> I am a great fan of Zimmer and of Howard.
> First I should mention that I am a professional arranger/composer myself.
> Music is what I do.
> After reading this site's review of the Batman Begins score, I am
> wondering if the people writing it are true musicians, or overweight
> Americans who judge by their first impression. Your faulty descriptions of
> the score's notation makes you look like you know what your talking
> about...to the untrained eye (or ear, rather). When I look, I see a bunch
> of garbage.
> Any Batman film is going to be dark. Even the overweight Americans know
> that. You don't need to point out biased ideas about how Elfman 'started'
> the dark theme in the Batman films. If Zimmer wrote for Batman instead of
> Elfman, it would have been dark just the same.
> However, the comments in the above paragraph are simply 'politics' of the
> musical industry. Anyone could look up quotes and post their opinions. So,
> good job on looking up the info. You sure didn't look up the score, and it
> shows.
> Try doing what we composers have to do: ignore anything in the past or in
> the future, and just write. For you, just listen openly without making any
> relation to any past score you've heard.
> This is a Batman Begins Score REVIEW, not a Batman Begins Score
> COMPARISON.
> I apologize for the brutatlity of this message, but please consider this:
> to have your own work, your own timeless memories, smashed by mindless,
> donut-eating critics is one of the most depressing things that a composer
> can go through. I've been through it. I've chosen, after many years, to
> not read reviews. I know I've done well, and so do many others who email
> me daily.
> I want you to do something, that is, if you've made it this far down in
> the email. I want you to put in the Batman Begins sountrack disc, and
> listen to the track called 'Eptesicus' at full volume. Close your eyes.
> Think of nothing but the music you're hearing. I'm certain you will enjoy
> this track, and you will be moved.
You know, I am also a composer. I've also listened hundreds of scores, but the thing about Batman Begins is that it just sound too monotonous. Yes, it has its great moments, but what really upsets me is its total lack of the real identity. You know, I don't even mean themes, there are a lot of them, but the problem is that the score just sounds like a collection of stereotypical RCP cues, but not like a cohesive whole. There's no really anything distinctive about it. I'm not saying that every score should sound like a completely singular piece of music, but I really feel like this score lacks it. You know, anything that should make it sound distinctive. Maybe some unique instrumental choices or... yes, maybe a memorable theme. I know that Zimmer's choice to not have a big main theme was intentional, but in reality I still feel that it was a wrong decision. The score simply lost its cohesiveness, I can't tell what it is exactly and I think that it's the main problem. Again, I'm not saying that this score is trashy. I think that Zimmer didn't find the right approach to it. And I think that you, as a composer, will agree with me that it happens with us and it's common. Without any memorable theme, identifiable instrumentation or anything else the scores feels like a long string writing practice by two big filmcomposers with some typical Zimmer's action cues. And that's the main problem.
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