My Vimeo

Saturday 30 August 2008

The Dark Knight Soundtrack


When I saw the film I was blown away by the music in the opening sequence. It really worked and was unlike anything I would have expected from Batman. That one note that portrays the Joker worked brilliantly in the film. However, I think you've got to be a real Hans Zimmer fan in order to appreciate and enjoy it on the soundtrack. But not all the soundtrack is like that and some of it is very emotional. I have to say that since I have bought this soundtrack and after loading it onto my iPod, it has not left the CD player in my car. This is my new favourite soundtrack and therefore I'm going to give it a track by track review.

Whilst "Why So Serious?" might not be the most enjoyable track to listen to it definitely does make you feel a bit uneasy. Especially when you hear that note. Here's a little extra information for you, if you didn't know it already, Hans Zimmer spent about six months trying to get the Jokers theme to be one note long. He spent most of those months trying to find the right sound for that note. And the end result works amazingly. Unfortunately it doesn't work quite as well on the soundtrack which is why on the soundtrack I much prefer the Batman themes, which are more than one note long.

"I'm Not A Hero" is one of those cues that has a lot of the Batman themes in it and it really does sound great. Unfortunately I found that the cue tended to change a bit abruptly at some points or felt like a couple of the variations of the Batman themes could have lasted a bit longer and been expanded upon. I think the reason for this though is so that the music matches the picture. The best bit from the cue is at the 6:00 mark. It just sounds out of this world. But sadly it lasts less than 30 seconds.

So after the Joker's theme we get Batman's theme and next we get the theme of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. This one was composed by James Newton Howard where as the Joker's theme was composed by Hans Zimmer. I'm not sure who is behind "I'm Not A Hero" but I would guess mostly Hans Zimmer because it sounds like his kind of thing.

Whilst on Batman Begins the two composers work very much together on a lot of the music, for this film Hans took on the Joker and James took on Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Considering they were in separate buildings whilst working on their themes, the themes really do fit into the Batman world, almost as if one composer had written them.

If you look at the characters of the Joker and Harvey Dent/Two-Face you can tell straight away that James' music is going to be more elegant and beautiful. Although saying that, because Harvey Dent does become a villain in the end James does do a great evil section to the track "Harvey Two-Face" with the elegant and beauty at either side of this evil section. The evil section is played mostly on brass and whilst we might not be used to brass in Batman it really does work.

"Aggressive Expansion" is the next track. The opening of this track is one of the Batman themes and is so so good. Sadly the rest of the track isn't quite so good as it slows down and moves away from the action start. It's not bad, but I think that the beginning is just so good that you just want more of it and are disappointed when you don't get more.

Back to the Joker now with "Always A Catch". Most of this track is just a rise with a few big hits and one big low note to finish the rise before we go into a quite Batman section.

"Blood On My Hands" brings back in the theme of Harvey Dent and is really just an expanded part of the first section of the track "Harvey Two-Face". Some how for me it doesn't work as well without the evil section though.

"A Little Push" doesn't really use any of the main character themes and instead is a track that seems to build up fear in the listener. At least that is what I felt. I would probably say that it is a cue written for Harvey Dent because of the use of brass, but I could be wrong.

After an absence of Batman themes for a couple of tracks you need not fear anymore. "Like A Dog Chasing Cars" brings back our hero with a great new expansion of one of the Batman themes written for Batman Begins. This one actually features a real melody unlike many of the other Batman cues. This track also features some great Joker music towards the end that is much more enjoyable to listen to then "Why So Serious?" Perhaps because it is shorter though.

With a track name like "I Am The Batman" you would expect epic drums and Batman themes. Instead though we get quite a minimal sound that isn't a great listen.

But all is not lost for long. "And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad" redeems much of the expectations had for the previous track. But with the title it has this track would not be complete with out the Joker's theme.

"Agent Of Chaos" brings some beauty to the score with a small amount of piano that brings back the theme from the Batman Begins track "Corynorhinus". However, it mixes it in with some Batman drums and quickly moving strings as well as a bit of the Joker's note around the middle. But by the end those drums and quick strings are replaced by slow strings and piano.

But I prefer the faster and more epic Batman cues which is why I really love "Introduce A Little Anarchy". For me this track is in competition with "I'm Not A Hero" for my most favourite track as it contains a lot of the themes from "I'm Not A Hero" but in a more expanded form. The only thing that stops it from easily beating "I'm Not A Hero" is the part at the 6:00 mark in "I'm Not A Hero". Otherwise it would definitely be the best track on the soundtrack.

"Watch The World Burn" is another slow track which takes a while to really build up the emotion. But when it does, it does it well.

However, "A Dark Knight" does it better. At 16:15 this is the longest track on the soundtrack. It is a slow piece that creates emotion in a much more successful way than "Watch The World Burn". Granted it has longer to do so, but that is not what it does with the 16 minutes it has. The emotion is there right from the start of the track to the end, where there is a big powerful and emotional build up with drums slowly pounding away before all is gone and we are left with that one note. The Joker's note.

