>Off the top of your head, could you sing the theme from Star Wars? How about James Bond? Or Harry Potter? But here’s the kicker: can you sing any theme from a Marvel film? Despite 13 films and 10 billion dollars at the box office, the Marvel Cinematic Universe lacks a distinctive musical identity or approach. So let’s try to answer the question: what is missing from Marvel music?
What do you think, Sup Forums? Does Marvel have a problem when it comes to its original symphonic scores? Do you think they're doing a fine job? Does DC have the same problem?
Normal people can't hum the themes of any recent movies, be they Marvel, DC or standalones. It's a really arbitrary parameter of quality.
Luke Foster
Marvel definitely has a problem with their scores. They aren't memorable. Literally the only song I could think of from ANY of the movies was "The Star-Spangled Man" from Cap 1, and that's only because it was a whole sequence.
Connor Campbell
Honestly.
Jaxon Powell
fuck off to Sup Forums
Ryder Clark
I think that the First Avenger theme is really recognizable, but that film didn't go as big as some as the other MCU films. They also change Cap's theme every film, which is a little annoying.
I love "Taking a stand" from TWS, it's got just the right amount of pathos. It really should be Cap's main theme. youtube.com/watch?v=7jpnBs0DkXg
Caleb Robinson
avengers theme is good the winter soldier song you linked was painful. om sure it was good in the movie for tension but damn i wouldnt wanna put that on to listen to ant man has good hiest/planning music
Grayson Morales
I think it speaks a lot to how the films are produced. So far, most of the memorable moments from the MCU films (at least those that have memorable moments) have been dialogue based.
Compare that to Star Wars. Many memorable moments in the original trilogy are underscored by John Williams fantastic score.
I can for the Avengers theme. Danny Elfman did too, in Age of Ultron he said making it return at the right time was one of his favorite things about doing the score.
Was disappointed it was used in Civil War at all, and I hope they don't drop it - really want it to come back in Infinity War.
I think DC has a problem but a different problem. Marvel's character themes are pretty unique as far as I know. The Ant-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor themes; as bland as they may be (except for Cap's) are differentiated very well.
Everything in the DC Universe could be overlapped for any other character very easily. Wonder Woman's theme could work well for Superman in an action sequence. You can't just tack on Captain America's theme onto Iron Man, it wouldn't work.
On the other hand, DC's themes are much much stronger. Even if you don't tie it to the character's identity, you remember much more of it. It's played exactly like Tony likes it, just the music. It's cinematic and Snyder loves that shit. So people remember Superman's take off music.
This far in though, Marvel kind of fucked up. Like they can't just establish new character themes for Iron Man 6 movies in. Also it's a bit unfair to compare it to Star Wars and Harry Potter where the opening themes were either played out to scrolling text and blaring music or a pan of something grand like the school. I think it's a much better comparison to the Imperial March.
Landon Fisher
BANANANANUM
BANNANANANUM NUM NUM NANANANANA BUM BUM BUM
BANANANANABANABUM BananBUM BUM BUM Banna
*Jaeger and Kaiju noises in the background*
Noah Rogers
The Man with the Plan is the most memorable MCU music for me
But I was disappointed they weren't able to secure the Mighty Shield song
Ethan Jackson
My nigga.
I hum that every time i think of it.
Dominic Thomas
I can remember the Winter Soldier theme, mainly because the first time I saw it in theaters hearing that fucking hawk screech made me hot and bothered.
Liam Campbell
DC had Zimmer so far, who ocassionally lands real good stuff. The Man of Steel theme is great. For some reason Supes always gets good themes. Now that he's left, I don't know who'll pick up the slack for him. Junkie XL? If the Wonder Woman theme is anything to go by, that's not a good sign.
Elijah Johnson
youtube.com/watch?v=I9PhfUsFvj0 Great song, wish they used it more. Hell I wish Ramin Djawadi kept scoring the Iron Man movies.
Caleb Sanders
Iron Man had AC/DC, does that count?
Cooper Johnson
I think the first Iron Man had a lot of generic rock music but it all fit very well
Camden Cooper
I love this one, fit the scene so perfectly.
God, why was Iron Man just so god damned good?
