Defending James Newton Howard's GL Soundtrack

Defending James Newton Howard's GL Soundtrack

Derided almost immediately by every imaginable critic, the knee-jerk hatred of this soundtrack would leave one to believe that this film's score is amongst its many casualties of cinema! James Newton Howard's score is actually one of the film's greatest strengths! Here's why:

Review Opinion
By BellHorneKing - Jun 23, 2011 03:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Green Lantern
Source: Green Lantern Soundtrack - iTunes

While perusing the glut of GL articles on CBM, I stumbled upon a YouTube clip of one of the amazing tracks of the score, posted by none other than the infamous GRIF!

"We're Going To Fly Now" was immediately recognizable as the high-tempo, optimistic, dreamy melody that takes Hal on his very first flight with his instructor Tomar Re. It caught me immediately, and I knew right away which part of the movie this was from. IT ROCKED!

So, I decided I'd buy it for $12 from iTunes (a much less pain in the ass than trying to rip it from somewhere else with hideous sound quality) and upon some serious re-listening, and 2 views of the movie in the theatre, I've come to the conclusion that this is one of the most thumping and well rounded superhero scores since Danny Elfman's "Batman" in 1989.

From disparate, broody tracks such as "The Origin Of Parallax" and "You Reak Of Fear", we get some of the best comic book music since Shirley Walker's run on the Batman animated universe, yet we're treated to a fully realised, multi-orchestral event with some SERIOUS talent! With roughly three times the instruments and wind instruments as a television score, there's some AMAZING DEPTH here.

Rockin' tunes like "Genesis of evil" provide tremendous highs of complex scoring and use of timing and multi-textural mixing, while "You Have To Be Chosen" is a 7 minute + tour of a complex voyage into the creation of a hero.

AND EVERYONE'S SAYING IT SUCKS -- ??!!

Tracks like "The Corps" which use electric guitar mixed with moody synths and real instruments harkened back to another fabulous score from a maligned film (Michael Giacchino's excellant "Land Of The Lost" ST) and use a variety of unlikely instruments to blend classical orchestrations with a new-age feel just like Batman Beyond attempted to do, except with far better execution.

Personally? I keep hearing "The score wasn't that great" from practically everyone, and considering the shelacking this film has taken....erm, NO!

Before everyone carelessly contributes to helping destroy this competent, imaginative composer's career before he has the opportunity to really make a great mark on the CBM industry, I challenge everyone to give this soundtrack another try, and get the proper enjoyment out of it that it provides!

This is my very first article on CBM, one of which I might not have bothered with had I not seen such an unfair dismissal on one of this flawed film's better points light.

There are PLENTY of crap soundtracks out there. This is NOT one of them.

Let's give proper credit where it's due on this under-rated little gym of cinema music!

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Dmon
Dmon - 6/23/2011, 9:23 PM
Cool man I would not mind hearing the whole sound track and giving it a chance. I am sure it sounds great, but in the movie I do question its placement during certain scenes.
95
95 - 6/23/2011, 10:36 PM
I hated 'Green Lantern's score.

Listening to the soundtrack on YouTube, my reaction...

"Wow, this sounds nothing like what I heard in theaters".

My opinion: the music during the Earthbound scenes really suck.

I thought the Oa and Space scenes were awesome, but Earthbound, really dull and so was the music.

Some selections on the soundtrack are quite boring, once again, all of those were played during Earthbound scenes.

~rm
hugh1111
hugh1111 - 6/24/2011, 2:16 AM
the track called "the Corps", don't remember this from the film, was this a track related to the so called deleted scene where sinestro, kilowog & Tomar-re help hal defeat parallax? if not where was it?
CapFan79
CapFan79 - 6/25/2011, 6:08 AM
Maybe he was rushed and didn't have the normal time to write due to so many last minute changes?
sonofsamadams
sonofsamadams - 6/25/2011, 1:48 PM
Welcome to Oa,
Hal Battles Parallax
Abin Sur Attacked
and The Induction Process are magnificant scores dude.
BellHorneKing
BellHorneKing - 6/26/2011, 2:07 PM
DEBUSSY
"harmonic combinations...that are so unusual that they sound hideously ugly." Chicago Tribune 1909


WAGNER:
"These musicians of young Germany are maggots...the end of their being is to prey on the ailing trunk until it becomes putrid and rotten." London Musical World 1855


STRAVINSKY (On 'The Rite of Spring):
"...no right to a place on the same program with true music."
BarnaclePete
BarnaclePete - 6/26/2011, 8:35 PM
I think that the music that played during the Hal and Carol scene when he revealed himself to her was extremely weak and sappy. This is overshadowing the rest of the score which was great.
Also, talking about it not being up to the standards of other superhero movies, not since Spider-Man has a superhero movie had a strong recognizable theme.
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