My Rogue One Soundtrack Review

It's on Spotify now.
Man, "Jyn Erso & Hope Suite" hits me right in the feels.

 

Medal of Honor meets OT Star Wars.

I cried.

 

I'm going to get bashed but I found the soundtrack distracting from the movie. It very seldom gave me the Star Wars feel. Due to the time frame, I think it should have been closer to the soundtrack of Ep IV. It needed more Star Wars moments.

 

I saw your video in youtube yesterday

I agree. When I saw the movie I was really impressed about the score. I expected literally nothing. Giacchino? Who did Jurassic World which I don't like? And this time had 3-4 weeks to compose?? Better I forget about the sountrack and try to enjoy the film.

How wrong I was. He used the force as when Luke disconnected his computer in the x-wing.

1. Jyn's theme is brilliant. That's probably the best new theme he has come up with.
2. Giacchino is a fan and knows exactly what he's doing here (which IMO didn't when did Jurassic World). The use of the classic leith-motifs is so good. He brought back Vader's theme from A New Hope instead of playing Imperial March every five minutes in the film (Krennic's Aspirations). Which makes the transition to Episode IV musically smoother.
3. It does sound like the original trilogy in many sections. I like how "Cargo Shuttle SW-0608", around the half of the song, sounds like "Alliance Assembly" from Return of the Jedi yet with new melodies.
3. Despite Giacchino is a die-hard fan from the originals, you've got pieces that sound like the prequels too (Jyn Erso is one example).
4. And then, you have his own style, of course. Themes like "star-dust" work very well.

BUT! I can't finish without saying this... Rebellions are Built on Hope 1'10 sounds a hell lot like Star Carsh!!!!

 

And I forgot something important:

I can't stop prizing how he musicalized Vader. People says "oh why not Imperial March when slaughtering the Rebels?", guess what? Because Giacchino decided it had to sound like Vader killing people in Revenge of the Sith. This man tied-in both trilogies in a way Williams didn't do (always respecting Williams being the master who brought as all this, by the way).

I would really like, and I think is not going to happen: that Williams uses Giacchino's theme for Jedhha if we ever visit it in the Sequels.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 16, 2016, Original Post Date: Dec 16, 2016 ---

Some people stated that the mix was a little bit over the top, like the music was too loud in some scenes. To value that I need to see it at least once more.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 16, 2016 ---

No "credits song" in the album. It's so obvious they are going to make an extended edition of this...

 

He used his New Hope theme in "Krennic`s Aspirations", mixed with the imperial march. The Vader scenes had the best music IMO.
I really liked Krennic`s theme, too. It stuck with me the entire evening.

 

I don't think so. Giacchino also scored "Zootopia" this year and on the album there was also no "Credit's song," only "Zootopia Suite," which had a similar structure, but was a different piece of music altogether. Besides, Disney doesn't release "extended edition" scores/soundtracks (I know that because a bulk of my Spotify playlist consisits of scores for Disney productions, including Star Wars, Pixar animations, some Disney films, etc.)

 

I actually didn`t mind that. It would have felt weird without that sound in the beginning.
Do you know what scene Kristian Harloff was referring to in Collider`s review?

 

I have no idea! Something about Krennic arrival but not sure is the beginning. Probably it is because for the rest I didn't heard nothing fancy.

I agree, I would like to see that beginning without music. It had a serie B feeling. I'm sure they discussed about it in the editing room. But what can I say, the movie is almost perfect so I don't really mind. I do feel (WITH ALL DUE RESPECT TO WILLIAMS) that Giacchino was more inspired for this than Williams for The Force Awakens. It's the seventh one for Williams so I understand it has to be pretty hard, but this is really how I feel about it.

 

I didn't like that "End Title" wasn't included in the OST!
Other thing that made me kind of angry was the fact that "Her path is clear" and "Approaching Eadu" (portions of those tracks were shown in star wars's official youtube channel) weren't included at all.
I hope they release those 3 songs soon.

 

In the lead-up to Rogue One, I was nervous about the soundtrack. I will never question Michael Giacchino's skill, but of the soundtracks I knew that were his, I didn't like them very much. And with just a month to write one for Rogue One, I feared the worst.

