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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

At least Microsoft could pay for original music in their commercial for the Surface 2 which is more than I can say for X-Men: Days of Future Past

Originality from the American film industry is a horse that died long ago and yet they're still beating on its corpse.

The song titled Adagio in D Minor is brilliant. However, I can't tell you how utterly sick I am at hearing the musical score pop up in movie trailer after movie trailer. Yeah, it was in last year's City of Bones trailer that came out (I think) in November 2012. Now it's in the newest movie trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Here's what I'd say to the marketing departments who make these trailers if I could give them a piece of my mind:

With Hollywood actresses and actors making so much money and films costing millions and millions of dollars, why on Earth can't you come up with an original score of your own? Why must you rob the same soundtrack as others have done for the last five years? I hear Danny Elfman writes music. Are you so cheap that you can't just go and get him to write something for your movie and then use it for your trailer? The Walking Dead has its own musical score and that's a television show. Maybe everyone is right when they say "television is now better than the movies."

To those of you who out there reading my words with no clue as to why I'm in a rage about this, just have a listen. Below is the original music score for Sunshine. It's impressive, and it appeared in this relatively low-budget sci-fi movie's trailer. When I first heard it, I loved it. But I guess SO DID EVERY OTHER FREAKING PERSON ON THE PLANET. NOTE: you may have to advance to about 40 seconds in to get the full effect of the music.

Now listen to the horrible Mortal Instruments...

And compare it to the X-Men trailer for the movie coming out soon...

And then give a hearty listen to The Adjustment Bureau at about 1:35.

And guys, this is seriously just four trailers I could pluck out of thin air in a fit of frustration at hearing the soundtrack yet again from a studio that should know better.

Is there no more originality in this world? Does anyone even care? Disney, you own Marvel and Pixar and Star Wars! You have billions upon billions upon billions of dollars in your cash hoard. You have Elton John, John Williams, and former Mouseketeer's Britney Spears and tongue waggin' Miley Cyrus on speed dial. Are you seriously expecting me to believe that you could find no one to score your more than two minute X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer? Literally, all of my emotions can be summed up in this one picture:
Here's a listen to the Microsoft ad I've been seeing on television. At least Microsoft could pay for original music in their commercial for the Surface 2, and it actually sounds good.

18 comments:

  1. I guess they decided visuals alone were enough. As a musician, I do appreciate a multi-layered and original score.
    That said, I still thought the trailer for X-Men was awesome.

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  2. They probably do that because the movie's actual score isn't complete yet. I don't really mind it. The "Gravity" trailer featured a piece called "Spiegel im Spiegel" which is one of my faves. I was a little disappointed it wasn't actually in the movie but it still made for a great trailer. By the same token the "Watchmen" trailer used a Smashing Pumpkins song that again wasn't in the movie but worked for the trailer.

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  3. Thank you for posting this!! I could never identify my issue with a lot of previews. I just thought they all somehow sounded alike. You know, like some canned preview music. This is why. That being said, I wonder if Pat is right, and they just use some songs for previews that don't end up in the movie. That's not nearly as irritating as if they DID use the same songs in each movie.

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  4. The saddest part of this is there is so much great music to choose from. Why do we always get the same retreads?

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  5. My first thought was... They took music off the Moody Blues' second album? It was titled Days of Future Past... 1967.

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  6. Oh my gosh you're right! Never realised how many times I've ended up hearing that score over the years. Now I've got it stuck in my head. lol

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  7. I have to say I think the latest X-Men trailer was amazing. The music matched what was happening perfectly and that to me is better than an original score that might have sucked. Though unlikely.

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  8. But it's so dramatic!! But, really, now that you mention it, it is sort of the equivalent of cutting and pasting "clip art" into your preview if you're not willing to seek out something original.

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  9. Disney isn't making X-Men. Fox still owns the license for that, so blame them. In fact, Fox is going to own the X-Men license for a while and are going to be introducing the Fantastic Four into the X-Men world when they re-boot the FF.

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  10. Thanks for the musical treat Mike. I feel the same way about all the movie re-makes now days.

    I loved the trailer music. I agree they should be more original, but the music did work for the dramatic effects. Especially for X men and Adjustment B. I've been listening to movie theme music on Pandora and I agree, a lot of it sounds the same.

    .......dhole

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  11. I guess I'm not listening to the music on these trailers closely enough. You can bet I will in the future.

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  12. I don't normally pay a ton of attention to the music, more concerned with the images and dialogue, but wow, you make a good point. Geez!

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  13. I really like that about some TV shows, how they have their own music. I hadn't noticed how often the same music was used.

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  14. I remember having a Star Wars album and playing it all the time. I guess those days are gone...

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  15. But that's for the trailers, right? The actual soundtrack for the movies is new...

    I haven't been to a movie in so long, I wouldn't know.

    I took a film music class in college (my oboe teacher taught it, so I kind of had to), and that made me appreciate movie music more. I hadn't really thought about it before that. Fascinating class.

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  16. Like PT said, the score probably isn't done, as it's usually one of the last things done for a film. I think mostly studios just farm out a ton of footage to a third party that assembles that into a trailer. I doubt anyone heavily involved with the film production itself has anything to do with the it. But movie trailers tend to be VERY derivative of previous ones for sure. Annoys me to death... until I see a trailer from a few decades ago, then I wonder how anyone ever saw anything in the theater, those were awful. You ever see the one for Citizen Kane? Ugh.

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  17. Shows are becoming better than movies. They're about all I watch now. I'm excited for a few movies coming out, but they're in the minority. How the times have changed.

    I don't mind when multiple movies share some of the same music. But I hate it when that music that I now identify with the movie is only in the trailer and not actually in the movie.

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  18. I once saw a documentary on the making of Star Wars, and when it came to scoring the movie studio people thought it would be rock music, but Lucas instead brought in John Williams. The documentary showed the opening scene without any score and then with Williams' brilliant burst of sound, and it gave me goosebumps.



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