Metallo
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The worlds finest heroes
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Post by Metallo on Feb 11, 2019 15:43:09 GMT -5
Hans Zimmer really has become the new Danny Elfman after the sheer amount of comic book/superhero movie scores he’s done. Both probably peaked with Batman but when looking at their works as wholes who gets the nod for the overall best work across the entire genre?
Danny Elfman
Batman 1989
Dlck Tracy
Darkman
Batman Returns
Spider-Man
Men In Black II
Hulk 2003
Spider-Man 2
HeIIboy II
Men In Black III
Avengers Age of Ultron
Justice League
Hans Zimmer
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Rises
Man Of Steel
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Batman V Superman
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Post by Kamdan on Feb 12, 2019 7:56:47 GMT -5
Elfman was best when he was trying to emulate Herrmann. It seemed like after he did Psycho, he phased that out of him and now his music is considered wallpaper. Wallpaper is an adequate term for what Zimmer’s score have been for The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel, but that seems to be the current trend in film scores. 30 years ago when Batman ended with a dodgy shot of an obvious matte painting of the Bat-signal and what appeared to be a cardboard standee with a cape attached to it, Elfman’s music elevated it to a legendary level. Since they can do anything with special effects, there’s no need for that anymore.
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Feb 12, 2019 12:13:03 GMT -5
Elfman in part became a victim of directors becoming more obsessed with staying closer and closer to the temp tracks. They all have. Even Zimmer. It’s why Elfman and Raimi fell out on Spider-Man 3. But like you said it’s also just the preference of Hollywood now. The old way seems old fashioned to them. Zimmer has also turned out a whole generation of more generic sounding composers. Most of them sound not only like him but each other.
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Post by Kamdan on Feb 12, 2019 16:09:02 GMT -5
The modern approach to film scoring has been pretty disappointing these last ten years. I was excited to hear that Elfman was gonna score The Grinch. Was really looking forward to possibly having a good soundtrack to listen to by itself. Instead it just turned out to be Nightmare Before Christmas rejects and more wallpaper music for a generic Christmas kids movie. I’m kind of hoping his score for Dumbo will be a good one filled with great circus music which he has coveted before in Big Top Pee-wee, but I bet we’ll get the standard “inspirational generic music” that could have been used in the remake of Pete’s Dragon.
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Metallo
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The worlds finest heroes
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Post by Metallo on Feb 12, 2019 19:09:40 GMT -5
The old Danny Elfman had his gimmicks and was pretty repetitive at times but I’d take him over what we have now. But I finally gave up on Elfman being that guy again around the time he worked on Terminator Salvation...which was oddly enough ten years ago.
It sounded like a generic score anyone could have done. I think the massive success of the Dark Knight and Zimmer’s stream of sound had an effect on film scores for the worse because Hollywood always wants to copy a hit. I remember being he one person watching Punisher: Warzone and thinking the score sounded like it was ripping off dark knight at several points.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Feb 15, 2019 13:17:43 GMT -5
Loved a lot of Zimmer's work before he did superhero work-
Particularly "Lion King", "The Rock", "Backdraft", among others- but I have to say that I've mainly been disappointed with his superhero work, in comparison to some of his earlier ones....
