Zimmer does it again

Hans Zimmer isn't my favorite composer but I like how he can take one sound and then build the entire score for the movie around that sound.

In The Dark Knight there was the reversed bass hit sound (fwoosh) to represent Batman, and the distorted siren to represent the Joker (nyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooo....).

And in Inception there's that crazy foghorn-like sound: BRRRRRRRM. BRRRRRRM.

Just to show how iconic it instantly became, here's an amazing redone trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY69-AgUmDQ

BRRRRRRRRRRRRM :phones:

Yeah, cool sound, like a trombone with digital effects....

For me Zimmer is somehow like Jarré, he has imagination for one theme only, and that theme will be through the entire movie, (well I haven't seen that one you link)...

Hey you have beem very busy ? when you post something in Orchestra ? I'll post something soon (I hope)

To be frank, Zimmer is very boring. I watched Inception and I was throughly unimpressed with the score. It was boring and somewhat undramatic. Zimmer used to be good; he is no longer.

The loud horn in Inception was pretty awesome.. that's about it, but then again.. that's all there was.

To be frank, Zimmer is very boring. I watched Inception and I was throughly unimpressed with the score. It was boring and somewhat undramatic. Zimmer used to be good; he is no longer.

For the love of doughnuts, is there ANYONE on this site that doesn't state their opinion as fact? Dear gosh... Yes, I also thought the score for Inception was boring. But does that really mean the Zimmer isn't a good composer anymore? Bull crap. His recent scores have been excellent, (Sherlock Holmes, TDK) but he has one misstep and we automatically jump to the conclusion that he's a washed up artist, a has-been. I personally don't think Zimemr is boring at all. That is your opinion. I think the majority of people on this site like Zimmer (at least something of his.)

And honestly, did the score for Inception really need to be very complex? I personally appreciated the fact that it wasn't there very often. I think a big, brassy, typical Zimmer score would have distracted from what really mattered: the plot of the film. I think he showed artistic restraint and did what the film needed. Not every score needs to be a stunning work of stand-alone art. The point of the score is to compliment the film in such a way that enhances the experience over-all. I think that, despite the score being boring (IN MY OPINION) it did what it was supposed to be doing.

If you look at this, "

The loud horn in Inception was pretty awesome.. that's about it, but then again.. that's all there was.

That sound was all the film needed. It was a perfect way of capturing two of the main ideas of the film: that what we see/hear/feel while we're sleeping influences our dreams, and that dreams have a distorted sense of time. Those massive, slowed-down brass BRRRMs derive from the Edith Piaf song. Just like the Joker sound in TDK, having this recurring, instantly recognizable sound motif really helped the film.

To be frank, Zimmer is very boring. I watched Inception and I was throughly unimpressed with the score. It was boring and somewhat undramatic. Zimmer used to be good; he is no longer.

I don't know how you could say that Zimmer's music is boring in films. His music always complements the pacing & tone of the film really well. If anything the more legitimate criticism of him is on the CDs: the music doesn't work as well as it does in the movie, and comparing movie to movie his self-plagiarism is totally shameless.

I guess you could take either view of the way his scores have a lot in common and how they seem to fixate on very small musical ideas - either he is a self-plagiarizing hack who churns out a lot of work without much artistic consideration OR he is thinking about creating a film score rather than independent music, and he focuses on creating these small motifs that have a lot of emotional/psychological impact.

:hmmm:

Personally I would put him in the second category... now James Horner on the other hand... :rolleyes:

BTW on the CD there was one track that was esp. interesting, the music from the movie's ending. It's got a little bit of Chevaliers De Sangreal feel to it.

Criticize him all you like, but there is not a person currently active that can spot a film better than him.

