Music of the MCU

I feel kinda bad about my last post. Mostly because I think it left the line of interpretation open that I didn't like that soundtrack just because I'm a Marvel/Avengers fanboy and I think DC has made like three good live-action movies ever. And I wanted to assure you that just isn't true. To prove it, I spent a week and listened to every soundtrack from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I'm now going to review them all, with a paragraph each, and totally bash on several of them.

So you know I don't appreciate a bad soundtrack no matter how much I liked the movie it accompanied. So as they say in another rather good soundtrack, let us start at the very beginning.

Iron Man

This soundtrack was written by Ramin Djawadi, who also wrote Pacific Rim. Which I like with reservations. The tracks are energetic and driving, and he makes good use of both electronic and orchestral sounds. That said, the tracks are also pretty repetitive. It's a good match for Iron Man as a character, but I prefer a soundtrack with a little more variation.

The Incredible Hulk

I got more variation than Iron Man here, but not necessarily to any great effect. This soundtrack, by Craig Armstrong, is as utterly forgettable as the movie it accompanies. But, unlike the movie, it is at the very least never actively unpleasant to listen to. There was a theme, I think, but I can't remember it, and so there may as well not have been.

Iron Man 2

This soundtrack was written by AC/DC, ostensibly. There was actual score, but none of it made it onto the album. And as much as I like rock, this is literally the opposite of what I want in a film soundtrack, so there you go. I'd rather listen to BvS again before giving this album another go.

Thor

I cannot believe I didn't own this sooner. Because it's flat out fantastic. Patrick Doyle captures both the orchestral majesty you'd expect from a movie based around a Norse god, and the intimacy and vulnerability you'd expect from a Norse god realizing he's just a dude now. The main theme of the film is HEAVILY inspired by (read: almost a direct copy of) Elgar's Nimrod, but frankly, that's not a bad thing. My favorite track of the album is reserved and quiet, yet powerfully emotional. Good stuff.

Captain America: The First Avenger

We're not even out of phase one and I'm going to start bashing on The Winter Soldier right now. See, Alan Silvestri nailed Captain America as a character with the score for The First Avenger, and it's beautiful. I don't know that a better superhero theme exists outside of John William's Superman, which will always define the character of Superman as far as I'm concerned. The orchestral music not only rings with elements of period appropriate music, but it's also appropriately thematic and hopeful for a movie about a dude whose primary superpower is that he's just a good guy. The Winter Solider... well, we'll get to that.

The Avengers

This is a good soundtrack, but that's about it. Alan Silvestri was the perfect choice for The First Avenger, but this isn't that. I can hear what he was trying to go for, but... well, it didn't work out. The orchestral bits and the electronic bits did not mesh, and always sounded a little off with each other. The theme is great, but I think the score would have benefited from a collaboration with Ramin Djawadi, who does this particular brand of stylistic mesh quite well.

Iron Man 3

This was my first introduction to music by Brian Tyler, and his music has defined the phase two Marvel movies for me. This score accompanies perfectly the Iron Man we get in the wake of The Avengers New York, and carries him through to the Iron Man we see later in Age of Ultron. It's thematic, blends electronic and orchestra fantastically, and it's also varied and entertaining. I wouldn't have asked for anything more, and then he wrote Thor: The Dark World.

Thor: The Dark World

I love this soundtrack. If the first Thor had a wonderfully appropriate soundtrack, this one is like that one times ten, or something. This soundtrack IS Thor. And one of the best parts of having a composer work on several movies in the same universe is that we get some of the themes from this movie repeated in Age of Ultron. I love the tie-ins, and I love that the themes are recognizable enough that I noticed the tie-ins.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Yeah... This... I hate this soundtrack, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is because it was written by Henry Jackman, who also wrote X-Men: First Class, which is amazing. It's about the best blend of electronic and orchestral/thematic movie scoring I've ever heard. But with The Winter Soldier, Jackman goes way too electronic, almost as if he's chasing after Daft Punk's Tron Legacy. Two problems with that. First, this is a Captain America movie, not Tron. Techno/electronica doesn't make much sense here. Second, he's not as good at writing techno/electronica as Daft Punk is. The tracks are boring and uninteresting when taken on their own. There's one decent track on the entire album, and it's like a minute long.

Guardians of the Galaxy

This soundtrack is strong on its own merit, leaving the Awesome Mix (which is a separate album) completely aside. Overall I'd put it up there with The First Avenger and Thor. But then you get to the climax. I would say that the climactic moment in Guardians of the Galaxy is probably the best in the MCU, simply because the payoff feels earned in ways none of the others quite manage. And the music in that moment is perfect. The entire score, written by Tyler Bates, is super great, with energetic thematic moments and interesting musical motifs to follow throughout. But that moment sells this as one of the best soundtracks of the bunch.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Danny Elfman writes excellent themes to go with really repetitive scores. Brian Tyler takes excellent themes (which he sometimes also writes) and makes interesting and varied scores from them. The two of them together wrote one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. I love all aspects of this score, and will listen to the entire thing on repeat for days on end. It's right up there with The Wrath of Khan in my book.

Ant Man

This movie is accompanied by one of the most unique themes I think I've ever heard. It's simultaneously a fantastic superhero theme in the vein of classics like Superman, and a heist movie theme in the vein of Mission Impossible. It hits both notes regularly throughout the entire album, and matches the tone of the movie flawlessly. There are a few tracks that get repetitive, but otherwise this thing is gold.