Elijah Robinson
I only remember it because that qt australian girl played it on the violin
Now I'm imagining someone doing the screech from the WS theme when Tony asked to hum a Marvel song.
Aaron Williams
...
Isaiah Garcia
I agree, the Marvel movies have pretty much 0 stylistic value. The visuals could generously be described as "workman-like" and are more often less charitably compared to mediocre TV shows. The music is the same way. They're so unmemorable and boring. My favorite moment is in Avengers 2 when they're going through Korea and generic Asian music plays.
>Does DC have the same problem? The score is easily the best part of most DC movies recently. Man of Steel, the Dark Knight trilogy, and BvS all have iconic scores that are easily standout parts of the movie regardless the quality of everything else.
On the other hand, Suicide Squad's music was so painful and cringeworthy - outdated annoying pop music, everyone's favorite! - it might possibly be the worst part of a generally terrible movie. And now that Hans Zimmer is stepping away from DC movies, there's a large chance that whoever they get to replace him is far worse.
>Wonder Woman's theme could work well for Superman in an action sequence. That's just flat out untrue.
Angel Wright
I don't think it's untrue. But it's probably because their power sets are so similar. If you think of Marvel's theme, they play off the powers or the general feel of that character. Captain America is well... America. Iron Man is tech-y. Thor is old and mythical. Ant-Man heralds back to the old caper tunes.
Superman is... heroic and strong? Wonder Woman is excited and heroic?
Brody Sanchez
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M
Nolan Moore
It's also not like we get much of Wonder Woman's character from BvS either. It can't fit her character; she doesn't have one.
James Walker
>The music is the same way. They're so unmemorable and boring. My favorite moment is in Avengers 2 when they're going through Korea and generic Asian music plays. But that's wrong. the Avengers Theme i really memorable and catchy as fuck. same as Also, you can't say it has no stylistic value when each movie has its own stylistic visual.
Austin Carter
You would have a point if they didn't use that same theme in the trailer so they clearly have it as her thing now
James James
It is a problem with Marvel movies, but frankly, it's a problem with all modern movies. And TV. And games.
At some point, really strong, characteristic musical themes fell out of fashion. Everyone is trying to be Bear McCreary with generic atmospheric nonsense nowadays.
Henry Morgan
>in the trailer how does the trailer define her personality?
I'm not saying they aren't using it as her theme, i'm saying it doesn't carry any weight in BvS when they just tack it onto random third-party
Jackson Wright
I honestly love how the tone in the Cap movies changed between TFA and TWS and probably Civil War if you think about it.
That said I kind of wished we would have gotten more WWII Cap before Avengers came out, especially after the Super Soldier video game had thise cool sci fi Nazi dieselpunk machines, honestly there's a lot of potential for pulp old WWII stories with Cap.
Christopher Lopez
>people post tons of memorable music from the MCU >haters are acting as if they are not seeing anything.
It's nice to have opinions, but a reality check from time to time isn't bad either.
Jace Hughes
Yeah see I don't think this is fair. He does have a strong point, but the thing is, the comparisons to Star Wars, Bond and HP are songs that played during the intro and/or credits of every single movie. That's minimum 10 times in the low end. Including commercials say that. It's not something that can be done with movies that are each headlined by different people as main characters and then if they tried, it's easy too late to do it. Still, I do think the Avengers theme is memorable on a cultural level
That being said, I don't regular people know the Marvel Studios logo music either
Mason Torres
>people on a comic board remembering some music from comic movies this is not exactly a feat
Tyler Campbell
How long before Hollywood kidnaps Sawano? He's almost a big a meme as Hans Zimmer.
I can semi remember the end credits theme from Iron Man 3, but I haven't watched a Marvel movie since Civil War came out, so it's a little fuzzy.
Henry Davis
Is the Cap game worth playing? I completely forgot that pre-Avengers Marvel movies got video game adaptations.
Nathan Miller
Maybe we just have different standards for memorable?
The best MCU music to me is about on the level of Danny Elfman's Spider-Man soundtrack. Not particularly memorable, but it works okay when you're watching it.
Joseph Lewis
But the Avengers theme IS memorable.
