TOP 10 SUPERHERO FILM SCORES
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SUPERHERO NEWSTOP 10 SUPERHERO FILM SCORES
At one point or another, everyone hears them. Whether it be sitting in the movie theater checking out the flick or if it’s thrown into a commercial or promo for the film. But many of us in the fanboy culture love to drive down the highway at 88 miles an hour blasting the Back to the Future score. Or, as many of us are writers, we turn to these brilliant musical cues for inspiration and brainstorming. Either way, I’ve compiled my top 10 fanboy scores that I like to jam out to. And here….we….go!
10) X-Men: The Last Stand by John Powell
Say what you want about the movie, the score itself is well done. The opening track is gripping and slowly transitions to something more. The cues for the battle scenes are solid, especially from Jean Grey’s, err, “Phoenix’s” character. The end credits music is slowly calm and peaceful and then bursts to life. I can’t help but dream large dramatic action set pieces to this score.
9) Unbreakable by James Newton Howard
The ultimate “non-comic book based” comic book movie. M. Night Shyamalan’s film is one of his best, no doubt, but the score is definitely something to be acknowledged on it’s own. It’s somewhat techno-y at times, but it works. There’s a bit of a slight hip hop tinge to it all, with some some heroic vibes as well.
8) The Incredible Hulk by Craig Armstrong
While repetitive at times, the score is no doubt one of the greatest scores I’ve heard in a long time. It’s powerful and epic action scenes are “catchy” and the haunting music doesn’t bore you one bit. A great addition to the Superhero scores.
7) Spider-man 2 by Danny Elfman
While the first film’s score left me with a bland taste in my mouth, this one fills the flavor. I always felt that Danny Elfman dropped the ball with the first film’s theme and score. It just wasn’t what I expected or wanted out of a Superhero theme. For this film, however, the score works powerfully and captures the depression and sadness that Peter Parker goes through. It was nice to listen to an Elfman score that didn’t have the choir going “Ahhhh—ahhhh” for once.
6) Iron Man by Ramin Djwadi
I’ll admit. First time I saw this movie I was disappointed with the score. I couldn’t remember anything from it. All I knew was there was some “meh” version of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man repeated throughout all the commercials and end credits. When I finally discovered the score as a separate entity, it blew me away. I couldn’t believe I had missed it during the film. Maybe it was just doing it’s job and going unnoticed. I have no idea. All I do know is, once I got a taste of it by itself, I was hooked. The action is pulsating and it’s just a fantastic rock/classical score.
5) The Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Forget superheroes, this is one of the very few scores that has released just about every damn piece of music included in the film (which is maddening at times. I’m still waiting to get the Monorail battle from Batman Begins). This collaboration is absolutely fantastic. There’s an integrity given to Harvey Dent, a heroic pulse pounding theme for Batman and the Joker’s unsettling razor on metal wire sound wasn’t what anyone was expecting. And it all works together to piece together the movie. It’s a tribute to Christopher Nolan to create an entire chase sequence without any score underneath it, but for shits and giggles I played around in the Avid and put some of the score to the sequence and man, if they had I’m pretty sure people would favor it over the trench run. Speaking of the trench run…
Now this score is good, not great. For the most part it’s bland all over and overshadowed by….wait for it…..Prince. Yeah, there’s two songs people remember from this movie; Partyman and the Main title march. And the march is the only reason why it’s above The Dark Knight. Danny Elfman was at his prime for this film. He created the most iconic theme for Batman that most people think of to this day (which is hard to do when you’re going up against the 60’s TV show theme). But aside from that, there’s a piece of music from right before the credits where Batman stands atop the rooftops and stares at the Batsignal. This is, by far, Elfman’s greatest moment. The only time I would ever say he had matched John Williams epic, inspirational abilities.
3) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope by John Williams
From the moment the movie starts, what is it that grabs your attention? The opening scroll? The giant letters? Maybe it’s the humungous space ship? No, all of these things are underlined by the fantastic opening score that continues throughout the film. John Williams masterfully creates a “bad guy” theme for an entire empire and a dark figure, a heroic theme for a young hero, a wise theme for a elderly guardian, a poetic love theme for the damsel and above all, the great Trench run fanfare. As if that weren’t enough, the final moments of the metal ceremony is so uplifting and encapsulating you forget your disappointment that the film is over. It’s one of the very few end credits that I sat through every time I see this film just to hear the score. Frankly, even I have to admit I’m hard pressed to find 2 scores better than this one.
2) Transformers by Steve Jablonsky
Such an amazing score and the battle to get it released was hard pressed to even get it to an online download only for a while until it was finally released on CD. Jablonsky creates the ultimate American epic suite. It’s just phenomenal. It’s dark at times, it’s action packed and fast paced, but overall, there’s a sense of overall optimism (no pun intended) when listening to this score. Something about that French horn gets me every time. I knew this was a great score when I got the DVD and would leave it on the main menu just to listen to the music looped.
1) Superman: The Movie by John Williams
I don’t know how he does it. But John Williams is a music genius. The Beethoven of our time. I’ve never known a single movie score to make the hair on my arm stand up straight next to the Goosebumps every time I hear it. The score is, by far, the most uplifting and inspiring of all time. It’s romantic and charming with the love themes and just conquers all. It’s even fun when it comes to Lex Luthor’s theme (although, for whatever wires are crossed in my head I constantly mistake it for the Ewok theme from the ROTJ score). No other score does what this one does. It set the bar over 30 years ago and still hasn’t been topped yet.
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Top 10 Superhero Film Scores
