Godzilla vs. Kong Soundtrack Discussion
G. H. (Gman)
AdminGodzillaMar-26-2021 4:17 PMI recently downloaded the entire soundtrack. You can also listen to it on Spotify and Youtube.
Since 2014, we have had seven new Godzilla scores--This is undoubtedly the absolute worst of anything we've received in the last seven years. Maybe that's not entirely damning since I think the Reiwa/Monsterverse era has overall been the weakest era of Godzilla music so far. Or maybe it is... Depends on how you look at it.
I didn't care for Godzilla: King of the Monsters as a film, but even if you remove the Ifukube and Koseki themes, McCreary delivered the best Godzilla score since 2003. Hattori composed the most visually matched Godzilla score of his career with the anime films, particularly City on the Edge of Battle. I don't think his themes were as memorable as they were in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla or Godzilla 2000, but they certainly matched the films more. And while I find Sagisu overrated, and a bit redundant, there are pieces in Shin Godzilla that make up for the sum of its parts in spades. (Particularly "Persecution of the Masses" and "Who Will Know?")
Now, I'll admit, I'm not a fan of Holkenborg to begin with. He did alright with Mad Max: Fury Road and I was thoroughly entertained by his Terminator: Dark Fate score. I hated his DC movie contributions and his work on Deadpool, Sonic and Alita was just sonic wallpaper. Nothing memorable, nothing fun and nothing emotional. I couldn't begin to hum a single bar from any of those movies.
Here, Holkenborg is trying to craft memorable themes for the two title monsters, but it just comes off disingenuous. Every time his Godzilla theme comes up, it sounds like an off-brand, Ifukube theme. It's trying so hard to emulate a better motif, but it comes off as a low rent parody.
Kong's theme is a little better, and has a heroic flare. But I can't help but think of the superior 2005 theme by James Newton Howard every time it comes up.
The rest sounds like generic trailer music. Much of it is too electronic--Which is fine to an extent. Ko Otani utilized electronics for Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and it worked beautifully. Hell, even Pacific Rim: Uprising pulled it off better. The problem is the themes written here demand a more natural sound and heavy brass. Modern electronic methods just don't fit the bassy pieces. As a result, most of the score sounds like Holkenborg's hideous Batman theme--As if it were bad video game music.
On the plus side, "The Throne," is easily the best track on the official release. And the end of "Hollow Earth" plays with a Vangelis inspired variation of Kong's theme, which is sort of neat.
I wish I could say there were other themes to look forward to, but there's really not. The last 2-3 minutes of the soundtrack have a semblance of emotion that crescendo, unfortunately, to a stop before it does anything interesting. It's been a long time since I've been this disappointed in a soundtrack--Any soundtrack. It's a shame, because Godzilla and Kong deserve a lot better.
Uh oh, Gman.i think this is a largely zoomer vs boomer scenario.
You cant deny it, you're just sick of those darn zoomers with their electro-pop music.