Brandon James
>I agree, the Marvel movies have pretty much 0 stylistic value. The visuals could generously be described as "workman-like" and are more often less charitably compared to mediocre TV shows. The music is the same way. They're so unmemorable and boring. My favorite moment is in Avengers 2 when they're going through Korea and generic Asian music plays.
I agree. For the most part, I enjoy MCU films, but after Phase 1 there is a dearth of stylistic flair within them. The substance is there, the entertainment, but the creative signature isn't. It's like a fairly nice meal at a chain restaurant; you know you'll get something pretty nice, but you'll never get something that wows you.
The DCEU has a different problem, it's all style with little substance. I don't use the term 'style' as an insult here; in cinema, I'd say style is as important as the 'substance'. However, to continue the restaurant analogy, Snyder's DC films are like someone putting a lot of effort into making a hamburger appear gourmet, trying a bunch of fancy things to make it appear a groundbreaking shift in how hamburgers are made. He makes something that looks impressive but once one tastes it they realise that a lot of the elements that make a good hamburger work have been discarded in chasing his vision.
What we really need is a cape film that is willing to both entertain and show artistic flourish. My favourite example is this scene from the Crow. youtube.com/watch?v=qL8DQUSGze4 It portrays a key element of the superhero, the origin, in a straightforward way, but the scene is also filled with a really fantastic and unique atmosphere that he reaches using the strengths of cinema as a medium. One can tell immediately which part of the hero's narrative arc this is, but it doesn't feel like a repeat of every other 'hero suits up' sequence in film. Why did Proyas have to start putting out so much shit after Dark City?
Xavier Rogers
I can hum the Avengers one.
James Ward
They're not memorable on the level that they could be, though. Ask any member of the public to hum the Star Wars theme, I'd guess over half would do it immediately. Ask them to hum most of the songs in this thread, and you'd get a lot of blank stares.
It's not that the music isn't good, far from it; it's that the way that Marvel films are made means that the soundtrack doesn't take precedent as in Star Wars or Jurassic Park.
Leo Harris
I couldn't even think of the Star Wars or 007 until the people started humming them. I don't think I ever really pay that much attention to music. I didn't know what anyone was talking about with Wonder Woman in BvS until someone made a webm and I could watch it again.
Levi Morris
>Ask them to hum most of the songs in this thread, and you'd get a lot of blank stares. Most of them could hum the them of of the Avengers.
And, I don't know if this is cheating, but they could also easily hum the Iron Man them of Black Sabbath.
Isaiah Watson
At least we still have John Williams, even if the new soundtrack isn't "Imperial March" tier yet.
I miss the engineering aspect of Iron Man in recent movies, sketching blueprints, testing parts individually, trouble shooting and so forth. It went a little to fantastical for my taste.
Lincoln Wood
He's right. I don't think musically he gets at what the problem with the scores used is, but from the filmmaking side he's right.
It wasn't entirely fair, though. Marvel films have used music memorably on occasion even though they haven't really composed memorable scores for their films.
Elijah Young
I tried humming something but I just ended up with the Pacific Rim theme.
Jeremiah Jackson
Imagine if all the marvel movies just devolved into that theme
Jacob Green
I can hum Moonage Daydream? Does that count?
Jack Wilson
Try the Avengers theme, or the Musical number int he first Captain America.
Luis Rivera
It counts if you count humming hooked on a feeling works for gotg
Andrew Morgan
WHEN CAPTAIN AMERICA THROWS HIS MIGHTY SHIIIEEEELLLD
Gabriel Stewart
I completely agree, but I've had March of The Resistance stuck in my head fro nearly a year and I catch myself frequently humming it.
Anthony Scott
The only piece of music from Marvel that I can remember more than just a few consecutive seconds of is Driving With the Top Down, from the first Iron Man
But I don't think it's Marvel as much as it is modern Hollywood
Leo White
I actually agree that the MCU mostly hasn't had too many memorable themes.
But then like the video notes, it's not even an MCU thing. When's the last time we got a truly amazing, iconic film score for an original movie?
Daniel Richardson
>Most of them could hum the theme of of the Avengers.
I think you're underestimating how well remembered the Avengers theme is. A lot of people went to see the film, but what people remembered from it, mainly, is the dialogue and the Hulk.
