Poll: Danny Elfman VS Hans Zimmer
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I voted Zimmer. I have a fondness for Elfman from my childhood, particularly his association with Tim Burton films, but Zimmer?s scores are by far and away more powerful and better serve their more immediate, cinematic purposes. Batman aside, the scores for Interstellar and Inception were beyond incredible. Not to take anything from Elfman, I just see his scores as more flighty, whimsical, maybe? Fantastical, certainly. Zimmer is more grim and dark and BIG, the kind of music that has such a presence, you can literally breath it in.
Both soundtracks were perfect for the movie they were created for and the period they were created in.
If we were doing "as a Batman movie composer", I would say they were equal, but in general then Zimmer.
If we were doing "as a Batman movie composer", I would say they were equal, but in general then Zimmer.
Zimmer heralded the death of melody in movie scores. Now we're all stuck with loud, "epic" paste in our blockbusters, all thanks to old Hans.
Not to put you on your heels, but I don't believe it's fair to attribute the triviality of modern cinema up to any one person; if anything fault the emulators who oversaturate what was once a new, fresh and brilliant idea. I'd challenge that most of these "blockbusters" couldn't have been helped by a hundred musical geniuses working around the clock for a hundred years anyway; I can't think of a truly brilliant movie I've seen in the past 10 years. Yes, Zimmer's sounds is distinct, but it is as much a character in the films he creates them for as the faces on screen. I thought Interstellar was a horrible movie, but I paid to see it twice in the theaters for Zimmer's score alone on those huge theater speakers. Death of melody? I think not; listen below. To each his/her own and opinions are most certainly like assholes in that we each (likely) posses at least one, but I find that as scores go, Zimmer's are most engrossing. If it's loud, it's because the scene calls for it; if it's melodic, it's because he wants you to feel it.Casual Shinji said:
I saw a video somewhere that talked about how a lot of directors feel like music shouldn't distract from the cinema itself. I think this explains why someone like Zimmer was able to become as big as he did. What I don't understand is the directors who feel like music should just be mindless noise droning in the background. At that point you may as well just remove the music altogether, since you aren't using it for anything.Casual Shinji said:
NoSamtemdo8 said:
Honestly, only time I ever thought Hans Zimmer had good music was in The Lion King and The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. All of his Nolan movie scores are just so forgettable and depressing sounding....plus he gave us the "BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" in inception and now everyone uses their own version of it.
Just in terms of batman though? Danny all the way, e really gets the tone of Batman, dark and creepy but heroic and triumphant with a little sadness, whereas Hans' is more angry, depressing but also with this sense of entitlement, like Batman is the only thing in this world that can succeed.....
I don't know you didn't see his score carry over into anything like Danny Elfman's. I was basically Batman's theme not only in the first to movies but in the entirety of the DCAU as well.
Ether way John Williams trumps the both lol.
Just in terms of batman though? Danny all the way, e really gets the tone of Batman, dark and creepy but heroic and triumphant with a little sadness, whereas Hans' is more angry, depressing but also with this sense of entitlement, like Batman is the only thing in this world that can succeed.....
I don't know you didn't see his score carry over into anything like Danny Elfman's. I was basically Batman's theme not only in the first to movies but in the entirety of the DCAU as well.
Ether way John Williams trumps the both lol.
But back on topic, to be fair Zimmer did made great music before the "Nolan era" of his Music:Fox12 said:
And this gem from Pirates 3 At Worlds End:
I'm sorry, but I don't consider that much of a melody. Apart from the volume increasing (unnecessarily loud) I'm listening to the same three or four notes over and over, resulting in just a mash of noise.Xprimentyl said:
Compare that to this; Same kind of tension, but there's peaks and valleys. All the instruments compliment oneanother and don't morph into an incomprehensible wall of sound.
I actually looked that up once. Old Hans gets a lot of credit for working on Prince of Egypt and The Lion King. In actuality he didn't work on any of the songs for either film. He worked on some of the backgrounds music, but that's it. Background music that was mostly based on the melodies that the other musicians had already created. In this case those songs were written by a gentlemen named Stephen Schwartz and Tim Rice respectively. Hans himself had nothing to do with it.Samtemdo8 said:
As for Pirates, he was only tangentially involved in those films as well. He wasn't even available to work on them until after the franchise had been established. Even his biggest successes weren't actually the result of his work.
On the subject of Batman I like both scores. In the long run I think I prefer Zimmer's work in general, although I've caught him repeating himself almost as frequently as Elfman (compare the soundtracks of Gladiator and PotC for reference).
I'm a big fan of Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack for Man of Steel was probably one of the best parts of the film, especially the music [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTb5jJu9pho] from the final fight scene.
He's announced that he's not working on superhero films anymore, which depresses me.
He's announced that he's not working on superhero films anymore, which depresses me.
Danny Elfman wins by a long shot in my eyes. More distinctive and varied. Zimmer's work is too brooding and I'm not a fan of his synth-as-horns sound.
I voted for Elfman since the poll is specifically about the Batman soundtracks.
However, I do like Zimmer's music more overall. I love the intricate texturing of his pieces. Interstellar would have been a fairly mediocre movie (yes yes I know there's at least 5 of you who need to tell me right now that it's an awful piece of "muh emotions" fake science) if it weren't for that stellar (ha) soundtrack.
However, I do like Zimmer's music more overall. I love the intricate texturing of his pieces. Interstellar would have been a fairly mediocre movie (yes yes I know there's at least 5 of you who need to tell me right now that it's an awful piece of "muh emotions" fake science) if it weren't for that stellar (ha) soundtrack.
I think you might be confusing melody with leitmotif (an easily identifiable tune that is associated with a person or place). While it's true that you don't see the latter in films nearly as often anymore, melody is simply a sequence of satisfying notes. Music is, of course, inherently subjective, so I suppose you could just decide that no series of notes in modern film is satisfying, but I think you'd be in the incredibly small minority on that. A melody doesn't need to be a tune that you can whistle or associate with a character/place to be effective.Casual Shinji said:
I had to go with Danny Elfman. His Batman theme is far more recognizable as such. Zimmer isn't bad by any means though. His music in Man of Steel is by a huge margin the best thing about that garbage film. And really that's not some of his best work, but it may have been one of only 2 or 3 things actually good about that movie.