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It is. I saw the film tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. The score is a little buried in the mix but it has enough shining moments. A brilliant effort on Powell's part.

I had a great time. I totally bought Ehrenreich's Han Solo. It's basically a space western, which befits the character.

So I saw the 8 PM screening Friday night, one day after the premier and there were - what - ten people in the theatre? OK, it was a warm summer night and people had other options than going to the movies, but really - ten people? The place was nearly empty. Has Disney overplayed it's game of Sabacc already?

Volker

NP: SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - JOHN POWELL

Just finishing up on my second complete listen and I feel that, as great as it is, there's still a lot to digest. There's a lot going on here! But on the whole, I'm very, very friggin' pleased. One thing's for sure... I can't get enough of that theme (does anybody else hear a little bit of a Silvestri-kind-of-a-thing in it?). The score event of the year - thus far - from me. It's just so full of joy!

Moments such as the gorgeous second half of Flying With Chewie - a passage which could have easily been written for one of Powell's animation scores(!) - proves that this whole endeavour never needed to be a simple Williams impersonation. I find it very humbling that he was clearly given a degree of freedom on this.

So long as they continue to provide quality composers, like Powell and Giacchino, the opportunity to work on these Anthology films, I don't actually mind if they over-milk the franchise!





Also, this time round, I drank some port whilst listening to it.

I hope it was happy drinking, not blocking out reality. You indicated recently that not everything is well. Stay on top, God of Thunder!

I think, given what little opportunities the film The Last Jedi provided, the score is OK. Some classic theme implementation could have been done more interesting. The album runs a bit like a best-of-Star-Wars compilation with too much of the Force theme.

Solo


Yes, this is extremely good!

Rogue One Giacchino

Haven't listened to this in a while, I think it's absolutely brilliant. There seems to have been a bit of a backlash against this score recently but I think it's terrific!

I thought Rogue One was a good score and still do, but Solo really puts into perspective how much more gracefully a composer can navigate the difficult, er, asteroid field of having to blend his own voice with another's in a big franchise. Whereas Giacchino at every turn feels like he's at odds with the Williams influence - almost daunted by it - Powell comes across as invigorated by it. It feels to me like he saw it as this big intellectual puzzle ("how do I write a Star Wars score that's recognizable as such and yet still remain true to myself as a composer") that he couldn't wait to sink his teeth into. I just feel like Powell took so much joy in playing around with Williams' material (both old and new) and stylistic traits.

Just listen to "Mine Mission", which is Powell's spin on the whole Williams militaristic fugue approach to action writing...and then listen to "Rogue One" (the cue) which attempts ("pretends" is almost the better word) to do the same thing, and you realize how much clunkier, less natural, less joyful Giacchino sounds. At least, to these ears. I still respect what Giacchino was able to pull off in such a short time, and perhaps if he had been attached to the project from the beginning he could have ironed out those kinks, but as things stand, Solo has done Rogue One no favors at all because of how loudly it screams "this is how you score a Star Wars spinoff."

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on such a big rant based on your brief comment but I've been meaning to say that at some point anyway.

I find these scores difficult to compare because they come from very different starting points.

Solo tries to establish the hero for a young audience. The film is only rather loosely connected to the Original Trilogy, so Powell had full reign in crafting a modern sounding Star Wars score.

Rouge One leads right into the classic of 1977. So Giacchino had to assume that eventually people would watch a 2016 film and one from 1977 back to back. He succeeded admirably in avoiding music-narrative anachronisms by stepping behind the original score. The "proto-themes" he composed make his score sound like "half a Star Wars score" at times, but at the same time it paves the way for Williams' classic score with a red carpet.

I do understand those arguments, Volker. I just think Powell succeeded to a vastly greater degree at his task than Giacchino did at his.

NP: Ancient Aliens (2010) - Dennis McCarthy; Jeffrey Hayat et al

As recently released buy Prometheus & La-La-Land

This was a blind buy, based on the fact, that I always loved McCarthy's music for Star Trek. Curious, that the History Channel would come up with the ancient-astronaut "theory" in 2010. That pseudo scientific stuff (Erich von Däniken, Brad Steiger) was a trademark of the mid 70s and 80s.
Anyway, this is predominately electronic music with some instrumental textures that are probably sampled. Quite nice.

^

I agree with this man.

It is indeed. The film felt like a betrayal to an old Phantom fan like myself (I leaned more towards the darker versions by Lindahl etc. than the original Falk strips); too campy. And Billy Zane was the most mis-cast actor in a superhero film ever!

But the score is glorious, my alltime favourite by D. Newman.

I was listening to some of the RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES score by Doyle. it is superb, like everything Doyle has written. The movie is incredible as well, it and DAWN set up what could have been one of the best blockbuster trilogies of recent times, then WAR ended it in a sputter. Great music on all three though.

Yes, that.