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:
“Salamander Battle” - specifically the 2nd half
“Dragons Win” - specifically minor-major transitions
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!
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