Okay, so I'm about 10 months early for the score release, but what the hell...
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2, to be released sometime in November of 2015, is my most anticipated score of the year, and I'm already practically counting down the days. Mockingjay Pt. 1, film and score, were awesome and severely whetted my appetite for the final score. I can't imagine it not being a glorious and triumphant finale to this brilliant series of scores as it's the final film and all the events leading up to it will come together to complete the narrative.
The Hunger Games series of scores is my favorite thing James Newton Howard has ever done, and considering he's one of my favorite composers, that's saying a lot. I await the final score in his serial masterpiece with tremendous excitement.
While I thought the Mockingjay Part 1 movie was the weakest of the series so far, the opposite is true for the score. Since I suppose Part 2 will be a much stronger film now the building up - which took a whole movie - is behind us, there will be fertile ground for James Newton Howard to even surpass his latest entry.
Of course I am shocked that The Hunger Games series is your favorite James Newton Howard music. Is the other James Newton Howard album you own Off Limits?
Of course I am shocked that The Hunger Games series is your favorite James Newton Howard music. Is the other James Newton Howard album you own Off Limits?
No, it's not Off Limits, it's Fair Game!
...
(which doesn't make as much sense because he didn't score any movie called Fair Game but I couldn't pass up the jolly wordplay)
I'm sure I have done this before, but I demand to see a list of your James Newton Howard titles so I can point out all the areas in which I feel you are incorrect.
Well as anyone around here knows, I am utterly and completely captivated and spellbound by James Newton Howard's Hunger Games score series and yes, I am writing this post to express my excitement that the score to the final entry in the series, Mockingjay Pt. 2, is only a mere three months away!
I've written many an essay on this site on why I love jnh's work on this series but this final film is where it all comes to a culmination and I'm delirious with anticipation to see how he wraps up his brilliant franchise. Which themes will return? Will they all return? Which will get the most prominence? Will the final film lean heavily on action, as they second half of the final book tends to lean heavily on action? Certainly with a trustworthy and capable director at the helm, core emotion will not be abandoned. Will jnh be given free reign to let loose with all the majestic and awesome epic dramatic emotional scoring this finale film requires? Will there be a "Hanging Tree" reprise and if so -- Lawrence vocal, score choral, or epic orchestral? All three? Dear heavens I hope Rue's theme makes one last appearance...
So many questions but really, in the end, I trust in the filmmakers that have not let me down one step of the way during this entire series and I of course completely trust jnh's gifted capabilities.
This is my most anticipated score of the year, only a few more months to go!
Here is a soft and gentle reminder of the auspicious origins from whence this spectacular film score franchise universe came...
I was bored rigid by the first two scores (sorry!) and didn't buy the third - nor have I seen the third film (yet). The scores aren't "bad" per se, but there's no hook, nothing that grabbed my attention at all. I hear the third score is much more compelling (and makes some sense of the first two) so I'll check it out at some point.
I actually prefer the Divergent series. Shailene Woodley is far more watchable than Jennifer Lawrence IMHO.
For me, each score was an improvement to the previous one.
Personally, I love JNH's approach to this series - honestly, I can't imagine another composer scoring these movies as Howard brillantly defined the sound of Panem for me.: A dark atmosphere, wonderful themes and nice use of choir.
This is one of my most anticipated scores of the year and I can't wait to see how JNH brings the series to an epic conclusion with a - hopefully - superb score!
Well as anyone around here knows, I am utterly and completely captivated and spellbound by James Newton Howard's Hunger Games score series and yes, I am writing this post to express my excitement that the score to the final entry in the series, Mockingjay Pt. 2, is only a mere three months away!
I've written many an essay on this site on why I love jnh's work on this series but this final film is where it all comes to a culmination and I'm delirious with anticipation to see how he wraps up his brilliant franchise. Which themes will return? Will they all return? Which will get the most prominence? Will the final film lean heavily on action, as they second half of the final book tends to lean heavily on action? Certainly with a trustworthy and capable director at the helm, core emotion will not be abandoned. Will jnh be given free reign to let loose with all the majestic and awesome epic dramatic emotional scoring this finale film requires? Will there be a "Hanging Tree" reprise and if so -- Lawrence vocal, score choral, or epic orchestral? All three? Dear heavens I hope Rue's theme makes one last appearance...
