I can't say else than Danny Elfman did it again. He's a real genious. The opening theme is strong, sounds good, and is excellent for this movie.

I agree, Elfman did it again. And again and again. All he does is the same score again and again. I was sitting in the theatre when the movie started and my heart sank hearing more Elfman laziness waft over me. Then, some guy behind me said, nice and loud, "same music as Batman". Hear hear, brother!

Let someone else score a super-hero movie. Elfman's done. He did one good score and has been jerking around with it ever since (the aforementioned Batman). Planet of the Apes had a bouncy main theme, but then fell into bland-city. Mission Impossible had a good five minutes of excitement before slippling into boredom-land.

Elfman, Zimmer, Travor Rabin...these guys need to be selling vacuums door to door instead. Vacuums are supposed to suck.

> I can't say else than Danny Elfman did it again. He's a real genious. The
> opening theme is strong, sounds good, and is excellent for this movie.

> I agree, Elfman did it again. And again and again. All he does is the same
> score again and again. I was sitting in the theatre when the movie started
> and my heart sank hearing more Elfman laziness waft over me. Then, some
> guy behind me said, nice and loud, "same music as Batman". Hear
> hear, brother!

> Let someone else score a super-hero movie. Elfman's done. He did one good
> score and has been jerking around with it ever since (the aforementioned
> Batman). Planet of the Apes had a bouncy main theme, but then fell into
> bland-city. Mission Impossible had a good five minutes of excitement
> before slippling into boredom-land.

> Elfman, Zimmer, Travor Rabin...these guys need to be selling vacuums door
> to door instead. Vacuums are supposed to suck.

Too bad you have absolutely no musical inclination. This stuff does and doesn't sound like the overbearing Elfman of the late 80s/early 90s. He's much more subdued in this soundtrack, but very thematic and sets the mood of the film.

I hate to break this to you, but Williams sounds the exact same to me as well. I grew tired of his work after Raiders, and once I heard Mr. Elfman's cinematic style, I was hooked.

Face it, Batman is 13 years old, and that's about as far removed as this soundtrack is from that one. They're both great. But Elfman has matured so much that he is actually asking more of the listener then to just sit and listen. His music now evokes real emotion...and if you don't believe that, listen to the soundtrack for "The Family Man" sometime, and tell me I'm wrong.

I'm curious if you know what quarter or a half note even is....

Why do I HAVE to know what a term in music means? It's the sound that I look for, not the technical whatevers. And to me, listening to the score as I watched the film, I kept on hearing the same stuff coming from Elfman that I've heard since 1989. And since when does someone need a formal education in music composition to form an opinion as to whether or not they think something sounds the same as something else? Go peddle your superiority complex elsewhere. You're an Elfman fan and you're defending your hero. Cool. I'm not a fan and I'm pointing out a perceived similarity.

You know that rolling sound he likes? You know the term, please tell me so I am as smart as you. Well, that damned "rolling thing" is in rearly every freaking score of his for the past 13 years (I hear it every day on the Simpsons). I'll give you this: Planet of the Apes WAS a departure for him. It's was all full of percussion (the correct term, Professor?) and less of his fall-back sound. HOWEVER, aside from the main titles, it was pretty dull stuff.

And yeah, John Williams is sounding the same these days. So is Goldsmith. But, cripes! They've been doing this for over 45 years! They're in their 70's! Elfman at the point in his career that Williams and Goldsmith were in the early 70's, which was their most innovative time. Elfman is just being...oh never mind. Think what you like and I'll think what I like. My opinion doesn't matter, Professor. I don't know what a one quarter thingy is.

D'OH!

> Too bad you have absolutely no musical inclination. This stuff does and
> doesn't sound like the overbearing Elfman of the late 80s/early 90s. He's
> much more subdued in this soundtrack, but very thematic and sets the mood
> of the film.

> I hate to break this to you, but Williams sounds the exact same to me as
> well. I grew tired of his work after Raiders, and once I heard Mr.
> Elfman's cinematic style, I was hooked.

> Face it, Batman is 13 years old, and that's about as far removed as this
> soundtrack is from that one. They're both great. But Elfman has matured so
> much that he is actually asking more of the listener then to just sit and
> listen. His music now evokes real emotion...and if you don't believe that,
> listen to the soundtrack for "The Family Man" sometime, and tell
> me I'm wrong.

> I'm curious if you know what quarter or a half note even is....

I think soundtrack music is one of the few genres that actually requires musical background/knowledge for full enjoyment. Elfman has matured as a composer as stated before. Like the person in this thread earlier stated, he requires the listener of the task of listening. Simply put, he's going to make you ask questions and answer them in music. By doing this, he's moved away from doing simple themes or the usual thematic score approach (although this score does have a few themes, they're not that prominent) and thus it loses appeal, especially to somebody like you who lacks musical knowledge. Soundtracks are about emotions, not themes. What's great about the Spider-man soundtrack is that it's almost cheesily orchestrated (for that comic book effect) but it's a top notch job in conveying emotional messages.

And that rolling thing your talking about, I'm guessing with the strings where he does some fast arpeggios and stuff and it sounds like "rolling". I personally love that. I don't really see how it could get that repetitive since really he never makes it a focus in his songs that much. It's a style preference, just like the way Williams handles his brass a certain way...it's style. It's what makes Elfman music Elfman...ish.

