May 4, 2007
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Spiderman 3/Last Mimzy
Headed out to seee the third Spiderman film today. It is actually a fairly good film with a bit more comedy in it than the previous two installments suggesting a greater comfortability of characterizations. Some of this is also due in part to the physical representations of larger themes by each of the characters in the storyline. There are a few places where the film drags and could have used a little trimming but otherwise it is good popcorn fare with a wonderful Bruce Campbell cameo--Stan Lee's is pretty good too.
As to the music I would be surprised if there was a score release. If there is, it would probably be interesting to see what Christopher Young wrote that did not end up in the film. The list of individual tracks by Danny Elfman, John Debney, or a combination of the two with Young appear mixed in with the songs licensed, but mostly nonexistent in the film itself. Elfman's main theme is used throughout, almost consistently, in the film that it can get distracting at times. Integration of sequences with the music then becomes more diffuse and less helpful in creating dramatic flow or musical continuity thorughout the picture---yeah, I know most people are busy being wowed by the CGI.
I'll leave it to the true film score geeks to categorize and identify every shred of music in the film. It's one of those times where I enjoyed the film music in the film, just too often I was conscious that it seemed to have both come from someone else's pen and movie. Too bad, because Young deserved better. So I wonder if Raimi has now ticked off two of Hollywood's better composers!
The new Harry Potter trailer appeared as well. Though some of the music in the trailer sounds like it is new, I have to wonder if the studio will get nervous and track in thematic threads from the previous four films.
Is it me, or is getting to easy to just cut and paste everything these days?
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Finally had a chance to hear Shore's score for the kid friendly The Last Mimzy. It is a bright little film score that has its good moments. There are some gestures and musical moments in the score that sound a lot like Shore was being asked to mimic a temp track using music by John Williams. So for those hungry for a little of the older maestro, this may fit the bill for now.
Comments (8)
Thanks!
The score from Spiderman 3, whatever that actually is, has yet to be released. Depending on whom you talk to, it will either come out in June, or not at all. Part of the problem is that Chris Young's score appears to have been replaced in parts by other cues by John Debney, Deb Lurie, and previous music from the first two films by Elfman. Sorry but that's all I can do for you for now.
I'm trying to find the music from the movie, and all I'm finding is this stuff that's "Inspired from the movie"....where do I find the music? I got Spiderman, and Spiderman 2, by Elfman (love the music), now I need to find Spiderman 3...don't know where to look?
Shore's score was a lot brighter I think than we are all used to hearing from him. The "Whidbey Island" cue was a nice Americana track that had the most Williams-esque sound. Good to know Shore can adapt that style to his own for the future.
A future score release may very well be much more likely than you think, so don't lose hope.
I really enjoyed Young's score, a lot of neat themes, fascinating ideas... but his style didn't mesh too smoothly with Elfman's. The intrusions of the love theme (arranged by Debney and Lurie) were particularly distracting. On the other hand, Young's use of the Goblin theme was really quite brilliant in a couple of scenes. Anyway, the score as heard in the film was no worse than the equally mangled "Spider-Man 2" (featuring cues by Debney and Young in certain scenes).
I hope the Harry Potter folks don't resort to sticking old cues in... bah. I'm very interested to hear what this Hooper guy is going to do.
I was rather underwhelmed by Shore's "Last Mimzy", thought it was one of his weaker recent efforts. Too repetitive and lacked the level of charm the film needed.
Back at ya later
Ah, your last sentence. Sad but true - and I couldn't have said it better myself.
You know, as much as I wanted to like the first X-Men movie, I just thought it was not very good. I liked Powell's score for the last one though, the strongest of the three for that series.
It was kind of interesting to watch this with a crowd of obvious fanboys who were heavily engaged in conversation about the film all around me before it began. Most seemed to have made their minds up about this film before it began, though I thought the overall audience response was pretty positive. The film has heady themes but tends to hit towards a lower common denominator, that's what sells tickets.
I give the film a rationalized ***.
I would also like to hear more of what Young contributed. I liked both Sandman and Venom's themes. I also agree with some of the older music's distraction. Most specifically, that "Alone" cue from the first score release was tired when it showed up on the second score... so when I had to hear it again (and extensively) for a third time....
The series deserved better variation in music. The "X-Men" series did this very well. When I was left nearly without a soul after seeing "The Last Stand," at least I had the satisfaction of John Powell's nuanced and powerful score.
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