I think the soundtrack's great, though I haven't seen the film yet. And that last track 'Time' (

But hey, what does it matter :innocent:

I think the score to Inception is brilliant and moving and exciting and minimalistic which is fine for me. Maybe it is not Wagner, but who the heck cares. It is what it is. It is a style. It is awesome. I think that in this score Zimmer has created his "Psycho moment" in those dark booming brass sections. I know that everyone who has seen the movie that I know has mentioned that effect. I think it will become somewhat iconic. I usually do not flip out about Zimmer scores, but this one is something else to me. I love it and I hope it gets a nomination though I doubt it will.

And I think the movie is just unbelievable. One of my favorite movies of all time. It is such a mind twister and it really all works out in the end. The choice at the end of the movie is genius.

What a great movie!

Dark, grumbling, grandiose and complicated. I love it :D

And the music worked well, yes. It blowed me away.

The biggest problem I have with Zimmer isn't the quality of his work-- I mean, we can argue about that for ages, because although it isn't ever complex or challenging, it is almost always effective, and whether or not you think its good has a lot to do with which half of that equation you think is more important-- but the fact that, once a year, he puts out a score, and then every other score has to be just like it. Remember Pirates? I was sitting in the theatre, thinking to myself "this is a fun score, even if its kinda' cheesy", and then all of the sudden I hear it everywhere, and every movie starts trying to copy that sound. Its infuriating that one man (well, one man and a little composer sweatshop) can dictate the entire sound of Hollywood for months on end.

Really, the inception sound isn't terribly different than the Dark Knight sound (DK had its share of massive digital brass hits too, remember?), and now we're seeing that evolve and show up everywhere. Just the other day I went to see RED with my wife, and, look at that-- half the trailers featured trailer music that totally ripped off the BWWWWWAAAAA..... BWWWAAAAAAA.... sound of the Inception score. (Heck, even some of the Starcraft II trailers had little bits of it here and there).

I don't have a problem with Zimmer-- I mean, I think that the Massive MediaVentures Brass Hit was actually kind of cool... the first time. But why can't the rest of Hollywood's bigwigs try at least something different?

(End rant)

But why can't the rest of Hollywood's bigwigs try at least something different?

They would say "Why try something that isn't broken?"

As an investor, I would want to make sure that my project makes money.

They would say "Why try something that isn't broken?"

As an investor, I would want to make sure that my project makes money.

Not necessarily. There's plenty of other approaches that have made money in the past. Heck, if we're going for straight up copying of another style, why not choose John Williams? He's certainly hauled in enough, and hearing that kind of music instead of Zimmers would probably really set a film apart, and probably pull in gobs o' cash.

Zim's music is hip, John's isn't (anymore).

Please, we all know the best film scorer is Danny Elfman... except we all know that none of the composers in hollywood orchestrate their stuff, so shouldn't some credit go to, say, the people who orchestrate these songs? Come on, they are the ones that add the color. ;)

Criticize him all you like, but there is not a person currently active that can spot a film better than him.

This.

And Elfman.

Screw Elfman. His writing is weak Sondheim.

Screw Williams. His writing is weak Holst.

Screw Zimmer. He writing is weak.

come get some.

Please, we all know the best film scorer is Danny Elfman... except we all know that none of the composers in hollywood orchestrate their stuff, so shouldn't some credit go to, say, the people who orchestrate these songs? Come on, they are the ones that add the color.

Actually John Williams does do most of his own orchestration. You can hear the consistency across his body of work.

Screw Williams. His writing is weak Holst.

Screw Zimmer. He writing is weak.

It was Zimmer who was sued by the Holst Foundation for plagiarism after blatant copying of The Planets in his score to Gladiator.

Actually John Williams does do most of his own orchestration.

Nope.

This is why he has Conrad Pope.

Up until recent years where he's practically retired, even he wasn't given enough time to orchestrate his own stuff.

What siwi probably means is that Williams carefully notates all the lines' instrumentations on a 3 or 4 staff reduction (afaik).

Orchestrating that is basically just writing out in full - not many creative decisions left to the orchestrator.