scores to ever sound unified.

They're still way, way, waaaaaaaay ahead of DC.

Holy moly, I love ranking things!

Doctor Strange
Ant-Man
Iron Man 3
Thor 2
Capt America
Avengers
Thor
Age of Ultron
Iron Man 2
GOTG 2
GOTG
Civil War
Iron Man
Winter Soldier

Unranked: Incresible Hulk (not sure I've ever listened to it)

Thank you Thor.

My fave themes...

Iron Man 3
Ant-Man
Avengers
Captain America The First Avenger

Can't remember any others beside those four.

The Incredible Hulk score is far from servicable! It's probably the most intelligent Marvel Score, if not the most imminently enjoyable. The layers of themes is, as Clemmensen put it, almost too smart for the movie it belongs too. And the octave-stretching glissando is, well, incredible

Ive really enjoyed most of these MCU films, too. I'm surprised by some of your rankings, Tim. I like IRON MAN 3 so much more than you do! Here's how I would order them:

CAP: WINTER SOLDIER
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
AVENGERS (despite the shallow plot)
CAP: CIVIL WAR (despite some redicuouls plotting)
IRON MAN 3 (really loved the twist part way through)
THOR
IRON MAN
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
CAP: FIRST AVENGER
ANT-MAN
DR STRANGE
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
THOR: THE DARK WORLD
IRON MAN 2

I haven't seen Guardians 2 yet. I don't like ANT-MAN and DR STRANGE as much as most people seem to. If they had been made sooner I might feel differently, but at guess I'm getting a little origin-storied out. So many of the first films in these franchises are basically the same story: remarkable yet flawed guy becomes a super hero and then must face a bigger scarier version of the same kind of thing he is (see IRON MAN, HULK, CAPTAIN AMERICA, ANT-MAN, DR STRANGE). That said, I'm really looking forward to the next Spider-Man (really glad it's not another spidey origin film). And I'm excited about THOR 3, but almost entirely because of the director.

I'll have to think a bit before I can order the film scores, though. The only themes I can remember right now are those for the Avengers and Thor (the first film). I remember liking Tyler's themes for Thor and Iron Man, and Ant Man's theme, and the Guardians' theme, but I can't remember them at all. I've seen DR STRANGE twice (and one of those just a couple weeks ago) and I've listened to the score away from the film, and I still can't think of the theme right now.

Ant-Man's theme is surely the most memorable one in any of the Marvel films, save perhaps for Silvestri's Avengers theme. All I have to do is tap the beat and people recognise it!

Based on what I know of your tastes I think you should at least give Ant-Man a shot, it's very Goldsmithian in places (when it's not doing the whole spy caper thing). I reckon you'd enjoy it.

And am I reading it correctly that you actually like the first Iron Man score?

I hated Ant-Man the movie and let's say the score didn't win me over either. After that one listen I felt it was one of those current generic scores in which I've lost all interest.

No I just said Marvel started with the series of films and Iron Man was the first. That's why I said 'except', so only those 2 I've mentioned. I do have peculiar tastes, but nothing that would suggest Iron Man being among my favorites. Far from it !