Dragonball Evolution by Brian Tyler

So, I know the movie itself will most likely be crap, but I'm really enjoying what I've heard so far of the score to this anime-based live-action movie.

Here and here are two clips of Brian Tyler conducting at a score recording. Me likee.

Sure it's derivative and borderline plagiarism (I hear Elfman, Williams, and Horner in there at different times), but it's just done so well!

Also, for the heck of it here is the J-Pop 'theme song': Rule by Ayumi Hayasaki.

Any thoughts?

 

I liked what I heard, and my copy of the score shipped today. Tyler's inconsistent but this sounds like it'll be a good one.

 

I like Brian's music, and most of this score was pretty good. But good god, when I heard Elfman's Batman theme stated in full I almost had a heart attack. It didn't just happen once too, it seems that it was used as some kind of theme for somebody. I sincerely hope this was a case of the director being overly attached to his temp track and being too stupid to think that anybody would recognize it, instead of Brian thinking he could get away with it.

 

The string of notes is very similar, but the way in which they're orchestrated and used is different enough that it doesn't really bother me. What really gets me is the bit at the end of the longer track that is both melodically and mood-wise copied straight from Horner's Star Trek scores (3:00-3:14 or thereabouts). I hear it and start expecting the end titles from Star Trek II or III to kick in.

But hey, it you're gonna rip someone off, go with the best. I mean, look at the score to the original Star Wars: the main title theme is mostly King's Row, the Imperial attack at the beginning is Holst's Mars, and the stormtrooper theme is straight out of the Nutcracker.

 

Well, Brian did do an episode of Star Trek a while back...haha...

Trust me, when you hear the rest of the soundtrack you'll know what I mean about the Batman stuff.

Poor guy, he's been the victim of over temp tracking quite a lot lately.

 

I like it. But yeah, there was a lot of Batman in there. I'm gonna get the soundtrack right now. *opens iTunes*

 

As a whole it's rather enjoyable, with a couple exceptions, such as the "Chasing Dragonballs" track. But while it's certainly a better listen than many of Tyler's scores -- and doesn't outstay its welcome much, being an hour instead of 80 minutes -- it never reaches the level of oomph or the sensawunda that you'd expect from a master of the genre, say Horner or Poledouris. Solid album, never reaches the heights of last year's Eagle Eye but never plumbs its depths, either. Probably a 3.5-star score all told.

 

He did that in AVP:R, too. The epilogue is basically Trek II's lead-in to the end titles. I half-expected Leonard Nimoy's voice over to appear the first time I heard it.

I liked Children of Dune enough, but Tyler really bores me otherwise.

 

I like that he conducts his own music, but it's remarkable how uninteresting and derivative it is. How does he get excited about conducting it?

 

Because it's so derivative it's ALMOST like getting to conduct Elfman/Horner/Williams music.

And honestly, I'll take a well-done ripoff of the masters like this over a 'new' Zimmer score any day.

 

I'll just listen to Star Trek II.

 

A good portion of AVP:R was quoted from his earlier Darkness Falls score.


Also, I recently found out that he doesn't really use a sequencer. He just plays the damn notes straight into ProTools as audio. What a BAMF.