by Rody » Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:15 pm
Thanks for the link as well! It was a very interesting read, and I'll keep it bookmarked for future reference.
I might argue that the film's soundtrack is not only one of, but even the greatest highlight of the film - bogged down even as it is by the sound mixing. The distinct character themes were something I greatly appreciated; larger-than-life stories like these really benefit from having unique musical "voices", in my opinion (consider Star Wars, Superman, James Bond, etc). I liked Alexandre Desplat's score for Godzilla 2014 - and the "Godzilla!" opening theme is sampled throughout the soundtrack - but in terms of themes or motifs, I found the score inconsistent, or at least vague. KotM's score has no such issue. Each of the monsters, especially, gets their own recognizable theme to announce their presence.
Godzilla's "Fanfare" has never had more power behind it than here; and the "March" theme is used very carefully to excellent effect for it's couple of scenes.
Ghidorah's theme is probably the weakest for me, simply because it blends into the sound mix worse than the rest; but conceptually it's very neat.
Rodan's new theme is a blast: brimming with aggressive and chaotic energy. McCreary mentions the point in the theme when the drums change tempo as one of his favorites; I'm inclined to agree! ...But let's not talk down the great effect of those "screaming" brass horns, either*.
Mothra's theme, however, has to be the winner for me. You'd almost think Mothra was the billed star of the movie, the way she kept stealing the show! ...And it's largely thanks to the effectiveness of her classic theme. The instrumental choices really highlighted the difference in style and character from the other monsters and their themes. I kid you not: that motif almost moved me to tears, several times, in the theater - which is a rare feat for any movie by any measure!!
McCreary mentioned in the article that he wrote original themes for all four monsters as part of the process. I'd be interested in hearing whatever he conceived for Godzilla and Mothra; at the very least, they would have made neat bonus tracks on the CD.
I also look forward to the LP soundtrack recording; the CD sounds quite good to me, both on my computer speakers and our old stereo speaker setup, but I'm eager to hear if it's any stronger in vinyl. Hopefully it ships soon!
*It's interesting to me to see the Alien franchise mentioned here; the first time I heard part of James Horner's soundtrack for Aliens, one of my first thoughts was on how well this sound might fit a monster like Rodan!