Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the score, and I am a huge fan of John Williams (I've got 6 or his soundtracks that I can think of and I would have three times that many if I only had the money), and I certainly don't regret buying the soundtrack, but I was a little let down by "The Phantom Menace." His "Duel of Fates" is incredible. Right up there with "Ode to the Fallen" and "Hedgewig's Theme," but I think he could have done more with the rest. I did like the "Parade of Flags" and the "Droid Invasion" and the way he forshadows the "Imerial March" in "Anakin's Theme," but there seems to be a lack of a melody in many places where there could be. For example; the music from the pod race fits the action perfectly, but I couldn't repeat the music very easliy. In "The Empire Strikes Back" he managed to write an actual melody to the action in "The Asteriod Field" and the same holds true for the "Forest Battle" and "Here They Come." Most of "Phantom" sounds like action music without the melody. There are a few redeeming points of the soundtrack, and boy, are they amazing! They certainly make up for all the dead time in between. Don't bother responding to this and saying that I'm crazy. I already know I'm outnumbered, but is there anyone else who feels this way?

> Now, don't get me wrong, I loved the score, and I am a huge fan of John
> Williams (I've got 6 or his soundtracks that I can think of and I would
> have three times that many if I only had the money), and I certainly don't
> regret buying the soundtrack, but I was a little let down by "The
> Phantom Menace." His "Duel of Fates" is incredible. Right
> up there with "Ode to the Fallen" and "Hedgewig's
> Theme," but I think he could have done more with the rest. I did like
> the "Parade of Flags" and the "Droid Invasion" and the
> way he forshadows the "Imerial March" in "Anakin's
> Theme," but there seems to be a lack of a melody in many places where
> there could be. For example; the music from the pod race fits the action
> perfectly, but I couldn't repeat the music very easliy. In "The
> Empire Strikes Back" he managed to write an actual melody to the
> action in "The Asteriod Field" and the same holds true for the
> "Forest Battle" and "Here They Come." Most of
> "Phantom" sounds like action music without the melody. There are
> a few redeeming points of the soundtrack, and boy, are they amazing! They
> certainly make up for all the dead time in between. Don't bother
> responding to this and saying that I'm crazy. I already know I'm
> outnumbered, but is there anyone else who feels this way?

You are crazy

> You are crazy

He isn't crazy! I have the same problem with this score that he has. Don't get me wrong, Duel of Fates is an awsome track. But; some of the other tracks are just horrible! Like "Aniken Defeats Sebula" and "Angies Great Municipal Band" And most of the rest of the CD is just boring fller music that will put you to sleep, or it's regular Star Wars rehash that you've already heard a dozen times.

I don't know about "boring filler", I was just unimpressed with this and Episode II's scores. Duel of the Fates is fine on it's own, but I don't really think it fits in with Star Wars. And is it just me (probably), or does John Williams recent action cues (say since Jurassic Park) incorporate a lot of "tweeting"?

> He isn't crazy! I have the same problem with this score that he has. Don't
> get me wrong, Duel of Fates is an awsome track. But; some of the other
> tracks are just horrible! Like "Aniken Defeats Sebula" and
> "Angies Great Municipal Band" And most of the rest of the CD is
> just boring fller music that will put you to sleep, or it's regular Star
> Wars rehash that you've already heard a dozen times.

"Anakin Defeats Sebulba" is horrible?!? I hope You're not reffering to the regular release track, because it is the music from final battle between droid army and guangans. I think this is one of the most exciting, powerful action sequences Williams wrote in post-Schindler's List period, period of his non-melodic action music, which is not liked by most of the people. I agree that although Williams' action music from technical point of view, intensity of the orchestrations is very, very impressive, it is weaker than that of Goldsmith, Poledouris or even James Newton Howard. But "Anakin Defeats Sebulba" is very best example of awesome, orchestral action writing we can get today.

Tomek