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Marvel Music: The Thematic Continuity Issue

TomH1138

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I've been watching a series of videos on YouTube where they get into the surprising problem of why the Marvel movie music isn't memorable (specifically in the MCU). These videos are a few years old, but I just discovered them, and they're really fascinating. Each one adds a piece to the puzzle, but I think the final video I'm posting here is the most spot-on in terms of the underlying problem. But you kind of have to watch them in order to get the full effect.

Here's the first video from Every Frame a Painting:


Here's the second video from Dan Golding:


And here's the concluding argument from Seth S.:


And, frankly, I couldn't agree more. Mind you, I'm usually defending MCU movies to everyone else. Despite the occasional stumble, I mostly really love these movies. But the lack of musical continuity is baffling. I mean, the whole thing that Marvel prides themselves on more than anything is the interconnectivity of their films. Why wouldn't they at least make an effort to have some interconnectivity of the theme music as well?

I realize that the movies have often switched directors, who then switch composers. And composers don't want to feel restricted in what they create (although, based on that first video, they feel restricted anyway). But when you're making movies in an ongoing series, wouldn't it make sense to recall at least the main theme instead of writing a new one every time? Imagine if the Terminator movies didn't even bother to bring back the iconic theme in each movie. Even with as much as they frequently get wrong, even they know to at least do that (unless I'm remembering wrong).

I'll also grant you that, in Captain America's case, he went from an optimistic 1940s adventure to more cynical modern political thrillers. But even then, there should have been some kind of a reworking of the theme, since Cap is essentially the same person. And for Silvestri to not reference his own Captain America music in either the first Avengers movie or in Infinity War doesn't make a lot of sense to me. (Alas, I haven't seen Endgame yet, so no spoilers there, please.)

If I ever get around to, y'know, actually being able to finish an edit, I might take a crack at re-scoring some of these. I don't have many problems with the movies overall, so that would be the one of the few things I change (although I might skip a few movies that I don't like, or have to do greater editing to fit them).

Anyway, I don't lose sleep at night over this subject, but it is one that fascinates me. Anyone else?
 

TomH1138

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Seth S. also did a follow-up post earlier this year:


A lot of people in the comments are saying that Endgame does a lot to rectify the issues, so my original post may already be hilariously passe. But it is still surprising that it took them this long, and I think there's validity in rescoring the earlier movies.

(Edited to fix link.)
 
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