I'm seriously considering ignoring all of Filmtrack's Hans Zimmer reviews because clearly the editor has a thing against the man. The Man Of Steel score was outstanding and for him to trash Zimmer like this is beyond annoying and frustrating.

> I'm seriously considering ignoring all of Filmtrack's Hans Zimmer reviews
> because clearly the editor has a thing against the man. The Man Of Steel
> score was outstanding and for him to trash Zimmer like this is beyond
> annoying and frustrating.

Man, this score was OK for the sound design and some gorgeous solo sequences for violin and voice, but the main theme was weirdly un-hummable, the rythms were repetitive and, overall, was boring in many scenes, with the exception of the... "Inception"... effect being the only thing that would catch your attention.

Long live John Williams' Superman and any re-recording of that score.

> Man, this score was OK for the sound design and some gorgeous solo
> sequences for violin and voice, but the main theme was weirdly
> un-hummable, the rythms were repetitive and, overall, was boring in many
> scenes, with the exception of the... "Inception"... effect being
> the only thing that would catch your attention.

> Long live John Williams' Superman and any re-recording of that score.

Try to see clips from the trailers using a suite recorded by the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Nic Raine with the themes from Superman Returns, the one by John Williams and those composed by John Ottman and you will understand the point stated by Christian Clemmesen. The music from Man of Steel is a total miss and the responsability of it should be blamed to Nolan and Snyder, who could have comissioned the music from another composer worthy of Man of Steel.You are completely right, Christian!Come back, John!

> Try to see clips from the trailers using a suite recorded by the Royal
> Philharmonic conducted by Nic Raine with the themes from Superman Returns,
> the one by John Williams and those composed by John Ottman and you will
> understand the point stated by Christian Clemmesen. The music from Man of
> Steel is a total miss and the responsability of it should be blamed to
> Nolan and Snyder, who could have comissioned the music from another
> composer worthy of Man of Steel.You are completely right, Christian!Come
> back, John!

You are just stuck with your John Williams' love and your childhood memories. You're complaining about Zimmer forcing his own style into Superman's world... but what else did Williams do? He has given Superman the old-fashioned campy fanfare sound featured in a lot of his other scores.

Seriously, which director wants his movie to feel outdated before it's even out? Answer: Bryan Singer. That's it.

Bringing Hans Zimmer on board was a deliberate choice from Snyder & Nolan, they clearly wanted to get rid of the almost-comic fanfare and get something modern, epic and powerful. Stop blaming on Hans Zimmer: he composed the kind of music the director asked for. The director clearly liked his work, and so does the majority of the audience.

> You are just stuck with your John Williams' love and your childhood
> memories. You're complaining about Zimmer forcing his own style into
> Superman's world... but what else did Williams do?

true to a certain degree. except Williams palette is more varied. I do like Zimmer's stuff, but recently it's all drums in similar rhythms with low strings in similar progressions.

>He has given Superman
> the old-fashioned campy fanfare sound featured in a lot of his other
> scores.

wouldn't say it's campy, not even dated - it does have some more classical sensibilities tho. the upper sound spectrum isn't really used that much in filmmusic anymore. you can play the fanfare in the lower ranges without it loosing much of it's dramatic impact.

> Seriously, which director wants his movie to feel outdated before it's
> even out? Answer: Bryan Singer. That's it.

IMHO this whole outdated or not thing is keeping films and scores from becoming the classics they could be. As a composer for film myself I totally dislike people arguing about the Zeitgeist of a piece or diminishing it's emotional impact based wholely on the argument of being contemporary or not .

> Bringing Hans Zimmer on board was a deliberate choice from Snyder &
> Nolan, they clearly wanted to get rid of the almost-comic fanfare and get
> something modern, epic and powerful. Stop blaming on Hans Zimmer: he
> composed the kind of music the director asked for. The director clearly
> liked his work, and so does the majority of the audience.

A guy with the power in the industry like Zimmer could have come up with any score and it would have been loved by millions. He basically can do whatever he wants. His recent output has me thinking tho, that this kind of music is what he wants to do and he will do it no matter what. Clemmensen summed it up nicely in his Inception review by making the comparison with John Barrys style in the 90s. Don't get me wrong, I do like Zimmer's music and the guy is really nice, but his insistence on similar gestures all the time is getting tiresome.
Btw, Carmina Burana also uses the upper ranges pretty excessively and has fanfares, is this comic too?