That he pulled off this soundtrack is amazing. No matter your opinion of the music, this fact needs to be celebrated. I'm not a composer, but I've worked with many in my previous life as a professional musician. I've even had to compose under deadline myself, but nothing remotely approaching this scale. What he did was superhuman and a true testament to his creativity and ability.

But I did not enjoy this soundtrack. I've only seen the movie once, so I can't yet go into detail about what worked and what didn't. But when the music made itself heard it was often jarring and misplaced. A stirring brass line does not equal a thematic melody, but I feel as though we are meant to believe it does at times. Perhaps it's a result of the time crunch Giacchino was under, but I've felt that way about his previous work as well. If memory serves, this sort of melodic neglect was evident as early as the Rogue One title card, which had a mess of a theme playing underneath it.

There were also moments where the music worked. Again, forgive my shaky details... it'll take more than one viewing for me to have a firmer grasp on this. But I believe the music on Jedha, with some sort of stringed instrument (a sitar maybe?), and perhaps lower reed instruments (an english horn?... I've only listened to this thing once), worked well to set the tone. In fact, today I received my copy of the soundtrack and gave it a listen while writing a paper (oh the life of a graduate student). While I wasn't able to give full attention to it at all times, I picked up on what I think fundamentally separates it from John Williams' work; the importance the music plays in the storytelling.

In a previous paragraph I mentioned that "when the music made itself heard," I had issues. Required listening for all Star Wars soundtrack aficionados is the Star Wars Oxygen podcast [link], and I believe in the last episode David Collins (who also provides voices for Star Wars movies) referenced a discussion about the diminishing role of modern-day soundtracks. The music neither adds to, nor detracts from the meaning or impact of the scene. Star Wars has always been an exception to this rule, with John Williams' music in the forefront as a contributor to character and plot. For the first time we have a Star Wars soundtrack that is content to take a back seat.

As I listened to the music by itself today, I was struck by how good it sounds. It wasn't nearly as jarring as I remembered from my viewing last night. But I hadn't noticed that it sounded so good before because the music was completely inconsequential and unnoticeable. It was completely in the background, and quite low in the mix. Only when it asserted itself into the movie did it sound out of place and inappropriate. So not only was it not the important player that Star Wars music should be; but when it was, it wasn't effective.

Fortunately, some of Williams' music was used. The recreation of the music we hear aboard the Tantive IV at the beginning of ANH is masterfully done. My favorite is the brief nod to the original Darth Vader theme; the one he had long before there was an Imperial March. But those were Easter eggs.

Rogue One is a movie I really enjoyed, but the soundtrack was its weakest link. That should never be the case in a Star Wars movie, and I hope it's not an indication of the direction we'll take once John Williams is no longer available to score the galaxy far, far away.

tl;dr - Read it. It won't kill you.

 

I just listened to the whole soundtrack and there is one 1 new theme and 2 alterations of original ones that are quite great:
-The imperial Suite; theme also present in 1. He-s Here For Us
-Alteration of the force theme: 11. Rebellions Are Built on Hope at 1min10sec
-Alteration of the Main theme: 2. A Long Ride Ahead at 3.33min

I am a little sad that they introduced so many different new versions of the force theme in the trailers and there were not present in the movie.
Especially the one called Trust:

I am wondering how it is possible for people to get the soundtrack of a trailer? Like here:

I really would love to be able to get the soundtrack of that Trust trailer.

 

Michael Giacchino is a complete genius in his own right. His scores where amazingly timed, symbolic of Star Wars and you know, Williams paved the way for these sounds but Giacchino really controlled it and didn't shy away from new scores and his own sound. Was many feels here!
But I can't disagree more with the hate for Vaders "rebel slaughter score", some people are quick to wipe out the prequels but this was an amazing nod to Revenge of the Sith.

I agree in some cases the music was too big and too over the top for a minor scene but I think it was a volume thing, that wont be as noticeable at home, when not in a giant theater haha.

9.8/10. F'ing Amazing.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 17, 2016, Original Post Date: Dec 17, 2016 ---

ALL ABOARD THE NEXT TRAIN TO FEELADELPHIA!!!!