DOTM Score. Anyone else disappointed?

[joshimus]

First and foremost, this is not an "I hated the movie and score" thread so please don't discuss that here. I really could care less who liked/disliked the movie.

Ok, so now that i've listened to the score a few times I have some complaints. I would like to mention that a lot of the music is excellent. As a guy who enjoy orchestra as it is I really do enjoy the music for DOTM. My issue is this. It didn't feel like a Transformers score. There are some great songs like Sentinels revival, the final battles, the song where sam watches the ship get shot down, emotional and beautuiful music.

I think back to TF07 and ROTF and the Autobots had their "theme" if you will. There was music that was heroic and uplifting. For example "arrival to Earth" and "Bumblebee and the Cube" come to mind. Throw in the part where prime rolls in and transforms to take on Megatron, all great themes. Even the Decepticons had a score that fit the mood of who they are.
Rotf was the same. You had music that fit the mood as well as fit a specific theme of each side. Again we have the epicness of the "forest battle". It held the first movie Autobot theme while changing it up to be somewhat its own.

Now, as I said, I do enjoy the DOTM Score, but I felt that the score was too different from the past films. Hell one song has identical cues to "The Island" (same composer) than it did to the previous TF films. Looking back, DOTM score is a bit more 'epic' in terms of orchestra. There is a similarity the first 2 movies share that sets this one apart.
The music fits the mood of the film appropriatley but I think it was too sombre for my liking. For example the score where Prime sweeps in didn't feel like a prime theme from past films. Again, not asking it to be identical, but it was too different and too many notes had a sad tune to it. I can't remember the term at this moment. Positive and negative notes. BLAH. Anyway, for that scene it needed something a bit more upbeat. Not saying I wanted a repeat of "forest battle" there, but something a bit more similar in the way that it should feel more heroic. That said, to be fair, the song does have a part the does work.

So, I ask you out there. Does anyone else feel like this score didn't keep the heart of the first 2 films? I loved the score, especially the emotional ones, but it didn't feel like it was Transformers 3 for some of it.

Anyway, share thoughts.

[Pascal]

I liked the score for DOTM than the one for ROTF. The Movie 1 score is still my favorite. That Scorponok song is kickass.

[Lord Starscream]

Originally Posted by Pascal

I liked the score for DOTM than the one for ROTF. The Movie 1 score is still my favorite. That Scorponok song is kickass.

I feel the same way , the soundtrack and movie score from the 2007 film was the best for sure .

*Spoiler ALERT!!* I had to laugh durning the film everytime Sam thought of Carly you heard Linkin Park .

[chans formers]

i only like the first and second movie scores,specifically "autobots arrival" and "the allspark" them.(ok,i love almost all of the rotf songs;p)

[TMIIWonkoNemises]

Hans Zimmer was involved with the score with Steve Jablonsky (You can hear elements of his work throughtout the enitre thing),so it's the main reason why it's so different compared to the previous two film scores.

Personally,I really enjoyed the difference in the score because it emphasized the darker themese in DOTM.Although I miss elements of Steve's work in the new score,I personally would take Hans over Steve any day of the week.

Also,how can you not love the Shockwave's Revenge theme?

[Team Jetfire]

I will have to check it out. None of the pop songs failed to evoke an emotion from me though...

[down_shift]

I haven't listened that closely yet. By I will now that I read this thread.

[Goaliebot]

It is quite different, but I still like it a lot. I tend to listen to all three scores in one random shuffle, and that way I get all the themes and moods. Plus it's like 3 hours of TF movie music.

We need a Steve Jablonsky Appreciation thread!

[Scrapper6]

I'm sorry, but I have this to say on the matter of the score, it failed. Really and truly it failed. For me the reason of this is simple, it didn't go far enough and the potential of it is lost to me.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the previous two films scores and I was hoping that this one would be filled with many more memorable moments, I expected the piece they inserted into all the trailers and commercials to be something that had even greater appeal than the previous Decepticon Theme, or even dare I say it something akin to The Dark Knight's Joker Theme, but for me it didn't hold its beats long enough and it rushed by far too quickly for my liking.

The theme's tones do not match up enough in synch with the direction of the previous two films, everything from the plot to the themes had with it an edge of finality to it, a finality that I can not get behind nor appreciate. I'm all for dark themes and dark stories, but not at the cost of losing the potential that this franchise has to be something much better than it could be fifty years from now when our grandchildren are looking back at the industry of film making of the early twenty-first century. (God and Humanity Willing our race last that long.)

Music is meant to evoke certain aspects, when I hear things like The Decepticon Theme from Movie One or the Forest Battle from RotF I see actions that fit with the music, I see Decepticons rallying to battle and Prime making a heroic stand. When I hear the music in this film all I see is a convoluted mess with no real ties to the characters on screen.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself correctly, perhaps after witnessing the film a second time tonight with my father in Imax 3D I'll have a better grasp of things, perhaps my opinion will change, but as it stands right now. Though I did find myself enjoying the film overall everything about it feels unfinished, like someone sketched out the perfect piece of art, but failed to color it in with proper paints leaving a half-pencil, half-paintbrush image with the best parts being reduced to pencil.

Perhaps I'm being too abstract, here let's simplify it, the music from the first two films I can hum along with, the music from DotM, it's so forgettable that I can't even get the tune right let alone hum along with it. It hasn't caught in my mind at all, whereas with viewing the first film only once I managed to hum along quite nicely to the music from that film because it stayed with me even after I left the theatre.

[joshimus]

I found emotional moments still worked for me, but a lot of what made the first 2 movies, as you said, memorable music was not really there. When Prime sweeps in the score that plays is nice on its own but it's not a theme I can relate to with Prime. So yeah I think you and I feel the same as far as not flowing with the characters. The closet part was when BB was being held to be executed, the music is similar to BB getting captured from the first movie but I felt the first movie captured the emotion better, score wise. I think both moments with BB and Sam were fantastic moments, but TF1 score moved me more.
Again, not asking to duplicate TF1 and 2, but the score was too different and didn't have enough memerable cues that made you remember this is a TF3 score.