The final fact about
The Dark Knight Rises that all
will agree upon is that Zimmer did take a stab at providing two new
themes in this work. The theme for Kyle/Catwoman in "Mind if I Cut In?"
is an intentionally ambiguous series of piano phrases highly reminiscent
of the softer portions of
The Peacemaker. The tepid application
of light tingling effects for this theme is vaguely exotic but Zimmer
does nothing else to infer any sense of romance into the character's
music. Conversely, the new theme for Bane is the score's highlight.
Despite totally neglecting the character's intelligence and instead
dwelling upon his imposing physical form, Zimmer does at least change
meter dramatically and use a chanting effect to represent the
larger-than-life chaos this man aspires to inflict. Introduced in
"Gotham's Reckoning," the theme persists in "The Fire Rises," "No Stone
Unturned," and others, easily recognizable because of its shift to a
dramatically different rhythmic meter than Zimmer is accustomed to
utilizing. Once you accept these aforementioned aspects of the score for
The Dark Knight Rises as commonly noted observations, where your
opinion resides on the rest of the project depends completely upon your
acceptance of Zimmer's methods and style. If you ignore the composer's
interviews and the lack of emotional and intellectual depth in the
simplicity of his music, then the work will stir all the same ominous
and brooding passion in you as its predecessors. Otherwise, the score is
going to present significant problems for those seeking to make sense
out of what Zimmer is doing with this franchise. The main theme is still
only two notes long, a rising minor third that does absolutely nothing
to convey the complexity of Bruce Wayne's existence. There is still no
dichotomy between minor and major key usage to denote this man's two
personas. Zimmer's promise in 2005 to flesh out this theme when Batman
matures is ignored. When he stated in 2011 that he now planned to make
this theme more epic than ever before, he must have meant the rather
brightly emphasized performances in "Despair" that finally hint at some
major-key heroics. The key of damn near every cue in the score remains,
as usual for Zimmer, D minor, a fact that is finally starting to gain
widespread recognition for the composer's ridiculous stubbornness. A
score that almost never changes key is one that is not capable of being
nimble in its response to changing emotions on screen, and if you wonder
why so much of his music seems to drone along in boringly derivative
fashion, then the key has much to do with this stagnation. Always using
the same key must make life easy for the army of ghostwriters,
though!
Then, of course, as long as you single out the thematic
simplicity and consistency of key, you also have to mention the lack of
diversity in instrumentation and tone, as well as the continued reliance
upon figures (like low string ostinatos) that remind as much now of
Steve Jablonsky's
Transformers music as their appropriate
heritage in this franchise. The totality of the dwelling in the bass
region has reached the point of laughability. Any veteran composer can
unleash horrifically rumbling, masculine force from the bass while also
employing concurrent appeal from the treble, a technique Zimmer still
chooses not to attempt. Again, this refusal to explore the full spectrum
greatly diminishes the composer's ability to address emotional range.
The boy soprano voice is electronically manipulated at the start and end
of the score for eerie reflections on the main theme, and there's the
"Corynorhinus" reprise as well. In addition, you have the
aforementioned, quiet piano cues. But as nice as it is to hear the boy's
voice and the piano (especially when it explores the longer Batman theme
in "Nothing Out There"), these contributions are swallowed up by
Zimmer's continued hesitance to leave the glory days of
Crimson
Tide and
The Peacemaker behind, especially after the
reception he enjoyed for
Inception. There are, of course, no
woodwinds in this score. The violins seem mixed far in the background.
Recall for a moment what Danny Elfman did to represent Catwoman with
violins in
Batman Returns. They do work. Zimmer's evolution of
music for the franchise, both in terms of tone and theme, is completely
nonexistent. Especially without Howard's portions, this music
accomplishes nothing new, the Batman theme still failing to truly
evolve. In "On Thin Ice," Zimmer torments listeners with the possibility
that this main theme will gain at least a third note (sending it in the
direction of John Barry's
Zulu, no less!), but this idea is
subsequently abandoned. The most promising aspect of this third score
was Zimmer's much-hyped sampling of chants from people around the world
(using the website UJAM) for use with Bane's theme. Unfortunately, while
the result is interesting, the composer doesn't feature these vocals in
such a way as to really make an impact on the score. They exist, and
they serve their purpose, but they are not as obvious as the obnoxious,
single-note theme for the Joker in the prior movie and the same results,
quite honestly, could have been generated in studio without all the
public relations fuss. Like most aspects of this score, the chants
represent the great promise but very little delivery from Zimmer. That
is, unless you want to hear regurgitation of the prior two scores.
In the end, you get your swooshing sound effects,
French horns in unison, omnipresent bass droning, and at least something
of a crescendo of harmonic satisfaction in the final cue, "Rise." As
such, Zimmer earned his pay. Don't be fooled into thinking that these
scores are the high art that the composer's interviews suggest, however.
The fanboys will feast on its loyalty while the intellectuals will
expose its many faults. Even worse, the album situation for
The Dark
Knight Rises emulates the extremely irritating release format as
Tron: Legacy in 2010. The standard 51-minute album's contents are
adequate but missing extensive portions of the score. Thus, Watertower
and Warner Brothers decided to release additional bonus tracks unique to
the digital release, others unique to the CD release, and one cue
exclusive to MovieTickets.com. All of these tracks are of decent length,
and together, about 84 minutes of music can be collected from the
various sources. Good luck trying to get them, however; the CD and
iTunes releases send you to Push Entertainment to get the tracks, and
once there, you have to provide your Facebook or Twitter accounts (or
create an all new one) to get your music. Never mind the fact that the
privacy policy link fails to load or that you could get spammed
extensively by these people. If you're on a Mac, you may not get the
content's applet to load even after you register (due to technical
errors). As for the bonus music itself, three of the six initially
available cues are simple remixes ("Bombers Over Ibiza," "The Shadows
Betray You," and "The End") while the others aren't radically different
from the rest of the score. The most important one to acquire is "No
Stone Unturned," with a continuation of the Bane theme, a super-heroic
brass anthem in middle, and somber atmospherics with hints of the main
theme at the end. Also to be considered are "Risen From Darkness" (the
fuller concept theme in pounding
The Peacemaker mode throughout)
and "All Out War" (more explicit ostinatos from the first score and some
shifts to the Bane meter). Not available is Zimmer's suggested use of
the boy soprano for the national anthem in the football game scene, a
pivotal point in the soundtrack. Between the extremely irritating
release format of the soundtrack on album, Zimmer's continued promises
of greatness that go unrealized in the finished product, and the
inexplicable hype that surrounds this franchise's music, you receive
music that is functional at best, mediocre most often, and insultingly
simplistic at worst. The composer needs to shut his yap, dump the
ghostwriters, shift to F major, conjure a fluid theme, and drop a
wicked oboe solo on us. Perhaps then he'd deserve an interview.
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