Catching Fire Review: James Newton Howard makes progress

It’s not often that I go to see movies alone.  But there are certain movies which I anticipate so highly - Catching Fire being one of them - that my friends’ refusal to go this weekend did not stop me from going.  So yea, I was that guy.  It also didn’t hurt that I saw it at the 84th street theater on the Upper West Side (note to all readers from NYC: go see a movie there - it will change your life).

Let me tell you, the movie did not disappoint.  But I digress…

First off, I thoroughly enjoyed the music in this film.  It seems like a trivial task - to make the music fit each scene - but obviously some composers do it better than others.  That’s first and foremost the most important aspect of a score for me, and I think James Newton Howard accomplished that task.

I’ll admit that I didn’t love Howard’s Hunger Games score.  I really like him as a composer, but there wasn’t much substance there.  He put a lot of the now popular, dark, gloomy, quiet, single instrument type of tracks into it that were just kind of boring.  Let’s just say that he redeemed himself with Catching Fire.  Not to say that he didn’t use those aforementioned strategies in this movie (specifically some electric guitar use), but I think he implemented them better and they worked better. (as a friend of mine and I were discussing it.  And by the way, she has her own blog about food that can be found here)

Howard got this movie started really strongly.  Maybe it was just the adrenaline of finally seeing it (albeit alone) flowing through my body, but his opening track really captured the gloominess of the first half of the movie.  And, as if responding to my request after his Hunger Games composition, we get to hear the theme right off the bat!

James (I call him that 1-because I need to change it up a bit and 2-because we're totally on a first name basis) kinda stuck with the dark/emotional sounds throughout the first half of the movie (with a few exceptions) - really until the preparations began for the Quarter Quell.  I feel like he turned a corner with “Introducing the Tributes.”  This (I think) was the scene in which all the tributes ride around that stadium on chariots, and Katniss gives President Snow the oh-so-evil stare.  I was shakin’ in my proverbial boots for a few seconds there.  This scene itself didn't veer from the dark themes of before, but it set the wheels in motion...

After that track, we start to see a glimmer of hope.  Katniss shines with her bow once again (accompanied by a really fun sound), and then comes the subtlety of Coldplay’s theme from Atlas in “We’re a Team.”  What a great use of those harmonic and hopeful chords by Howard, and what great songwriting by Coldplay!

Much of the sounds from the games are pretty classic poppy modern action sounds (how many adjectives did I just throw in there?), with exceptions like the shoutout to the theme in “Treetops”  Can’t really complain about much here, as the focus should be on the picture not as much the sound, so I think Howard did his job.

To finish the movie off, I think the “Arena Crumbles” track was so perfectly hopeful and symbolic, and totally complimented the symbolism of the picture onscreen.  It was great.  And “Good Morning Sweetheart” was a nice cliffhangy (yep, it’s a word) segue into the next.

And by the way, I thought it was a great job throwing “Atlas” in there to start off the credits.

All in all I thought this score was pretty solid.  I still think Howard could’ve made more use of the theme he introduced in “Katniss,” but in more subtle ways.  He very obviously went back to that theme a few times in the score, but the times he didn't it was also very obvious.  I might have liked to hear some variations of the theme even in the less thematic sounds.  If that makes sense.
I also really liked Rue's theme from the first movie, and even though he used it once or twice in Catching Fire, I would have liked to hear it even more.

Last but not least, I was a big fan of the capital's theme.  Though taken from the first movie, I think the big, royal sounds were quite fitting for the capital.

As usual, some of my favorite tracks:
Katniss
The Tour - HUGE fan of this scene in the movie.  The sound really helped.
Horn of Plenty - basically from The Hunger Games, with a few tweaks.
Prim
Bow and Arrow
We're a Team

Go out, see the movie, hear the music, and prepare for the next 2 movies! (Which will HOPEFULLY be better than the last book.)

Comments welcome!

Ender's Game Review: Steve Jablonsky wins

I’ll admit - I haven’t seen Ender’s Game.  The reason is that I don’t want to see the movie before I read the book.  And god only knows when I’ll have time to actually read the book.

That being said, I really want to talk about the score by Steve Jablonsky because he has recently become one of my favorite composers…

Right off the bat (in the track “Ender’s War”) Steve’s got that deep sounding bass/cello that was his go-to in Transformers, which I love.  In my opinion, if you’re good at something - stick to it!  Of course, that’s assuming the only person Steve had to please with this score was me.  And I’d like to think that’s true.

What I really love is his use of theme.  I’m a huge fan of creating a theme in a score that fits with the movie.  It seems elementary and trivial, but it's something that not all composers do.  I’ve heard scores that are really fun and exciting and powerful but lack a theme… That theme is what a score needs to make it memorable.  Once someone listens to the Transformers scores, how can they forget the themes in there?  Or Danny Elfman’s scores for the old Batman and Spiderman movies.  Or even The Shawshank Redemption or Road to Perdition.  It’s the themes that make a score memorable, and Steve’s got one here.

I did find myself thinking about other movies when I listened to this score.  Some of the horn/percussion combos in the first few tracks definitely reminded me of Star Trek: Into Darkness.  The end of “Stay Down” seemed to have the same exact notes and sound of Gravity’s main theme.  But those things don’t bother me.  I don’t think one needs to come up with a totally new and original sound to make a score amazing.  In fact, when composers try and fail to be original it just sounds stupid!  If they succeed then the payoff is even greater, but (for me) it’s not a requirement.

One negative I will note is his overuse of the same one theme.  See, I’m extremely supportive of the use of themes, but it seemed that he went back to that choppy violin thing a bit too much.  It was first used in “Battle School,” then “Salamander Battle,” then “Dragon Army”… and that’s only the first half of the album!  So that’s really my only knock - that he could’ve incorporated another theme to complement the one he has but also be a bit different, add a little variety.

Another few aspects which really did it for me:

He didn’t try to do too much.  Many tracks are just percussion and strings or percussion and horns.  And to achieve huge sound and emotion with such simplicity I think is really powerful.

And I really like the use of choral voices.  Like in “Move it Launchies” and other tracks.  The voices almost always add to the emotion for me.

Finally, some noteworthy tracks that stuck out to me:

“The Battle Room”

“Salamander Battle” - specifically the 2nd half

“Dragons Win” - specifically minor-major transitions

“Final Test”

“Ender’s Promise”

All in all this was a great score, one I will always remember when I hear the theme.  That is the key for me.  Compose a powerful, memorable score and I’ll add it to my library any day.  I recommend this one to any film music lovers out there!