To say Elfman has been churning out the same stuff since Batman is a load of crap, I'm sorry. Compare Batman to Nightmare Before Christmas to Black Beauty to Sleepy Hollow to Family Man to Spider-man. There's really no repeated score theme throughout these, except Spider-man and Batman which sound like comic book scores but are scored completely differently.

> Why do I HAVE to know what a term in music means? It's the sound that I
> look for, not the technical whatevers. And to me, listening to the score
> as I watched the film, I kept on hearing the same stuff coming from Elfman
> that I've heard since 1989. And since when does someone need a formal
> education in music composition to form an opinion as to whether or not
> they think something sounds the same as something else? Go peddle your
> superiority complex elsewhere. You're an Elfman fan and you're defending
> your hero. Cool. I'm not a fan and I'm pointing out a perceived
> similarity.

> You know that rolling sound he likes? You know the term, please tell me so
> I am as smart as you. Well, that damned "rolling thing" is in
> rearly every freaking score of his for the past 13 years (I hear it every
> day on the Simpsons). I'll give you this: Planet of the Apes WAS a
> departure for him. It's was all full of percussion (the correct term,
> Professor?) and less of his fall-back sound. HOWEVER, aside from the main
> titles, it was pretty dull stuff.

> And yeah, John Williams is sounding the same these days. So is Goldsmith.
> But, cripes! They've been doing this for over 45 years! They're in their
> 70's! Elfman at the point in his career that Williams and Goldsmith were
> in the early 70's, which was their most innovative time. Elfman is just
> being...oh never mind. Think what you like and I'll think what I like. My
> opinion doesn't matter, Professor. I don't know what a one quarter thingy
> is.

> D'OH!

You are quite correct. Elfman has certainly not been using the same score for over a decade. Nightmare Before Christmas and Men in Black are good examples. Though I hold Nightmare Before Christman to be Elfman's best work.

Truth be told, if ANYONE is starting to repeat themselves these days its Horner. I wish he would do something besides sappy drama, but oh well, I'm a Horner fan and turn a blind eye for the most part

> I think soundtrack music is one of the few genres that actually requires
> musical background/knowledge for full enjoyment. Elfman has matured as a
> composer as stated before. Like the person in this thread earlier stated,
> he requires the listener of the task of listening. Simply put, he's going
> to make you ask questions and answer them in music. By doing this, he's
> moved away from doing simple themes or the usual thematic score approach
> (although this score does have a few themes, they're not that prominent)
> and thus it loses appeal, especially to somebody like you who lacks
> musical knowledge. Soundtracks are about emotions, not themes. What's
> great about the Spider-man soundtrack is that it's almost cheesily
> orchestrated (for that comic book effect) but it's a top notch job in
> conveying emotional messages.

> And that rolling thing your talking about, I'm guessing with the strings
> where he does some fast arpeggios and stuff and it sounds like
> "rolling". I personally love that. I don't really see how it
> could get that repetitive since really he never makes it a focus in his
> songs that much. It's a style preference, just like the way Williams
> handles his brass a certain way...it's style. It's what makes Elfman music
> Elfman...ish.

> To say Elfman has been churning out the same stuff since Batman is a load
> of crap, I'm sorry. Compare Batman to Nightmare Before Christmas to Black
> Beauty to Sleepy Hollow to Family Man to Spider-man. There's really no
> repeated score theme throughout these, except Spider-man and Batman which
> sound like comic book scores but are scored completely differently.

> You are quite correct. Elfman has certainly not been using the same score
> for over a decade. Nightmare Before Christmas and Men in Black are good
> examples. Though I hold Nightmare Before Christman to be Elfman's best
> work.

> Truth be told, if ANYONE is starting to repeat themselves these days its
> Horner. I wish he would do something besides sappy drama, but oh well, I'm
> a Horner fan and turn a blind eye for the most part

Not to piss off all the Danny Elfman fans out there but I really wish they could find someone else to score a comic book film. I do not have a musical background and I am sure Elfman is astonishinly talented and all that however, I do have a passion for comics and I do have a passion for film and Elfman must be stopped. Not being a soundtrack afficianoto, the only composers I can usually recognize blind are John Williams, Phillip Glass and Danny Elfman. The thing with Elfman is I hear the music start and it's too jarring like nails against a chalkboard. Often, I'll go into a film cold and within seconds of the opening find myself thinking "oh, christ, another Danny Elfman score". Every soundtrack he does establishes the same mood for me and I find myself unable to shake the feeling that I'm watching Batman again. At worst a film score should be unobtrusive and at best enhance the film. Elfman constantly drags me back to that goth Tim Burton LOUD opening, childrens choir singing loo, loo, loo sameness which is particularly disheartening while watching a hollywood film which will no doubt suffer from tedious cliches apart from the soundtrack. It's like after Blade Runner how tons of sci fi flicks had to adopt a similar look whether it was appropriate or not. I really don't fault Elfman in this, he has a distinctive style. I just don't think this style is appropriate to every fantasy, sci fi, comic book film. Shake it up a bit. For the record, my favourite soundtrack in the past few years was from Ravenous, very cool, but I don't want to hear at at the next 100 films I see.

> I can't say else than Danny Elfman did it again. He's a real genious. The
> opening theme is strong, sounds good, and is excellent for this movie.

The opening is a strong theme and so is the LOUD kick ass finale at the end of track 14... Elfman's music is still loud and strong and should not even be compared to Hans Zimmer or Trevor Rabin... Danny Elfman's music is a world all on it's own.