Initial Reactions to “Godzilla”
May 2, 2014Planet X Control Room: Episode 60
May 14, 2014
The much anticipated soundtrack to the Legendary Pictures’ version of Godzilla, composed by Alexandre Desplat. Alexandre has composed quite a bit of soundtracks to some well-known films since he first appeared into the industry in 1998, such as The Golden Compass, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1&2, The King’s Speech, Argo, just to name a few. From looking a this small list, Desplat has composed for two films that have won an Oscar for Best Picture within the last five years, which I must say is a pretty damn good track record, and hell, he was nominated for Best Original Score from the Oscars and Golden Globes for the three mentioned films, Fantastic Mr. Fox, King’s Speech and Argo.
However, he did win Best Music in the British Academy Film Awards for King’s Speech and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media in the Grammy Awards for the same film as well.
With just a little history of Composer Alexandre Desplat, let’s dive into the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Godzilla! But before we do, I just want to warn you that the track titles will have some spoilers. So if you’re one of those that doesn’t want to be spoiled, then I would suggest and not read any further until you have seen the film. You have now been warned at this point.
— WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS —
As Gareth Edwards has pointed out when asked of what the film score will sound like that Alexandre will give it that same feeling/style of legendary composer Akira Ifukube, but also give him some creative space to create something unique – and I must say that we do get some of that great Ifukube-vibe and as well as a new, unique take on the King of the Monsters. Also, I should tell you that we really don’t get any specific/unique kind of theme and/or marching theme for Godzilla in this soundtrack, so don’t get your hopes up on that front.
The Godzilla Soundtrack is comprised of 20 tracks that has a runtime of exactly an hour, half of the film’s total runtime. Most of the track’s average time is somewhere around 3.00 to 3.25 minutes, with the longest track running to exactly 6 minutes. So we don’t get a whole lot of music, but that doesn’t mean that the soundtrack falls short or anything, I think that there could’ve been some potential for longer-lasting tracks and to possibly have a suite that could’ve lasted 10 minutes or more. But, I’m not going to complain/nitpick too much on that as we could potentially get that in possible sequels in the near future.
Although, I do have only one complaint/nitpick about this soundtrack is that I was hoping for a deeper tone (bass, ambient and string wise) in the tracks like Alexandre did for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – so I think that the score kind of fell short on that; plus my expectations for this soundtrack were a little bit too high and wanted something along the lines of a Hans Zimmer, Steve Jablonsky and Brian Tyler style/take, which I’m s big fan of those composers. So ya, my expectations were a little bit high when it comes to this soundtrack when it comes to the tone of the tracks.
But other than the little nitpick of mine, the soundtrack does indeed have that Ifukube-vibe and nostalgia, while at the same time creating some new, unique styles and atmosphere for the Big Guy. Although it may sound a little weird before seeing the film itself, but I think that these tracks will sound great and even better once you see the film as we also get the moving picture to go with the tracks.
I have written the official track list below along with the official runtime for each track:
- Godzilla! – 2:09
- Inside the Mines – 2:25
- The Power Plant – 5:49
- To Q Zone – 2:56
- Back to Janjira – 6:00
- Muto Hatch – 3:13
- In the Jungle – 2:00
- The Wave – 3:04
- Airport Attack – 1:48
- Missing Spore – 3:58
- Vegas Aftermath – 3:23
- Ford Rescued – 1:23
- Following Godzilla – 2:02
- Golden Gate Chaos – 2:51
- Let Them Fight – 1:39
- Entering the Nest – 3:01
- Two Against One – 4:15
- Last Shot – 1:58
- Godzilla’s Victory – 3:02
- Back to the Ocean – 3:40
Overall, the Godzilla: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a pretty good score for the film and indeed has the Ifukube-vibe and a new, creative take on Godzilla. Although my expectations on the score tone was a bit too high, the positives still outweigh the negatives. Is it a soundtrack that it’ll listen to consistently/constantly? I don’t think I’ll listen to it constantly, but something I would enjoy listening to once in awhile, maybe once a month or two or whichever I feel like I want to listen to it. Can it rival some of the tracks from the franchise? I think that this soundtrack has that potential to rival the tracks from the franchise; but of course, there are those soundtracks from the franchise that this soundtrack cannot compete with. So this is still a definite buy to add into your Godzilla soundtrack collection!
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