Richard P

All of your points are very valid and respectful of the source, but I think they also point to a general fear of filmmakers doing something that doesn't match a specific creative vision for a source material, and the only thing we know about about this film so far is a modern score. I felt Columbus' Potter adaptations were too safe, with the story barely changed substantially from the books. Respectful, yes, but cinematically a bit on the dull side for me.

I realised the A.I. thing after several hours of searching my brain for where it was from. I'm surprised by the lack of big emotional payoff at the end of the album - it feels like the score just ends, then goes into reprise... I suppose it's a given that the album's out of film order, but there still don't seem to be any big climactic/emotional type pieces at all. However, extended 12-minute finale cues tend to outstay their welcome for me, so that may be a good thing. One full listen and there's a lot of interesting rhythmic material - I suppose the story lends itself to 'moving forward' propulsive music. Thankfully minimal low key tension music (I often feel his low string meanderings go into filller territory), and I do think he carved a unique sound for this score - it reminds me surprisingly little of MR/WotW or even AI largely - more the style he's had from the last decade with a few modern/synth touches. Overall I like it - many times I perked up from my current task and rewound a bit. I'm not sure it's the cinematic miracle some were banking on due to the limited opportunities for really operatic/sprawling music, but I think it's a very satisfying last score. signs... (the crop circle bit) and reprise... (most of the other bits)

Given the hunger for John Powell to receive an oscar, I really don't think the issue is composers upping their game. Lots of composers are producing quality work - it may just be that most of the films spotlit by Hollywood are asking for Zimmer-like scores. Also, composers are writing what they are asked for - it's not as simple as someone deciding to study classical composing more, if that won't get them hired for a movie.

I suppose were this the first modern Narnia adapation, then I'd be more with you - the story is such a great canvas for a score. But we got an awesome one from HGW, and arguably a Narnia-like score from Desplat. So this would effectively be a bonus Narnia score, and if Knight's Tale turned out great with a bunch of modern songs in it, then I guess I don't get such a feeling of cynicism towards it. We'll probably have to just disagree about this pre-judging thing - I think a lot of films have been made that sounded like awful ideas at the time, that turned out great. And those that didn't...well... that sucks, but we can't linger on terrible films.

I'm rewatching the music video and I immediately get vibes of a poor man's Earth Song, except that I find his vocals a bit irritating when he goes into the upper registers. The instrumental version on the OST is much more pleasant.

I'm not comparing the stories, I'm comparing the notion of scoring a historical (in one way or another) movie in a modern manner. There's no inherent reason it couldn't work for Narnia - it depends what Gerwig has done.

A Knight's Tale is fucking awesome.

It worked for A Knight's Tale. Might not work for this. Darest I suggest actually waiting until it's out tho.

I've ordered the Blu-ray so I'm going to do the same thing. I'm not in any way familiar with the unreleased music, so either I'm going to discover a ton of cues I really want, or it may tell me that the OST is sufficient. I did like the source during the parade at the start, which it looks like is included. I think the main thing stopping me just ordering is the overall price with international shipping, and it doesn't have as much personal meaning to me as Skyfall, which I would probably have got by now.

The entire oscars machine doesn't really work as it should, with its politics and performatism. I think people are just desperate to see JW publicly awarded - name in lights, and all that. There's nothing more pleasing to the heart than reading 'John Williams, 94, receives sixth Oscar for his 30th collaboration with Spielberg'. I totally get it. Unfortunately, it does somewhat change the nature of what the oscars represents to automatically say that because of the nature and circumstances of the project, he should win, irregardless of the musical output. That's why I think a perfect recognition would be a special career award.

A lifetime achievement award to acknowledge JW's career - definitely. But given that we haven't (at time of writing) heard most of the scores in contention, nor even heard JW's full score, isn't winning best score a bit presumptuous?

Not in any way condoning an illegal purchase (which is worse than just an illegal download), but if we want to encourage legal purchases, you'd think they could just drop the album this week, rather than just a single. Having a gap like this may build hype, but it also creates a window where people have been teased with the tracklist and a few samples and just want to enjoy the score.

One can appreciate the gift of this album, and also wish we could hear the entire score. Although we don't yet know whether there even is much music missing to begin with. It may be totally unheard of in the world of JW, but the idea of watching a film and it being considered unreasonable to want to hear all the music in it, in 2026, is rather silly.

It's pleasant, although the section in the middle meanders a bit for me. I find it very A.I.-ish, which may explain why I'm a bit cool on it (I don't really like A.I.) The twinkly melody in the latter part is heavily reminding me of something, but I'm not sure yet what.

The Green Mile is Warner Bros. There aren't a lot of Newmans I want, due to his OSTs being quite long to start with. Maybe The Horse Whisperer.