Superman Returns [Music from the Motion Picture]
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CD Details
Composer: John OttmanConductor: Damon Intrabartolo
Orchestra: The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Enhanced, Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Music Label: Rhino
Soundtracks:
- Main Titles
- Memories
- Rough Flight
- Little Secrets/Power Of The Sun
- Bank Job
- How Could YOU Leave Us?
- Tell Me Everything
- You?e Not One Of Them
- Not Like The Train Set
- So Long Superman
- The People You Care For
- I Wanted You To Know
- Saving The World
- IN THE HANDS OF MORTALS
- Reprise / Fly Away
Music reviews of Superman Returns [Music from the Motion Picture]
Music Review: Look up, it's Williams! It's Ottman! No, it's Superman Returns!
Rating: 3 Stars
To be honest, I've never regarded John Ottman as a composer who could tackle such a project, but hey, it's Superman, and I would be more than glad to discard my doubts about him. So, I approached Superman Returns with every bit of enthusiasm I could summon, but it didn't completely convince me.
John Ottman himself said numerous times that his score was bound to fail because it will always be compared to John Williams' effort, so he just did the best he could.
The album starts with the Main Title March that we all learned to love over the passing years. It has been cut down to it's most basic form, but it is still as powerful as ever.
The rest of the score uses Williams' material, the love theme, Krypton's theme and the march, quite frequently, sometimes in full form, sometimes in fragments.
This move by the director and Ottman himself is highly welcome and very appropriate, and sometimes the integration into the score is quite exquisite, like in "Memories", but in the end the flawed moments outweight the bright ones.
Often, Williams' march, although different in orchestration, sounds like just thrown in.
The truth is, the marriage between Ottman's and Williams' styles doesn't go very well. John Ottman is a huge Williams fan, so his intentions are undoubtly the best, but his skills simply don't match the level of perfection Williams' themes suggest.
When you hear Ottman's own theme, Superman's personal theme, heard in full form in "Power Of The Sun", you quickly realise that without Williams, Superman Returns would be nothing.
Lex Luthor's new theme ("Bank Job") is decent, but as far away from the 1978 original as Kevin Spacey is from Gene Hackman. This is indeed something you can't blame Ottman for because the movie is what it is, and although being a sequel, Returns completely neglects Hackman's Luthor.
But the incoherence remains.
It's hurts every cell in your brain when you hear the Superman march being abruptly cut off by choral noise (the technical terms are different of course, but "noise " describes it best).
The clash of cultures is just too jarring. Maybe Ottman knew this and changed orchestration and harmonisation of the love theme (Can You Read My Mind?) significantly. I was so looking forward to it when I heard he was going to use it.
It's amazing that modern composers can make even the most classic theme sound like run off the mill stuff. Change the chord progression to a simple I- IV- V, use lush strings, mid- range horns, and voila!
Now, I could have made peace with the incoherence of the soundtrack, were it just a matter of bad editing, but there are no edits, this is the way it's played in the film! These aren't even scoring necessities anymore, when a composer has to cut short a thematic line to match the imagery, this is just guillotine writing, a couple of ideas glued together by Williams material!
Plus, the score is very very badly spotted. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't film composers just long for scenes like the plane rescue or the flight sequence with Lois and Superman? Scenes in which they don't have to pay attention to the musical balance in order to not detract the audience from the film? These scenes must be heaven for a composer, especially when he can draw from such brilliant material; he can let the music take off.
But Ottman isn't anywhere near that. He's more focused on hitting sync points than the overall feel of the scenes or indeed musical coherence. Every time the music gains some decent rhythm and melody, it's suddenly cut off.
This is a general trend in film scoring lately, but it's as bad for Superman Returns as it is for any other film.
Of course the score has moments to cherish. The choral use is extremely good, and when done properly, the integration of Williams' music is thrilling.
Nevertheless, listening to Superman Returns makes you wonder whether Ottman compromised John Williams' musical intentions for being allowed to use his music, or whether he just doesn't understand it.
Either way, the result is anything but perfect, and in retrospect, I wouldn't buy the score because of John Ottman. I listen to it from time to time because it's simply good to hear John Williams getting a new twist here and there, and that's how you should shift your own expectations.
I give 3 stars instead of 2 because John Ottman has his heart in the right place, although his skills aren't developed enough to translate his ideas into music.
Description of Superman Returns [Music from the Motion Picture]
Stunning original score for the hotly anticipated Warner Bros. Pictures epic feature film Superman Returns.John Williams's theme for 1978's Superman remains one of the most famous of the '70s, so it's both obvious and a little weird that it would feature so prominently in the score for Superman Returns: Why would director Bryan Singer and composer John Ottman so willfully compare themselves to the earlier movie? Not only does a turbocharged version of Williams's theme ("Main Titles") open the album, but the "Behind the Scenes: Superman Returns Score" featurette that's part of the CD's bonus enhanced section is all about the orchestra performing the 1978 theme. Ottman's own work thus has to unfold in the shadow projected by Williams, which is a bit unfair since, while the new score isn't revolutionary, it delivers all the pomp, triumph, and vaguely atmospheric choirs that are now de rigueur in Hollywood action films. Ottman, of course, is used to dealing with superheroes (he wrote the scores for X2: X-Men United and Fantastic Four ), but this time around he's had to reflect the essentially noble nature of his main character, and so he's come up with themes that reveal even more pomp, pathos, and atmospheric choirs than before. It's not what you'd call subtle, but it does the job. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
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