This is a franchise that doesn't seem to have suffered (at least Box-Office-wise) with it's disparity in scores, themes and composers. From Ramin Djawadi's Remote Control, A/C D/C mash-up, to Debney's Goldsmith-inspired re-fit and Brian Tyler's standard issue Brian Tyler score, the lack of a unified Iron Man theme doesn't seem to have upset folks in that Superman, Spiderman, Robocop kind of way. Anyway, which one's your fave?
For the record, I would rate them 1 = Iron Man 3 (Tyler) 2 = Iron Man 2 (Debney)
Djawadi... And I dont why there is so much hate for it. Fit the film like a glove. Both Debneys and Tylers have terrific standout moments though... That racetrack cue from 2 and rescuing the Air Force One passengers from 3. Yeah, both get played at high volume. New neighbors hate me.
We will agree to disagree ...I found Iron Man 3 to be a tremendous score. I find Tyler on autopilot to be dreary, soulless, totally unmemorable. Iron Man 3 though? His best score of last year....maybe his best score of the last 5 years.
Djawadi's has one or two memorable moments, but little else for me. Very little else. Debney did better, but not much. Tyler knocked it out of the park.
I liked Iron Man 3 the most - I would have to relisten to my CDs for 1 and 2 to come up with a favorite, so let's just call it a draw.
Iron Man and Iron Man 2 are probably my least favorite of the "MCU" movies. IM3, the Thors, Captain Americas, Hulk, Guardians, and Avengers all have things that I find memorable, which the first two Iron Man scores don't really.
I felt Ramin Djawadi did a great job capturing the Tony Stark persona with the hard rock element — those cues I feel are a major element to the success of the suit designing sequences — but that the main theme was dull. I found the rest of the score to be very bland, with the Tony/Pepper subplot particularly suffering.
I enjoyed John Debney's take, which had a stronger main theme, though I felt the rock elements weren't as well integrated. On the other hand, I felt that the music for the Tony/Pepper relationship was much more interesting than Djawadi's relatively formless approach, and the battle music much more engaging.
Brian Tyler's is my favorite of the Iron Man features thus far. His main theme is a lot of fun and works gangbusters in the film, and his off-kilter music for the Mandarin and Extremis gave those aspects of the film extra gravitas. I really liked the retro approach for “Can You Dig It,” the end titles!
When Alan Silvestri would specifically reference Iron Man or Tony Stark in The Avengers, it seemed to me mostly stylistically consistent with Debney's sound.