> You are just stuck with your John Williams' love and your childhood
> memories. You're complaining about Zimmer forcing his own style into
> Superman's world... but what else did Williams do? He has given Superman
> the old-fashioned campy fanfare sound featured in a lot of his other
> scores.

> Seriously, which director wants his movie to feel outdated before it's
> even out? Answer: Bryan Singer. That's it.

> Bringing Hans Zimmer on board was a deliberate choice from Snyder &
> Nolan, they clearly wanted to get rid of the almost-comic fanfare and get
> something modern, epic and powerful. Stop blaming on Hans Zimmer: he
> composed the kind of music the director asked for. The director clearly
> liked his work, and so does the majority of the audience.

It is not all memories from childhood. We are discussing music. The material composed by John Ottman for Superman Returns is excellent and doesn't need to be shadowed by the theme from the first Superman. I have nothing against Hans Zimmer. I really appreciate his music for The Lion King, Crimson Tide, Prince of Egypt, Gladiator and The Last Samurai. He can do great things, when he really wants to do them. And I agree with you. He composed exactly what he was ask to. Zack Snyder doesn't like film scores, as we can see in 300 and Watchmen, with terribles scores. What is the problem in composing anything worth of the character and the scope of the film? What is, for you, epic, powerful and modern? Noise, lack of creativity, lack of personality? The review from Filmtracks is what i really think of this material. Some years ago we heard the fanfare, the main title march, the theme of Krypton, theme for Smallville, theme for Clark Kent, the Love Theme. And for Man of Steel? What do we hear? Empty percussion, no thematic idea,no development and other problems. I do not blame Hans Zimmer, as I have stated before. And to finish: the fanfare is not old-fashioned, as we can hear it in many events through the world.

> You are just stuck with your John Williams' love and your childhood
> memories. You're complaining about Zimmer forcing his own style into
> Superman's world... but what else did Williams do? He has given Superman
> the old-fashioned campy fanfare sound featured in a lot of his other
> scores.

> Seriously, which director wants his movie to feel outdated before it's
> even out? Answer: Bryan Singer. That's it.

> Bringing Hans Zimmer on board was a deliberate choice from Snyder &
> Nolan, they clearly wanted to get rid of the almost-comic fanfare and get
> something modern, epic and powerful. Stop blaming on Hans Zimmer: he
> composed the kind of music the director asked for. The director clearly
> liked his work, and so does the majority of the audience.

I have taken the liberty of correcting your rant for accuracy:

You are just stuck with your Hans Zimmer' love and your memories of "epic" trailer music. You're complaining about Zimmer forcing his own style into
Superman's world... but what else did Williams do? He has given Superman
the essential Superman sound worthy of the legendary portfolio that includes Star Wars and the Indiana Jones series.

Seriously, which director wants his movie to feel like a wannabe Michael Bay movie amped up on Red Bull and testosterone before it's even out? Answer: Zack Snyder. That's it.

Bringing Hans Zimmer on board was a deliberate choice from Snyder &
Nolan, they clearly wanted to get rid of the time-tested classic fanfare and get
something recycled, faux epic, and cringe-worthy. Stop blaming on Hans Zimmer: he composed the kind of music the director asked for. The director clearly
liked his work (and the Matrix Revolutions), and so does the majority of his mindless fanatics.

> I'm seriously considering ignoring all of Filmtrack's Hans Zimmer reviews
> because clearly the editor has a thing against the man. The Man Of Steel
> score was outstanding and for him to trash Zimmer like this is beyond
> annoying and frustrating.

Sure he comes across as totally disliking Hans Zimmer's style but I have the feeling, that he thinks Zimmer can do better than what he does at the moment. What I have heard of the music, it's what I expected. I have to agree with the review on the fact, that Zimmer seems more content with producing music and coming up with new sonic ideas, but not really utilizing them to their full potential.

About the review, I partially agree with you. It's not focusing too much on the music and too much on the hype behind it. A more analytical view would have been helpful, but then, maybe there isn't that much to be analytical about. Zimmer is very eager in sharing his thought-process and it's up to the listener to say he likes the approach or he doesn't. Personally I think, I want the more creative and less talkative Zimmer back

> I'm seriously considering ignoring all of Filmtrack's Hans Zimmer reviews
> because clearly the editor has a thing against the man. The Man Of Steel
> score was outstanding and for him to trash Zimmer like this is beyond
> annoying and frustrating.

Excuse me, but have you read his review of Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. He seemed to like that a lot.