This soundtrack is my favourite of the year so far and if you listen to it from start to finish you experience an amazing journey with incredible ups and downs. From the powerful ups of "I'm Not A Hero" and "Introduces A Little Anarchy" to the emotional downs of "Harvey Two-Face" and "A Dark Knight". This really is a great soundtrack.

Saturday 23 August 2008

Wanted Soundtrack

Some of you may know that before Danny Elfman became a film composer he was part of the band Oingo Boingo. Well for the film Wanted, Danny has returned to his rock roots and written and performed the song, "The Little Things". I knew Danny was part of Oingo Boingo, but I didn't actually know that he was the lead singer until I heard this track and thought, "Wow. He is a really good singer." And then it clicked. I don't usually listen to this kind of music, but I actually really like it.

After the song comes the score. It starts out pretty well with "Success Montage" which is my favourite cue on the album. The score seems to calm down a bit for the next few tracks but picks up again with "The Scheme" and "Fox In Control". "The Scheme" is a slow piece that works at building tension, where as "Fox In Control" is more of an action cue.

I also like "Exterminator Beat" which had a great string motif, and sounded great with the subtle guitar over the top.

Although it used the sames themes as "Success Montage", I didn't like "Rats" that much, perhaps because of the way it was arranged.

Next we get some action cues, "The Train" and "Revenge" which are alright but nothing special. These are followed by "Fox's Decision", which starts out quite forgettable but builds up to quite a dramatic end.

Finally we end with "Fate". A cue that doesn't cause the soundtrack to end as strongly as it started, but still isn't bad.

Overall this soundtrack isn't an essential listen if you're not a big fan of Danny Elfman. But if you are then it is an obvious must, especially since he revisits his Oingo Boingo years with "The Little Things". But if you're not a big fan of Elfman then if you did buy this soundtrack then it wouldn't be the end of the world, as it does provide quite an enjoyable listen. There just unfortunately aren't that many outstanding cues.

Saturday 16 August 2008

The Happening Soundtrack

Whilst the movie might not have been that good, it doesn't necessarily mean that the score isn't very good either. On listening to the soundtrack I found that it reminded me most of James previous score to The Village. The Village used the violin as a solo instrument that played beautiful melodies throughout a lot of the score. The Happening does a similar thing, but instead uses the cello.

However, the cello is not played in the same style as the violin was in The Village. It is used in a much darker manner and instead of beautiful melodies we get eerie and mysterious melodies. A great cue which demonstrates this is "Five Miles Back".

The cello is not the only instrument that stands out though. The piano is also rather dominant throughout the score. It is quite often followed by the brass section as together these make up the basics of the main theme which can be heard best in the "Main Titles".

There is also the more traditional suspense/horror music such as "Rittenhouse Square" and "My Firearm Is My Friend", but I find these are the more forgetful cues and sadly I found that the soundtrack contains quite a lot of this type of music which doesn't make for a great listening experience.

Overall The Happening soundtrack isn't exactly anything special. I'd probably recommend it to the fans of older film music as they might like it a lot more than I did. But whilst it wasn't as big a disappointment as the film itself, I don't think I'll be listening to this soundtrack very often. If you are looking for a great James Newton Howard soundtrack I'd go for The Village if you don't already own it, as I think that it is still his best (solo) score to date.

Saturday 9 August 2008

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog



If you are a big fan of Joss Whedon then you are going to love this. These things seem to be all the craze now. Webseries started off as a way of lesser experienced film makers show casing themselves and making a pretty good, low budget series of episodes about 5 minutes in length. However, webseries seem to have grown beyond the amateurs and the professionals now seem to be embracing them. Some such as Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance and Heroes: Going Postal add up to become almost like a hidden episodes of their actual parent TV shows providing those that watch the webseries' with more information, but ultimately not being essential to the other fans of the TV shows that haven't watched the webseries'. But the professionals also seem to be making stand alone webseries such as this new creation from Joss Whedon (the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity and the upcoming show Dollhouse scheduled to air on Fox in January of next year).

The webseries has 3 episodes or acts (as they are called in this show) totaling at just over 42 minutes. But hopefully that is not the end of the webseries as Joss Whedon said at this years San Diego Comic-Con that he would love to make a 4th act.

View the trailer below or click the image above to watch the webseries.

UPDATE: The webseries is now only available to watch online if you live in the US. So if you live in the UK or any where else then you're just going to have to wait for the DVD. But unfortunatly it could be a long wait.

Saturday 2 August 2008

Heroes: Going Postal

If you remember a few weeks ago I posted the trailer for the new webseries Heroes: Going Postal. Well unfortunately the webseries is not available to watch for those of us in the UK on the NBC website. So after searching YouTube I've managed to find all 3 episodes and have compiled them all in one place. Enjoy.


Chapter 1: A Nifty Trick



Chapter 2: The House Guest



Chapter 3: Let's Talk