I've been meaning to do this post for years. I was just thinking of it today, and figured this time around, I'd actually do it. Several times over the years, Rish and I have complained about the utter failure of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wehn it comes to establishing a musical legacy. Everybody knows the Star Wars theme song, or the Indiana Jones theme song, or the Harry Potter Theme song, or the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song and so on and so on. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the single highest grossing movie franchise in history. How is it possible that there is no music that sticks out in memory from all of those movies.
They started back in 2008 with Iron Man, and now, many years later, there are 23 films in the series, and still nothing to write home about. I tried to see if other people were talking about it, and found some videos on YouTube on the subject with some really interesting insight into the film scoring process and industry as well. This first video by Every Frame a Painting talked a lot about the problem, and blames it on a number of problems, but mostly on temp tracks. Watch it, it's pretty interesting.
Dan Golding had a response to Every Frame a Painting, not necessarily debunking him, but taking it even further. It's not just temp tracks, but also computer assisted composing, where certain things work best, and therefore lend to music sounding very similar to everything else, thank you Hans Zimmer.
But, then comes Julien CF Durand with this last video in response to the other two. He again doesn't refute anything the others had to say, but he says that the real problem is the complete lack of repetition of the themes from film to film.
I have to admit that I totally agree. Then there's this video from HelloLillyTV, that rebuts the assertions of the first video that there is nothing memorable when it comes to Marvel movies. There's the Avengers theme! People know that one. Why do they know it? Well, as Julien CF Durand said in the last video, it's all about repetition which is lacking not just from Marvel movies, but their advertising as well.
They all have a point. Some of the music in Marvel movies isn't memorable. Hans Zimmer did screw movie music up in horrible ways. Marvel movies do need to repeat their music more often, and use it in the advertising more often. I wonder if anyone has made a video about the biggest missed opportunity in Marvel movies. You see, all of these characters appear in each others movies left an right. There is a cameo of one hero or another in pretty much every movie, with Avengers movies assembling them all in one. How amazing would it be if each character brought his theme along with him for his appearance. Does Marvel not own the rights to their own music or something? Why don't they bring those themes over from film to film. One day, by chance, I stumbled upon this video, and seeing it made me cry. It was the kind of thing that I wished had happened all along. A YouTuber took the helicarrier scene from Avengers, and re-edited the music so that each hero's theme played when they were onscreen.
Okay, it might be a little heavy handed. You probably don't have to use the themes that often, but he had to do that to fit them all in during the time alotted. Even then, it still works.
Also, the guy cheated a little. He used the theme from Iron Man 3 for Iron Man in this movie, which hadn't been written yet, because the movie wouldn't come out until the next summer. He also used the theme for Thor 2, which also wouldn't appear for even a little longer. Worst of all, he used the theme for The Agents of Shield TV show, which hadn't even been conceived of just yet. But you get the point, right?
Interestingly, Marvel did do that a tiny bit. Here's an example. This is the Captain America theme song composed by Alan Silvestri:
Now, check out this scene from Thor: The Dark World, where Thor has just sprung Loki from prison, and he is playing around with his illusions. Listen very closely when Captain America appears.
It's hard to hear, but that's the same theme playing in the background.
Their two biggest failings are not using the same song from the first movie through all of its sequels, and not using those themes in the crossovers. Marvel could have as many memorable theme songs as Superman, Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future combined if they'd just stuck with the same theme song for each Iron Man movie and then used it in the Avengers movies, Captain America movies, and Spider-man movies that he made appearances in, and did that same thing with Thor, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Dr. Strange, and so on and so on.
I guess they still could, really, but after 23 movies, and only one song that anybody could hum along to, it seems like it's probably too late. They do have good themes though. Check them out, here's a video that has all the themes in on place for you. You can go down to the details, and click on the time stamp to skip to the next one once you've gotten the gist of what the song sounds like if you want, or just give yourself an hour and fifteen minutes to enjoy them all.
Which is your favorite of the themes for the characters that have more than one? I personally like all the Thor movie themes, for example, but I think Thor 2 is best. Probably Iron Man 3 is best. Captain America 1 is my favorite. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.
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