Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pirates 3 - The Return of the Swashbuckler, 18 Jun 2007
If ever there was going to be a return to the Errol Flynn days this was going to be it and Zimmer has delivered at last. The first movie was different and has suffered from endless comparisons with Steiner, Korngold and the classic movie swasbucklers due to its reliance on eletcric guitars over orchestra. Me? I loved it. I would love to hear it though performed entirely by an orchestra.
This soundtrack was eagerly awaited by the movie music collectors in the hope of a real pirate score and Hans Zimmer has deleivered it to us. Full of the jaunty themes known and loved but this time suffused with a power taking you back to those halcyon days of adventure and swordplay. It moves at a fast pace and finally allows full play of the classic Pirate Themes from that first film but given free rein to be played at their most powerful. Romantic underscores for the tension between Sparrow, Swann and Turner are there and bring balance at last in the third movie. Moan about Zimmer? Not here. he has deleivered what he was asked to by Jerry Bruckheimer and also given the film fans what we want too, a true pirate movie score full of fun, flashing adventure and yo ho ho. Turn the dial right up, allow yourself to feel the enjoyment of this music and you won't be disappointed. Enjoy letting yourself visualise Johnny Depp's Capt'n Jack once again except this time, given true power.
If you like Zimmer you will love this. If you like pirate music performed with energy and given an emotional heart you will love it too. Ignore moans about repetition from miserable movie critics too deparate for something new and let yourself have fun again.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Someone gave Zimmer back his heart!, 30 May 2007
After Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Hans Zimmer had to come up with something pretty special to win me over. With Dead Man's Chest Zimmer took some of the best themes from the first film, a collaboration between 15 or so Media Ventures composers such as Harry Gregson Williams and Steve Jablonski, but predominately Klaus Badelt, and did strange things with them. While expanding the jaunty Jack theme and beefing it up was a good idea, as well as bringing in some murky and powerful stuff for both the Kraken and Davy Jones, the score overall was an overloud, bludgeoning experience without much tenderness or subtlety. Too much synthesizer and reverting to his favourite tricks I think may have been the problem. Dead Man's Chest was fun, but lacked colour and seemed to be constantly rushing onwards. After Hans Zimmer's wonderful, delicate and atmospheric music for films such as Da Vinci Code and The Last Samurai I was hoping that with the third Pirates film we would hear a more complex score.
Thankfully, that's just what we get. Once again Zimmer brings in the themes running through Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest which gives a lovely sense of continuity, but these themes are developed even more, becoming action cues that effectively trigger all the right emotions, or background colouring that really add to the depth of the onscreen events. The track 'I Don't Think Now Is The Right Time' so effectively conjured a storyboard in my head, I was able to predict the onscreen action almost perfectly!
At World's End is a much more emotionally charged score, with some lovely soaring moments where the love themes break out from the darker action cues in really uplifting ways. Which is just what you want from a score, something that rewards listening years after the film it accompanies has left cinema screens. Zimmer's music is suitably epic, but also manages to work in a more intimate and delicate way. Some of his favourite motifs are thrown in, which works perfectly, bringing to mind especially The Da Vinci Code, Last Samurai and Gladiator, none of this feels lazy like Dead Man's Chest did in parts, there is also a slightly oriental element especially near the start of the album as our heroes visit Singapore. Zimmer also doesn't forget this is a film about pirates and includes a nice touch of the sea shanty/jig here and there, specifically with track 5. 'Up Is Down'.
Overall Hans Zimmer's score for At World's End is a thoroughly rewarding listening experience. It works by reiterating established themes, but also takes a slightly more offbeat approach with several tracks. Unlike Dead Man's Chest it makes room for a much more romantic and often melancholy sound. I only give it four stars because although I am glad this time we don't have an awful techno remix tacked onto the end, I do feel we could have been given extra DVD content or perhaps simply more score.
Heres hoping that a three-score special edition is released sometime soon.
PJ
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Film Scores . . . Ever!, 1 Aug 2007
I have been a fan of film music for the past five years and am convinced that this is one of the best film scores I have ever heard. Hans Zimmer has always been a firm favourite of mine as I am constantly in awe of his ability to compose music that sounds truly heroic and emotional.
On this CD, there really isn't a bad track: "Hoist the Colours" is a new 'Pirates' theme, however the tune was composed by director Gore Verbinski and Zimmer before "The Curse of the Black Pearl" was released. In Track 1, it features as a dirge, sung first by a solo boy who is then joined by a full choir; but the theme returns in "The Brethren Court", and most prominently in "What Shall We Die For", where Zimmer slowly builds it up to a triumphant crescendo.
"Singapore" feautures superbly-atmospheric Eastern music, and the track ends with the most heroic take on 'Jack's Theme' yet. "At Wit's End" is dominated by a new theme which Zimmer composed for this film and is most closely associated with Will and Elizabeth's issues. There's even a strangely beautiful passage of female choir that evokes Enya and is the most un-Zimmer like music in the score. 'Calypso's Music Box' also makes a return, first in it's usual, tinkling form and then in a tragic version.
"Up is Down" is one of the best tracks, but I fail in trying to describe it: it has to be heard and felt by the listener! Unable to reprise "The Kraken" in this film, Zimmer opted for a wailing electric guitar in "Parlay", cleverly setting 'Hoist the Colours' against the 'East India Trading Co.' theme as the two sides clash. "I Don't Think Now's The Best Time" is a masterstroke and combines several themes from the past two films into the score while the music for Will and Elizabeth's dramatic wedding scene hints at various waltzes and the Wedding March.
Fans of the "He's a Pirate" theme from the first film will be glad to hear it return on "Drink Up Me Hearties", as it was omitted from the "Dead Man's Chest" soundtrack.
All in all, it's a score that will leave you feeling like swashbuckling your way across the seven seas - which is the point, isn't it?
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~ Hans Zimmer
~ Klaus Badelt
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