Amid the glut of hype for the impending megablockbuster The Avengers: Age of Ultron, there is one news item that is of particular interest to me: Danny Elfman will be involved with writing some music for the movie.
For the uninitiated, Danny Elfman is something of a god among fans of comic book-based movies, having written well-loved music for both Tim Burton's Batman films and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. He's a frequent collaborator of both directors and there are few directors more respected in terms of genre filmmaking.
When Sony hired Elfman to write the music for Raimi's movies, I rejoiced because it was clear that they were serious in their respect for a truly iconic character. I was a little let down by the theme he eventually wrote but overall he turned in solid work for two whole movies. Whatever damage Sony may have done to the credibility of the Spider-Man franchise over the years, Elfman's reputation as a craftsman remained intact.
When Marvel Studios launched their unprecedented, sprawling cinematic universe with Iron Man back in 2008, they got a lot of things right, most of them in fact, but one aspect of filmmaking that was sorely neglected was, to my mind, one of the most important: the music. To compose the score for the first Iron Man, they hired composer Ramin Djawadi (of eventual Game of Thrones fame), whose work on the film was sadly, utterly generic. So forgettable was the music, in fact, that when Djawadi was replaced two years later with John Debney, no one seemed to care.
In 2011, however, Marvel finally seemed to understand the importance of some solid musical scoring, and hired veteran composer Alan Silvestri to write the theme of Captain America: The First Avenger, and more critically The Avengers. The former was a delight to listen to and hearkened back to the rousing, marching-band appeal of the old Indiana Jones movies, but the latter was much more important, because The Avengers is, all exaggeration aside, the centerpiece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It had to have a theme that was no less than iconic, and to Silvestri's credit, he achieved just that with his theme, which was right up there, I would say, with his work on Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future movies. The Avengers has become the most successful comic-book based movie of all time, and people started humming the theme and even started covering it. (This one's my favorite).
Then, inexplicably, Marvel replaced Silvestri for what portends to be one of the biggest sequels of all time with Brian Tyler, best known for his work on the Fast and Furious movies, and who had already done work for Marvel on Iron Man 3, and Thor: The Dark World. So enamored is Marvel with Tyler, in fact, that he has even composed the "Marvel fanfare" that plays at the beginning of every film. The problem with Tyler is that his music is, even more than Ramin Djawadi, extremely generic, and in fact, his music last year for the distinctly non-Marvel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles remake sounded like he had basically lifted it from all of his Marvel music. By giving him their most important movie franchise to score, Marvel was essentially saying something like "all of them sound the same, anyway," and apparently taking a giant dump on the importance of iconic film scores. I suspected that Tyler was a relatively cheap composer, and that this was at the heart of the decision.
Then, Danny Elfman's name appeared on the final "Avengers" poster as providing "additional music." As it turns out, this meant he was brought on board to "refresh" Alan Silvestri's original theme. Apparently, Marvel has finally noticed how cookie-cutter Brian Tyler's music is as well.
That Elfman has been brought on board, however, is a source of relief for me, and while I would have preferred Silvestri to have stayed on board, it's enough for me that Marvel has shown interest in some sort of musical continuity. It's the thought that counts.
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