Nolan Fans

As James Newton Howard said in a recent interview, although he added a lot to the scores of the first two Dark Knight films, the main conception of the music was Zimmer's. That said, what does everyone think of Hans Zimmer scoring TDKR solo rather than with Newton Howard as in the previous two films? Better? Worse? Just different?

Well I enjoyed the BB and TDK score more than the TDKR one.
Not sure if the lack of Newton Howard is the reason. But it's very possible.

They're all different scores.
BB is emotionally driven.
TDK feels more excitement driven.
And TDKR is action driven.
I personally prefer BB's OST to the other two, but like Jonas, idk if the lack of JNH is the reason.

Bacon wrote:They're all different scores.
BB is emotionally driven.
TDK feels more excitement driven.
And TDKR is action driven.
I personally prefer BB's OST to the other two, but like Jonas, idk if the lack of JNH is the reason.

Yes, I prefer BB the most as well. I think JNH wrote the love theme for that film, which helped bring some contrast of emotion into the mix, which is less noticeable in the other two films.

I think it's bizarre to call the Rises score mainly action driven. It's a combination of ethereal manipulations of past themes and quite brutish and harsh drums. It's larger and more epic in scope.

Personally, the Rises score uses way too much of the previous two films for my liking, or at least reuses old cues in key places instead of making new ones.

-Vader

Worse (than TDK at least). Didn't particularly like TDKR's score. It worked but it's not a score I come back to.

I loved some of the stuff in TDK, where everything was so sharp and swiftly paced- but I guess that had much to do with the editing of the scenes. Tight stuff.

Inception, now that's a Zimmer score worth remembering.

Definitely different, and maybe a little worse. JNH's contribution to BB and TDK are among my favorite things about the trilogy in general. His absence will always leave a void in TDKR but it wasn't by any means the only thing I didn't like about it.

jcvargas09 wrote:Definitely different, and maybe a little worse. JNH's contribution to BB and TDK are among my favorite things about the trilogy in general. His absence will always leave a void in TDKR but it wasn't by any means the only thing I didn't like about it.

Agreed; different and maybe a little worse. I also concur with previous assessments in this thread that Begins is probably the best of the three scores, or at least the one I generally prefer. TDKR is a very interesting score, and ultimately pretty darn effective, but a large portion of the emotional material is quoted themes from past scores. I would have loved for JNH to finish out the trilogy with Hans, but I think it was interesting hearing Hans tackle this one on his own.

It's definitely different. Zimmer had some memorable moments in Inception's score, but it ended up sort of repetitive and it lacked enough the variety the film required.

TDKR had an incredible mix of themes from different characters and it felt like much more of an adventurous thrill ride. I find it more enjoyable to listen to than TDK or BB.

No doubt, JNH's involvement would only have been a boon, but without him the score isn't "worse", it's just more characteristically Zimmer.

I think if JNH had been on board TDKR Zimmer would have put his focus on Bane and Catwoman, and JNH would have had sole obligation of developing even further Bruce's motifs, namely what I call the "Wayne" theme. It could have really added extra fresh character to the film and made it feel more natural in its direction and tone. There are so many places you can go with these themes.

"Wayne" Theme


Bruce motif 1


Bruce motif 2