So many questions but really, in the end, I trust in the filmmakers that have not let me down one step of the way during this entire series and I of course completely trust jnh's gifted capabilities.
This is my most anticipated score of the year, only a few more months to go!
Here is a soft and gentle reminder of the auspicious origins from whence this spectacular film score franchise universe came...
Given that this will be the only film of the franchise without a release of several "inspired by" songs (the production notes list the score to be released by Republic Records and the movie will only have another performance of Deep In The Meadows), seems like the producers decided to trust only on JNH's music (check Nina Jacobson's tweets about Mockingjay Pt. 2's score being the most emotional of all), which it didn't got the spotlight due to the popularity of the VA releases.
Imagine if the first Harry Potter film got a generic pop song getting all the popularity that Williams's score and Hedwig's theme got. Yet, the THG fandom recognizes the music JNH for the franchise (since unlike most of people who bash it, they do care about the films which they were written in first place).
If there's a real problem with the Hunger Games scores is not JNH's material (which on paper is well constructed), but the mix. Compare Maleficent with Mockingjay Part 1, and you wouldn't believe the same guy recorded them. Catching Fire was the best mixed score of all three so far (the choir was audible and the synths weren't abrasive). And since temp tracks and additional composers were always a part of the franchise (the production notes of Part 2 lists Gabe Witcher as a additional composer, and Sven Falcourner has been doing additional work in Catching Fire and Mockingjay, plus the Capitol and Hanging Tree themes being written by other people), seems like JNH's original intentions got lost on the way (I really think he only went back to the franchise because of Francis Lawrence).
Besides, if they kept the violence from the book, Part 2 won't sound pretty. JNH always reflected the Capitol sending young kids into killing each other with a score that brings a sense of brutality and sorrow, where as in Catching Fire, he let the action music to sound more orchestral and bombastic to represent adults killing each other on the Quarter Quell. The Mockingjay score was mostly character driven, with slow string pieces and choral accents. When the action comes, James is unleashed (even in a cue like Jamming The Capitol where these awful synths ruin what the cue would have been for JNH what Flight To Compound from Zero Dark Thirty was for Desplat).
But Part 2 will be very violent (even though I don't know how they'll keep the most graphic parts from the book with the PG13 rating), so if James's action music will be better or worst, I don't know. But people needs to give him credit for finally getting his own franchise (and as much as people deny it, both Horn Of Plenty and The Hanging Tree are memorable because of JNH's work on giving life to these themes). When I read the books, I imagined that JNH would keep the sound he build on his post-I Am Legend scores, far away from the souless bombastic scores he used to make on the 90's, and he did it, blending the country tone for Katniss (plus his Lily's Theme-esque theme for the Mockingjay), a middle eastern and futuristic sound for the Capitol, and a elegiac and choral tone for the victims of the Capitol (besides his ongoing trend of representing a hovercraft or a flying creature with choir). These scores are far more smart and dedicated than the typical score you would ask for a film franchise, and they inspired other YA dystopias like The Maze Runner (which it always felt what JNH would have done with more time) and Divergent.
Thanks so much for your detailed thoughts yonythemoony (along with a few other comments previously) ... so nice to finally have some more discussion regarding these scores and this series in anticipation of the final entry coming up.
That same subtlety doesn’t necessarily extend to James Newton Howard’s score, which fluctuates from soap-opera-style piano accents to full-blown action-movie bombast (with a lovely Celtic wedding ballad on the occasion of Finnick’s marriage). Even so, Howard’s music becomes downright vital during the film’s most claustrophobic sequence, as Katniss’ squad comes face-to-face with a herd of ferocious mutants in the Capitol’s underground sewer system, resulting in a “mutt” attack more intense than any of the demon or zombie nastiness the helmer conjured in “Constantine” or “I Am Legend.”
