Arrow Season 1 Score Review

“Blake Neely? What is she?” That was basically my reaction when I read who was composing for the Arrow TV series. I repent in dust and ashes, shaving my head and clothing myself in the most sack-ish of sackcloth. This. Score. Is. Phenomenal. Some amazing scores for superhero shows have come out over the years, but this re-defines amazing. In all reality, I would have to say this is very possibly better than the scores for most superhero films. I only know of two or three that are even slightly better than this. Okay, I'm done fangirling. On to the actual review.

Neely utilizes a thematic formula for this score, which works wonderfully. There isn't a single theme on this album I can find fault with. I don't mean to sound like more of a fan and less of a critic, but there's honestly not much to criticize here. As a result, this may be a shorter review than usual. Perhaps my only criticism with this score is that the electronic instruments in some of the action tracks can start to feel a little over-done, but this is only a minor complaint. While I'm on this subject, I will mention that this score does utilize electronic instruments, but they're evenly blended with orchestral ones. Often, their combination creates excellent action tracks.

The thing I love most about this score is its tone. It's easily the darkest superhero score I've ever heard, and yet it's very possibly the most hopeful one I've ever heard. I guess what I'm trying to say is you can feel Oliver's (otherwise known as Arrow, for those of you who aren't well-educated on superheroes) humanity. One minute, the score is riveting action and the next it's gut-wrenching emotion. The concluding track, in particular, does an incredible job of summing up his character.

Overall, I'm forced to give this a perfect score of 5 out of 5 hooded vigilantes. Some highlight tracks include: Five Years, I Forgot Who I Was, Train and Hunt, The Dark Archer; It Is I Who Failed This City, I Can't Lose You Twice, Sacrifice, and, lastly, Oliver Queen Suite. The last one especially is phenomenal. If you don't buy any other tracks, buy it. Ultimately, though, every single track is excellent. I'm just picking personal favorites.

Are you still reading this review? GO BUY THE SOUNDTRACK! NOW! STOP WASTING YOUR LIFE!

Comments

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Oh, The Force Awakens, you really thought you could show up on the scene and not be polarizing. You were so wrong. Spoiler alert for anyone who, by some magic, hasn’t seen this movie yet, because I’m about to dissect the heck out of this film and also The Phantom Menace’s plot. Let’s jump right into the story. The evil First Order has tracked a map containing the coordinates of the location of Luke Skywalker to a planet, where the Resistance races against time to get the map first. The Resistance pilot going after the plans, Poe Dameron, is captured; his droid, however, escapes with the map. Sound familiar? Well buckle up, kids. Familiarity is about to slap us in the face. Repeatedly. From there, the pilot is rescued by a dude in stormtrooper armor (to be fair, he is a stormtrooper), Finn. He’s a traitor to the First Order, and together they escape. The droid with the map, meanwhile, has made his way to a young adult female (why

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies boasts what may be the most absurd plot of any Bond film. The head of a media outlet tries to start wars in order to have a monopoly on the media coverage of them. If you can’t comprehend the absurdity of that, let me try to give another example. CNN starts World War 3 and has journalists in place to report these events before anyone else can, and no one on the face of the earth thinks that’s shady in any way, shape, or form except for MI6. The question we should all be asking ourselves is how the heck this movie managed to actually be kind of good with a plot like this. The opening sequence is not quite as exhilarating as we’ve come to expect from Brosnan Bond movies, but it’s competent enough. From there, we’re plunged directly into the story. The first act takes its time, explaining delicately in a detailed manner exactly what the media mogul’s plan is, and how he’s going to carry it out. His plot may be absolu

Dunkirk

Let’s be honest. It doesn’t matter what a Christopher Nolan movie is about; if he directed it, we’re going to watch it. Dunkirk focuses on an actual historic event, a first for Nolan. He executes it beautifully. Also, this is spoiler-free. Dunkirk, like many (or maybe all?) of Nolan’s films, places emphasis on time. In Dunkirk, three story threads are followed, each occurring over a different duration of time, but all converging in the end. This can make for a slightly confusing or even frustrating (in parts) narrative, but most of the time it’s all relatively easy to follow. I’ve thought about it for quite some time, and I’m quite certain that is done both for the sake of heightened realism and tonal consistency. The three interweaving plot threads help greatly in keeping the story interesting, and all three’s contributions to growing intensity make for one of the most claustrophobic and uneasy films I’ve ever seen. Because o

SkyWorld

Search This Blog