Newman: SF vs. SP (Page 1 of 2)

For music on it's own, I think SP works better. But I think the music in SP is even worse in the film. His music drags down the film, especially the pacing at the end.

I agree that those are his strengths. The romantic themes are where he excels. The action scenes and the establishing shots he does poorly.

Skyfall is much better; nothing too emotional or too intense. I can listen to every song on that soundtrack consecutively and enjoy it, which is always a good thing when you're like me and you skip the "emotional" stuff. But for some reason in Skyfall's soundtrack it all flows well.

Spectre has some good songs, but for some reason Skyfall just flows better.

Overall I do prefer SF to SP. But some of the cues in SP are fantastic - Donna Lucia, Hinx's theme and Vauxhall Bridge are great, but the first track is up there with the very best in the series. In the film, hearing the gun barrel music and then the percussion, and then the Bond theme creeping in as Bond walks on the edge of a building sends shivers down my spine.

Do I want Newman back? No... If not Arnold, I'd love for Dario Marionelli (which we may get if Joe Wright directs a Bond film) or Alexandre Desplat to have a go.

Out of the two I prefer SP soundtrack as a stand alone in the car etc, Sf has some decent moments for me tennyson and brave new world stand out. But I still think David Arnold does a superior job with bond films as he's such a fan and that shows and I also believe SP with an Arnold soundtrack would have elevated the film. Barry set the bar so high he is still the sound of Bond but Arnold is the only one to capture some of that Barry magic.  IMHO

As a massive Thomas Newman fan since Shawshank Redemption, I was very excited when he was announced as the composer for Skyfall. I remember liking the score a lot when I heard it during the film. I did manage to download an oscar version of the score which is complete and in sequence as I like it more this way. I still listen to it regularly now, it's a great score.

I listened to Spectre on the way to work this morning. I remember in the cinema that I was a little disappointed as he did re-use a lot of Skyfall material, but in retrospect that does sort of make sense considering the films or brothers (or sisters) and almost 2 parts of one story. Or part 4 of a 4 part story! I dunno. Anyway, I really enjoyed Spectre this morning, a lot more than I thought I would. And I actually like the Skyfall callbacks on the album. Sorry, i'm rambling. I can't decide which I prefer yet. Give me a month with Spectre and I'll come back to you. That being said, hate the Sam Smith song and love the Adele track, so Skyfall already scores 1 point! 

I prefer the music in Spectre. More old school Bond. I can barely remember any of the music in Skyfall. Probably because I didn't like the movie that much has something to do with it as well.

I didn't say completely old school Bond. But more old school as in compared to a lot of the recent Bond movies. Casino Royale was like that too. I don't think anyone will come close to John Barry though. Michael Giacchino probably did the best for The Incredibles. But that's probably because they wanted John Barry for that movie originally.

The best we might get these days seems to be a check list or movie full of homage scenes. But at least the majority of ingredients were in Spectre and because of Daniel Craig's previous three movies the way they presented themselves were a welcome surprise. I don't remember writing a review on Spectre. But the best and highest praise I could say about the movie was that Daniel Craig finally made a Bond movie that could go with my favorites in the series. And not only that but he made one that topped my favorite from Pierce Brosnan.

My biggest or kind of bothersome problem with Spectre is the recent check list addition of get M, Moneypenny, and Q more involved in the story. So instead of getting the classic tour and dinner scene conversation in the villain's lair. That was fairly quickly resolved to get back to tie up the loose ends in London.

A lot of David Arnold's music was in your face Bond action music to me. Which for Pierce Brosnan's Bond was probably the type of music needed as there were so many action moments. David Arnold's best was from Casino Royale. Also I like the work he did in The World is not Enough.

But with Spectre, a lot of the music seemed to help with the old school feel and at times look of the movie. It's not perfect John Barry. But when taken as a whole with everything else. It's pretty good. And it's the first soundtrack I've purchased since Die Another Day. Which I got that just for the action beats.

These echo my own feelings, the soundtrack seemed to dull the impact of the visuals for me.