After Hans Zimmer's transcendent Man of Steel score, and before Tom Holkenborg's (Junkie XL's) rocking Zack Snyder's Justice League soundtrack, the two accomplished composers collaborated to write the music for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, combining the best of both worlds. While they did work together on some of Man of Steel, it was a full-on music duo here.
Operatic, grandiose, dark, and tragic, this film is a highlight of the two composers' superhero careers. Though the officially released soundtrack is not complete, it does contain some combined tracks from the full score that turn the thing into a veritable album to cherish. Hans Zimmer's website lists the entire unreleased score for those curious to know more.
10 Superman's Funeral - "Men Are Still Good"
A fourteen-minute suite of Batman's elements, this piece opens during Batman's final ending speech. This builds until we see the words, "If you seek his monument, look around you," drawn beneath Superman's glyph engraved in the floor, rising into a dramatic reprisal of Superman's music heard in the opening to Man of Steel in which the female vocals add an angelic element.
Originally, Hans Zimmer had no intention of composing Batman's theme for this film, feeling it would be a betrayal of his work on Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. When inspiration struck, he changed his mind and worked on Batman's theme with Junkie XL, and together they crafted this thundering, angry, violent Batman theme song that perfectly encapsulates this character's near-villain status.
9 Batman Saves Martha - "Fight Night"
Despite the title implying the battle between Batman and Superman, this piece covers Batman's clash with Anatoli Knyazev's goons in the warehouse where Martha is held prisoner. Naturally, one of the best fight scenes in the Snyderverse deserves fitting music. It contains many of Batman's musical elements combined with more action-oriented beats that drive up the intensity of the battle.
There is, however, a noticeable upward turn in the music -- higher chords with a slightly more heroic touch to show how Batman is finally employing his tremendous arsenal and martial prowess to save the life of an innocent person, not to murder a hero. At the same time, it never loses touch with his main theme song nor the character's scary qualities.
8 The Destruction Of Metropolis - "Their War Here"
In viewing the cataclysmic final battle from Man of Steel from the perspective of the hapless people on the ground, it is only fitting that General Zod's theme makes a return to connect the two movies through their soundtracks. Bruce swerves through the streets in his vehicle to the prior film's definitive action theme, encapsulating what it feels like to be down there in the midst of that alien invasion.
An occasional dramatic choir enters the score, combining the Man of Steel elements with some of the motifs that will be used throughout BvS. Then the music switches to a tragic, heavenly tone at the end of the track as the Wayne Financial Building collapses right in front of Bruce, concluding the apocalyptic destruction represented by the soundtrack.
7 Batman And Superman Battle - "Black and Blue"
Though primarily serving as just background music in the slow pacing of this brutal slug match between the titular titans of comic books, this track is layered in elements combining the suites for Batman and Superman at their meanest. It is slow like the fight itself, heavy and brutal like Batman, and angry like Superman becomes in this tussle where time is of the essence.
Junkie XL has a Studio Time episode on this track, explaining the behind-the-scenes of how this lengthy sequence was scored. He even reveals details about inspiration, such as how the descending music as Superman falls through the decrepit building's atrium was inspired by the soundtrack for the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo (1958).
6 The Two Icons Finally Meet - "Do You Bleed?"
This track plays as Batman rips through bad guys and tears up the Gotham streets like a force of nature in pursuit of a weapon to kill Superman. The music emphasizes his destructive capacity and the unstoppable nature of the Batmobile with its intensity before the Dark Knight's encounter with Superman, at which point the music becomes more grandiose to highlight the legendary first meeting between the two.
The piece is similar to "Fight Night," but what makes it different is the inclusion of the dramatic vocals to add an additional epic layer, especially towards the end, like something taken straight from the soundtrack for the animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993).
5 Superman As A God - "Day of the Dead"
A slow, somber take on Superman's exciting fanfare at the end of Man of Steel, this piece plays while Superman performs altruistic acts around the world to the voice-over of various people (real and fictional) discussing his impact on humanity, politics, and religion with some of the best quotes in Batman v Superman.
This piece is reprised multiple times throughout the film, culminating in the biblical sequence in which the Pentagon fires a nuclear missile at Superman and Doomsday in space above Metropolis. In that sense, it is a representation of humanity responding to Superman in some way, whether discussing his impact on the world, protesting at his Capitol hearing, or nuking him.
4 Lex Luthor's Theme - "The Red Capes Are Coming"
As Lex Luthor's theme song, this diabolical track is built around eight thundering piano notes inverting the noble notes of Superman's theme. In a way, Lex's theme represents the complete and total opposite of Superman. This is complemented by everything from the character's stature, mannerisms, background, and personality being the reverse of the Man of Steel.
Played during his "wishlist" scene in which he bribes Senator Barrows to acquire access to the crashed Kryptonian ship and general Zod's corpse, then later during his meeting with Senator Finch in his father's room, and during other moments where his villainy shines brightest, this theme perfectly encapsulates the sinister nature of the character with its discordant strings and evil grandiosity.
3 Superman's Sacrifice - "This Is My World"
The piece opens with Clark's emotional piano theme before transitioning into a more dramatic take on "If You Love These People" from Man of Steel, in which Superman battles with Zod in the skies over Metropolis before taking the villain's life. Here, it connects the killing of Zod with the killing of Doomsday. To save the world, this time Superman makes himself the collateral damage.
The music builds, becoming more operatic before exploding on the moment Doomsday's energy is expelled from his body in a final blast of heat vision as Superman unleashes a dying scream. It is a truly biblical piece for a truly biblical death scene, wrapped in immense spectacle while still retaining the tragedy of Superman's heroic sacrifice to save this world that sought to kill him.
2 Wonder Woman's Arrival - "Is She With You?"
Often considered the coolest moment in the movie, Wonder Woman's arrival to save Batman from Doomsday's heat vision was -- for those who had not seen the trailer especially -- a heart-stopping twist that elevated Diana Prince from a mysterious side character to one of the few things Batman v. Superman got right. A core ingredient of what makes it so great is the sudden cello solo of her now-iconic theme song.
Seeking a ferocious and strong "banshee cry" to represent the Amazon warrior's theme, Hans Zimmer turned to the intense cello performances by Tina Guo, who also did an incredible rock cover of the theme which can be heard first-hand on her YouTube channel. No wonder Zimmer compared Guo's cello to a sword that she wields like a musical weapon.
1 Batman's Origins - "Beautiful Lie"
The movie opens on some of the single best pieces of tragic, operatic music of any superhero movie. "Beautiful Lie" consists primarily of somber piano notes that rise in intensity while the chords gradually fall throughout the tragic murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, one of many elements adding to the visceral "falling" motif of the scene that carries on throughout the movie.
After the rising string melody drops off as Joe Chill takes Martha Wayne's life, the piano takes a step back for haunting female vocals to emphasize her. This beautiful piece returns again in the pivotal moment Batman flashes back to that terrible night before realizing Superman's mother has the same name as his own, tying up a story that began all those years outside the theatre.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3BTBhnL
0 Comments