Soundclips.

Hearing all of this reminds me of how much charm Williams brings to the franchise. I'd say that if Harrison Ford delivers upwards of half of it, Williams delivers the rest.

It's great to know that Williams can still go to "that place" and that it hasn't been lost with age. He's made us wonder from time to time. The last confirmation we had was with Prisoner of Azkaban.

Welcome back, Johnny!

The clips are fantastic, Williams' has pulled out the stops for Indy's latest adventure and I can't wait to hear the rest of it.

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Originally posted by gkgyver:
Slap me right across the face, but doesn't it seem like this film has no real, new, kick*** theme?
If the Skull theme doesn't get a few epic incarnations, I don't see one.

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You're trying to figure that out from (19) 30-second clips... not sure you can really make a solid evaluation of a score from 9.5 minutes of music out of a 77 minute album. Can you?

Sure I can't judge the whole album based on those clips, but there's no new, in-your-face, adventurous new main theme as far as we know. Nothing like Marion's Theme, the Ark Theme, Parade Of The Slave Children, Grail theme ... It almost seems as if Williams had chosen to make the Raider's March the central theme of the film. But even Raiders Of The Lost Ark had at least two other major themes (Marion and the Nazis).

I would also agree that the Crystal Skull needs to have a strong stand alone epic theme (and variations) as the artifacts in the previous three films had. But I think Marion's theme should be featured pretty prominently in this film, as well, as it should. What puzzled me thus far in what I heard was the beginning of "The Spell of the Skull" track with the "Tunisia" Nazi Theme. Wonder what that will be referencing...the Ark crate, perhaps?

Gae

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Originally posted by Camillu:
Oh no you don't...

This is one score I'll be hearing for the first time on-screen. I last did that for Episode 3 and it was worth it.

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Got my CD of "Crystal Skull" today!!
Haven't had a chance to listen yet but it's going on my MP3 player immediately. One thing I will say though..Harrison Ford looks incredible in the inset sleeve photos...greyer and gruffer looking sure, but still "Indy"!! He's a kind of modern day Cary Grant, who also looked great in his later years.
Can't wait to see the movie this Thursday..I'm going to a morning screening which will hopefully not be too busy!

Gae

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Originally posted by webjedi:
We have an extensive review currently up on SoundtrackNet, check it out.
http://www.soundtrack.net/albums/database/?id=4874&page=review

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Originally posted by webjedi:
Thank you... I bought the CD first thing this morning before coming to work... ;-)

But of course I received my appropriate critiques from Dan :-P

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So tempted to say a lot of things, but I don't want to spoil it. A lot of you already have an inkling of where Steven and George are gonna take it. How they take it there is a little different than what I expected, which made it better for me. Thank God they didn't turn Indiana Jones into Daniel Jackson. I don't think I could have handled that.

Also, regarding the score... DAMMIT. THEY DID IT AGAIN. So much great music, even thematic references to The Holy Grail theme from Last Crusade. And the Jungle Chase. Arghhhh! The album version is totally edited and trimmed down to a mere whisper of what it actually is. Sucks monkey balls. I'd love to have an expanded version of this score; there's a ton of great material that simply didn't make it onto the disc. That said, I enjoy the score a lot more now than I did having not seen it *surprise, I know*.

Anyway, the movie is out and the polls are running! What did you think? I'm gonna give it the weekend and then all bets are off; if you haven't seen it by Monday, just don't read any of my posts, as I'll be no-holds-barred about spoilers.

Off you go!

Jeron

I heard and saw INDY IV quite belated only a week ago - and dammit, I haven't come out from a movie theatre feeling THIS HAPPY for a long time (last time was with the movie version of Shaiman's and Wittman's HAIRSPRAY). I had so much doubts and no expectations at all for this new INDY, so perhaps that was the reason why the movie took me completely Over The Moon!! For those who long for the 1980's sincere movie magic, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL brings incredible nostalgia back to the movie screens. And the BEST thing is, that finally we have here an adventure/action movie with TRUE music - energetic, bright, flourishing and wonderfully melodic!

So why am I disappointed? The reason is that although John Williams is a Great Composer, he should leave the soundtrack album producing to someone else. The album is quite normal "Williams album" in presenting concert versions of the main themes and then reprising them in a very-slightly-different End Credits edition. What a waste of precious CD time... As Jeron (and many others for sure) already pointed out, the soundtrack album contains some shameful edits and even more shameful omits. The soundtrack-business of course is not the easiest business in the world, but with this kind of soundtrack producing I can't help wondering why a composer/producer of John Williams' calibre seems not to appreciate us, who want to hear the movie music in its original, unedited form? Of all the great composers, why it is John Williams who manages to produce the lamest representations of his original movie music?

However, thank god the price of the INDY IV soundtrack CD is worth the wonderfully energetic "Mutt" tracks alone!