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Feb 15, 2019 16:59:54 GMT -5
Me too. I really dislike the composer he’s become in the last...15 years or so. I shouldn’t say dislike since that’s pretty strong but I’m just not a fan like I used to be.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Feb 17, 2019 2:38:01 GMT -5
The old Danny Elfman had his gimmicks and was pretty repetitive at times but I’d take him over what we have now. But I finally gave up on Elfman being that guy again around the time he worked on Terminator Salvation...which was oddly enough ten years ago. It sounded like a generic score anyone could have done. I think the massive success of the Dark Knight and Zimmer’s stream of sound had an effect on film scores for the worse because Hollywood always wants to copy a hit. I remember being he one person watching Punisher: Warzone and thinking the score sounded like it was ripping off dark knight at several points. I don't remember where I'd heard it from but I remember listening to some Hollywood composer talkabout how producers or directors would fall in love with temp tracks so much that they end up only wanting a ripoff of said temp track. I could see how that could kill a ton of creativity for a composer if the director isn't ope for something different. |
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Post by Kamdan on Feb 17, 2019 7:08:52 GMT -5
The old Danny Elfman had his gimmicks and was pretty repetitive at times but I’d take him over what we have now. But I finally gave up on Elfman being that guy again around the time he worked on Terminator Salvation...which was oddly enough ten years ago. It sounded like a generic score anyone could have done. I think the massive success of the Dark Knight and Zimmer’s stream of sound had an effect on film scores for the worse because Hollywood always wants to copy a hit. I remember being he one person watching Punisher: Warzone and thinking the score sounded like it was ripping off dark knight at several points. I don't remember where I'd heard it from but I remember listening to some Hollywood composer talkabout how producers or directors would fall in love with temp tracks so much that they end up only wanting a ripoff of said temp track. I could see how that could kill a ton of creativity for a composer if the director isn't ope for something different. Too bad they don’t have enough clout and respect like Herrmann had when De Palma wanted him to score Sisters and he had work from one of the Hitchcock films tempted with it. Herrmann told him to take out his music while he screened it for him for the first time. |
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Metallo
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The worlds finest heroes
Posts: 17,076
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Post by Metallo on Feb 20, 2019 17:35:49 GMT -5
The old Danny Elfman had his gimmicks and was pretty repetitive at times but I’d take him over what we have now. But I finally gave up on Elfman being that guy again around the time he worked on Terminator Salvation...which was oddly enough ten years ago. It sounded like a generic score anyone could have done. I think the massive success of the Dark Knight and Zimmer’s stream of sound had an effect on film scores for the worse because Hollywood always wants to copy a hit. I remember being he one person watching Punisher: Warzone and thinking the score sounded like it was ripping off dark knight at several points. I don't remember where I'd heard it from but I remember listening to some Hollywood composer talkabout how producers or directors would fall in love with temp tracks so much that they end up only wanting a ripoff of said temp track. I could see how that could kill a ton of creativity for a composer if the director isn't ope for something different. There was a sort of big round table discussion with several composers where they talked about that very thing. One of them was Elfman. But he’s also talked about it on his own. It’s one of those creatively crippling problems of modern Hollywood where they let profit and business put a choke hold on quality and creativity. That’s what we get when art and commerce intersect in such financially risky ways I guess. It’s one of those things like the rise of release dates being staked out before pre production on a film even begins or more formulaic and lazy marketing. |
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Feb 27, 2019 14:28:44 GMT -5
I don't remember where I'd heard it from but I remember listening to some Hollywood composer talkabout how producers or directors would fall in love with temp tracks so much that they end up only wanting a ripoff of said temp track. I could see how that could kill a ton of creativity for a composer if the director isn't ope for something different. There was a sort of big round table discussion with several composers where they talked about that very thing. One of them was Elfman. But he’s also talked about it on his own. It’s one of those creatively crippling problems of modern Hollywood where they let profit and business put a choke hold on quality and creativity. That’s what we get when art and commerce intersect in such financially risky ways I guess. It’s one of those things like the rise of release dates being staked out before pre production on a film even begins or more formulaic and lazy marketing. Well.... I give the filmmakers some leeway because of my own experiences (though of course not Hollywood level) making short films and falling in love with temp tracks myself and feeling like "it can only be this music"- and having a composer try to do a soundalike.... which I do understand is handcuffing the composer, unfortunately. So- might not all be profit but maybe at times just a filmmaker falling TOO in love with temp tracks put in for a piece of film... |
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Feb 28, 2019 8:20:55 GMT -5
I think we’re just in an era where they all can’t step back and be as objective which is a must film and filmmaker. It’s like editing. A director and editor might love a scene for whatever reason but sometimes they have to know when it’s not needed and they have to cut it for the overall good of the film. I think they don’t have that same discipline with music because time isn’t as much of an issue there. But they should trust their composers more. That’s why they hired them. Otherwise they should just use stock music that can be edited to fit how they want.
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