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I think it's more like SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS IN SPACE ON EARTH.
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Sounds like a very streamlined score, doing only what scores these days are allowed to do.
And that is... um, to support the images and scenes and to satisfy what the director wants?
You can't determine what this score is and how it's supposed to be functioning until you've seen the movie! I thought there was some interesting stuff in these clips (1 and 7 alone) that might be better yet when you hear them in context and in increments greater than low-bitrate 30 second excerpts... why so quick to declare everything crap?
I did not declare it crap. And I did say that I hope the whole score will give another impression.
But Erik´s thoughts about the score seem to go into the same direction.
And let me stress again (with looks to my alias here) that I am a big fan of James Newton Howard. I also like Shyamalan´s films. But I fear that this new film had to respond to many ideas coming from the studio. Shyamalan definitely is in crisis mode for some time now and directs this one from a screenplay not written by him. He wants and needs a major hit. And JNH obviously has to deliver what the studio wants from composers nowadays: something closer to sound effects, no big melodic themes, more Zimmer-like droning.
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Press release from Sony:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK OF AFTER EARTH
AVAILABLE JUNE 11, 2013
FEATURING MUSIC BY EIGHT TIME ACADEMY-AWARD NOMINEE
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
Sony Music is pleased to announce the release of the original soundtrack, After Earth, directed by M.Night Shyamalan, featuring music written by Academy Award nominated film composer James Newton Howard and starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith. The movie opens nationwide on May 31, 2013. The soundtrack recording will be available on Tuesday, June 11 from Sony Music.
In After Earth, a crash landing leaves teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) and his legendary father Cypher (Will Smith) stranded on Earth 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help, facing uncharted terrain, evolved animal species that now rule the planet, and an unstoppable alien creature that escaped during the crash. Father and son must learn to work together and trust one another if they want any chance of returning home. Columbia Pictures presents an Overbrook Entertainment/Blinding Edge Pictures production directed by M. Night Shyamalan from a screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan and a story by Will Smith, and produced by Caleeb Pinkett, Jada Pinkett Smith & Will Smith, James Lassiter, and M. Night Shyamalan.
The score is by James Newton Howard, one of the most respected cinema composers in Hollywood. His early works include the scores for Pretty Woman (1990) and The Prince Of Tides (1991) with Barbra Streisand, which led to his first Academy Award® nomination. Howard has composed the music for more than 100 films and has been nominated for eight Academy Awards®. He’s won an Emmy Award, a Critic's Choice Award and a Grammy® Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for The Dark Knight (which he shared with Hans Zimmer). Well-known films on which Howard has worked include The Village (2004), King Kong (2005), Batman Begins (2005, with Hans Zimmer), I Am Legend (2007) and, more recently Green Lantern (2011), Snow White And The Huntsman (2012) and The Bourne Legacy (2012). Howard has scored all of M. Night Shyamalan’s films since their first collaboration on The Sixth Sense in 1999. His versatility as a composer is apparent in After Earth, which contains adventure and action scenes, along with moving passages in a family drama, and an atmospheric universe of primal sounds that drive home the meaning of humanity’s eviction from, and eventual return to, planet Earth.
For more information, please contact: cinemediapromo@yahoo.com or @cinemediapromo on Twitter
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Listening to it now. So far... Thankfully pleasant, the samples once again were chosen badly. Still, a lot of atmospheric sound design, yet much better and more subtle than MV. JNH still is a more talented composer than Zimmer & Friends, actually composing instead of wallpapering. Very nice main theme on solo piano.
Still listening with pleasure. Very relieved after my scepticism because of the samples. Still, the score cannot come close to the other Shyamalan/JNH collaborations. But the movie obviously does not invite similar material.
With all the scare tactics and action beats this score has to provide it still makes it all work with haunting moments of melody and subtlety, instead of overpowering the listener like so many scores today do.
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I just can't get over the fact that Will Smith's soulless fighting machine character is named General Cypher Raige. This makes the name General Grievous seem like a subtle choice!
The Chicago Sun-Times review, one of the very few positive ones, explains this with the film being a fable, with distinct choices which might appear too heavyhanded and unrealistic for audiences who prefer cynical and hip content.
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I have listened to a couple tracks and they sound pretty nice! Reminds me of old JN Howard. I'm buying this at least through iTunes. Sounds like some good music!
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The Chicago Sun-Times review, one of the very few positive ones, explains this with the film being a fable, with distinct choices which might appear too heavyhanded and unrealistic for audiences who prefer cynical and hip content.
I think you're remembering a different review, because I just looked up the Chicago Sun-Times review by Richard Roeper, which says the following: "Quite simply, this is one of the worst films of 2013."
Regardless, I think it's unfair to say that those of us who find a name like this laughably ham-fisted prefer cynical, hip films. That's certainly not me. But I do prefer that the filmmakers respect that I'm not a moron.
Sorry, I confused the Chicago Sun-Times with the relaunched Roger Ebert site on which several critics now post their reviews, including the one I was refering to.
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Be warned: it´s one of those times again where I´m angry!
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I´ve had it: this is the last time I have bought a new JNH score from one of the big major labels. If they cannot get the sound right I´ll simply stop buying and will concentrate on old re-releases by Intrada or LLL. No brickwall limiting this time but still engineered-for-ipod-only... who allows something like this to be released to the market? I´m on the brink of sending it back - and yes, only because of the bad sound.
Weird. My CD sounds perfectly fine.
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