By the baton of Thor!

There’s no better day to review the soundtrack for Thor: The Dark World than Thor’s Day, A.K.A. Thursday, A.K.A. today.  The Asgardian’s first foray into film was the 2011 adaptation of the Marvel comics version of the Norse myth, a robust noble epic that made the inevitable sequel something to look forward to.  Its score was equally epic.

Unfortunately the mighty Avenger’s sequel proves to be less than mighty, but there’s still a chance that the music could be fantastic, right?  In the immortal words of the Thunder God himself (as scripted by Stan Lee), “I say thee NAY, base villain!”

The first Thor film was directed by Kenneth Branagh and scored by his go-to composer, Patrick Doyle.  The duo’s penchant for Shakespearean drama and big budget action (they also collaborated on Dead Again and the upcoming Jack Ryan reboot) proved to be the perfect match for the Norse source material.  Sadly, they didn’t come back for seconds.

Game of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor was drafted to direct his first feature and for a review of that, click here.  Composing duties went to returning Marvel musician Brian Tyler who did a solid job scoring Iron Man 3 partly because no one other than AC/DC bothered to score the previous Iron Man films.  That’s not the case here.  Patrick Doyle did such a wonderful job that it’s near impossible to review Tyler’s work without Doyle’s melodies echoing in your ears, but I’ll give it the ol’ college try.

Some musical tracks are derivative of The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and other fantasy franchises.  Some resemble Tyler’s own Iron Man score. (Listen to The Dark World’s “Journey to Asgard” back to back with Iron Man 3’s “Extremis” for aural proof.)  Some, however, turn out to be Grammy-worthy. (Or at least A.S.C.A.P. Music Award-worthy)  “As the Hammer Falls” is grand and heroic.  “Sword and Council” is appropriately suspenseful.

Composer/conductor Brian Tyler.

One improvement over the previous film’s music is the omission of rock songs over the end credits.  The final scene of Branagh’s flick is a potent mix of majestic visuals and equally majestic music as personified in Doyle’s “Earth to Asgard” track.  The theme is so immersive that it completes the audience’s induction into the Asgardian realm… until the Foo Fighters muck it up.  No offense to the Foo, but nothing takes you out of a fantasy piece more jarringly than an orchestral score interrupted by an out-of-place rock tune.  Not so with The Dark World.  The orchestral music continues into the end credits and we never once hear anything resembling tracks on those ridiculous “songs inspired by” albums.

Tyler’s conducting prowess is not to be called into question.  Nor, for the most part, are his composing skills.  For this reviewer, the main criticism lands hard and fast on missed opportunity and the question of why.

Tyler’s “Thor, Son of Odin” composition is rousing and gallant as called for, but so too was Doyle’s “Sons of Odin.”  Tyler’s title track establishes an overall theme (albeit with a 1980s sci-fi b-movie tone), but so too did Doyle’s “Thor Kills the Destroyer“ (minus the b-movie tone).  In fact, Doyle’s superior themes are nowhere to be found in The Dark World.  Why is that?  Why disregard what was already working?  A new composer should interpret another composer’s leitmotif in his own way, otherwise you get John Ottman plagiarizing John Williams in Superman Returns.  But just as a theme shouldn’t be completely duplicated in a subsequent film, it also shouldn’t be completely abandoned.  Otherwise where’s the connective tissue?

Score one for Thor.

Chris Hemsworth plays Thor again, this time with added nuance and depth.  His musical accompaniment should do likewise — old but new, established but with a twist.  If another actor assumed the role then a new theme could be justified, but that’s not what happened.  And honestly, when it comes right down to it — why do more work than you have to?  Why start with a blank song sheet when you can build upon existing work?  Is it ego?  A studio mandate?  It’s definitely not a legal issue since Marvel owns the scores for all their movies and can do whatever they want with them.  So the question remains — Why?

For a cinematic universe so steeped in continuity, it’s a shame that the discipline isn’t applied to soundtracks as well.  Tyler ignores Doyle’s Thor score much like composer Alan Silvestri ignored it in The Avengers, along with every other hero’s theme, including his own Captain America motif, though a few notes of that can be heard in Avengers, as well as The Dark World.  (Why is Cap the sole acoustic survivor?)

Not to turn this into an indictment of Marvel Studios’ melodic methods, but since I missed out on reviewing The Avengers soundtrack, I have to do it at some point, so why not now?

Marvel accomplished something unprecedented in cinema history by introducing characters in solo films and then teaming them up in a group movie, all within a shared universe.  Joss Whedon’s screenplay is all about dissimilar heroes putting aside their differences and working together as a team.  A perfect way to underscore that vision is with the score itself, which presents an opportunity to do something equally unprecedented — integrate themes established by other musicians into one grand unified theme.

Missed opportunity.

When the heroes battled amongst themselves, their individual leitmotifs from their individual films could’ve done the same, resulting in a dissonant refrain of recognizable tunes.  When the heroes assembled, their leitmotifs could have too, resulting in the lush stirring main theme of The Avengers, both in terms of story and music.

Instead, Alan Silvestri ditched all the established solo themes (except for a few notes of his aforementioned Cap score) and started from scratch, effectively undermining the overall film, which is still great but could’ve been, to quote Tony the Tiger, “GRRRRRRREAT!!!”

Was Silvestri intimidated by the challenge or, unlike Whedon’s vision, did he want all the credit for himself? (Maybe he was under the influence of Loki.)  If given the chance, John Williams would’ve done this in a heartbeat and with aplomb.  He did so with his own themes in the Star Wars prequels and fourth Indiana Jones outing, arguably the best elements of both endeavors. (On second thought, there is no argument.)  He could and would do it with other composers’ compositions as well.  But I digress.  Let’s get back to the Thor score. (Thor score is fun to say.)

Also included on The Dark World soundtrack is “Marvel Studios Fanfare” that Brian Tyler created for the studios’ new logo, which will now play before every feature.  Thor 2, Iron Man 3, studio fanfare — does this mean Tyler could be Marvel’s “It” composer from here on out?  If so, then please incorporate the other scores that you have access to.  Don’t run away from the challenge like Silvestri did.  Embrace it like Williams would.  In the immortal words of the Thunder God himself (as scripted by Stan), “I say thee YAY, strolling minstrel!”