Like I said here , there's very few memorable moments (beyond the team-up shot in New York) where the music takes precedent in a scene, while there are many in Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.
As far as film score goes, I can't really remember. I think that there's been a trend of using commercially released music to score big moments in blockbusters recently. For example, a lot of people have been re-familiarized (or familiarized, in the case of some younger people) with Freebird because of how it was used in Kingsman.
Cameron Foster
He's right though. It's not even remotely just Marvel. It's all those things he mentioned.
Especially Western video games. Fuck. Why do they all go for that generic Hollywood sound now?
Camden Lee
This is actually a really good theme and I'm sad that they haven't done more themes like this.
>I think that there's been a trend of using commercially released music to score big moments in blockbusters recently Fucking Suicide Squad.
Gabriel Wilson
>Why do they all go for that generic Hollywood sound now? Hey, the first two Mass Effect games had pretty great scores, at least. youtube.com/watch?v=Jzv5k6p0Swo
Noah Martin
This is true for most cinematic music these days. It's not meant to stand out, it's meant to be BGM. It's why movie themes are generally forgettable, why no one but the hardest core DC fans can hum the Man of Steel theme vs the old Williams Superman theme, which almost everyone would recognize.
As for me, I love cinematic music in general, so I can hum probably half of the themes from the MCU (And the MoS theme as well,) but I recognize that a standout theme isn't really what Hollywood wants out of movie music anymore, with the exception of Disney movies that have original songs.
Dylan Ross
Mass Effect 1 had an amazing 80's synth soundtrack.
By Mass Effect 3 it was all generic orchestral stuff.
Hudson Morales
BvS' score was fucking shit. The WW theme was awful.
Angel Watson
Music in movies stopped being a thing in the 90s
Get with the times
James Davis
Suicide Squad was executives noticing the trend. With Guardians, it was pretty much Gunn's idea to have that soundtrack. Same with Matthew Vaughn and the soundtracks for Kingsman and Kick-Ass.
What WB didn't get is that the music in those films was thematically appropriate, drawn from a large reference pool and used more sparingly than people realize. Thus, they got some artists to produce a bunch of songs in house that didn't fit the film at all and, well, we got what we got.
Gavin Gomez
>Every Frame A Painting
Fuck you, this isn't a cartoon and CGI isn't real animation.
John Jenkins
>Snyder's DC films are like someone putting a lot of effort into making a hamburger appear gourmet, trying a bunch of fancy things to make it appear a groundbreaking shift in how hamburgers are made. He makes something that looks impressive but once one tastes it they realise that a lot of the elements that make a good hamburger work have been discarded in chasing his vision.
Zack Snyder is the Guy Fieri of directors?
James Mitchell
I don't think they're as good as the original game's OST, but the Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games have breddy gud music. youtu.be/Ns7fNPiNiNc
Robert Hall
I think Mass Effect 2 had a great balance between orchestra and synths.
For some reason, they switched composers for ME3. I have no idea why, considering Jack Wall's composition on the first two games was so fitting for the universe and so unique.
I still think his Mass Effect theme is the best sci-fi theme of the past 20 years, honestly. youtube.com/watch?v=OLw3eE_5pxw
Jordan Gutierrez
I still find myself humming some of the songs from Memetale. Professional studios should have 100x more experience and resources, so why do they rarely make memorable pieces?
Kayden Davis
I'm thinking this is why Zimmer is done with capeshit
Christopher Bennett
Iron Man
Oooga Chaka
The Winter Soldier credit theme
Honestly the Avengers and GotG theme is so similar I end up switching between the two
Ryan Roberts
Well off the top of my head I can recall the
>Theme from Age of Ultron (when Avengers defend the core, the End Credits song with the statue, etc.) >Iron Man theme (First Movie) >Winter Soldier theme >Guardians of the Galaxy theme
If we're talking indie games, Ori and the Blind Forest has some amazing music youtube.com/watch?v=eaiJKLROq5M I'm surprised it doesn't get mentioned more on Sup Forums, considering how beautifully animated it is
Jason Roberts
This and Arc Reactor from the original Iron man.
Blake Miller
>tons of memorable music from the MCU Six or seven don't a ton make, phamilie.
